08/15/06
The first Bike-to-Transit Week celebration starts next week, August 20-25, to encourage commuters to consider the
bike-to-transit connection as a means of travel. Throughout the week CTA will participate in a series of events to promote its Bike & Ride program and is encouraging cyclists planning to participate to take public transportation as part of their travel plans.
CTA Bike & Ride rules allow two bicycles on each rail car at all hours of operation, with the exception of morning (7 to 9 a.m.) and evening (4 to 6 p.m.) rush hours, and during special events such as July 3rd when customer loads are very heavy. Bikes are allowed on rail cars during all hours on weekends and folding bikes are allowed on CTA vehicles at all times.
All CTA buses are equipped with bike racks mounted on the front of the bus that carry two bicycles each and take as little as 30 seconds to load. Customers may use the racks any time during service hours. Children under 14 are required to be accompanied by an adult when bringing a bicycle on board a CTA train or bus.
Bike-to-Transit Week activities kick off on Sunday, August 20 with the Wright Ride, a bicycle tour through 14 communities in the near western suburbs of Chicago. The event, sponsored by the Oak Park Cycle Club and the Oak Park Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, will begin at 6:30 a.m. at Oak Park-River Forest High School located at 201 N. Scoville Avenue in Oak Park, IL. Cyclists can choose to participate in a 10, 25, 50 or 62-mile ride as part of the event.
To get to the Oak Park-River Forest High School, participants coming from the east can travel on the Green Line with their bicycles to the Ridgeland station, which is a few blocks from the high school. From the north, cyclists can transport their bicycles on the #90 Harlem bus, exiting at Lake Street. From there, they can either take a Green Line train two stops to Ridgeland or cycle about 1.25 miles to the starting location. Cyclists also have the option of taking the #91 Austin bus to Ontario Street and cycling 0.5 miles to the high school.
Throughout the week bicycle ambassadors and volunteers from the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation will be staged at key
bike-to-transit connection points throughout the city to provide maps that highlight convenient and fun bike-to-transit routes throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. The group will also perform bus bike rack demonstrations for CTA customers and cycling enthusiasts at the following locations:
Monday, August 21
2 p.m. to 6 p.m.CTA Clark/Lake station (Thompson Center side)
Tuesday, August 22
3 p.m. to 6 p.m.Art's Cycle Shop, 1646 E. 55th St
Wednesday, August 23
3 p.m. to 6 p.m.CTA Brown Line Western station
Thursday, August 24
3 p.m. to 6 p.m. CTA Jefferson Park bus turnaround (Jefferson Park Blue Line station)
Friday, August 25
3 p.m. to 6 p.m. CTA Pink Line Polk station
CTA introduced its Bike & Ride program to customers in May 2000 as part of its ongoing effort to encourage environmentally-friendly transportation. Since that time, CTA has mounted bicycle racks on all of its buses, installed indoor bicycle parking at 75 CTA stations, and allows bicycles on trains at all times except weekday rush hours.
The CTA Bike & Ride program is a collaborative effort between the CTA, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, the Chicago Department of Transportation Bicycle Program and the CTA's Americans with Disabilities Act Advisory Committee.
For more information on the Bike & Ride Program and
Bike-to-Transit Week, visit CTA's web site at www.transitchicago.com or the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation's web site at www.biketraffic.org. For more information on the Wright Ride 2006, visit www.oakparkcycleclub.org/wrightride.
# # #