Cities starting to plan Bike Month/Bike Week activities for 2008

It's that time of year again--time for cities and metro areas across Missouri to start planning their annual Bike Month and Bike to Work Week activities.

These are both national events that have really caught on across Missouri in the past 5 years or so.

• Bike Month - May 2008
  
• Bike to Work Week - May 11-17, 2008

If your community has never done any Bike Month activies before, it's not too late to start.

Planning Bike Month in your community can be as simple as creating some posters and flyers to advertise and promote bicycle activities in your area--many of which are already happening in many Missouri communities--and then adding maybe one or two keynote Bike Month activities into the mix.

The League of American Bicyclists promotes Bike Month and their web site has many very helpful resources.

A successful bike month could include activies like these:

• Bike rides
  
• Bicycle commuter competitions (MBF board member Eric Rogers has generously offered to set up a web site/software system that does all the hard work for you--contact eric [at] ericrogers.com)
  
• Ride to dinner, to ice cream, to worship, to shopping, to school type activities
  
• Organized groups rides to/from work
  
• Breakfast or snack stations at key locations for bicycle commuters
  
• Bicycle/auto/transit "race"
  
• Parties and celebrations
  
• Workshops to explain how to bicycle commute, get started bicycling, do utility bicycling, or other topics of interest
  
• Rides geared towards beginners
  
• Anything else your imagination can conceive!