Bike Pittsburgh and Healthy Ride offering incentives to promote Bike to Work Day

On last year’s national Bike to Work Day, bike-advocacy group Bike Pittsburgh performed an informal count of morning rush-hour traffic on Penn Avenue Downtown and found that 26 percent of all trips were on bicycles. (In fact, stats show bike-commuting is continuing to increase in Pittsburgh.)

This year, Bike to Work Day is Fri., May 20. Bike Pittsburgh and the city’s bike-share Healthy Ride are hoping those bike-ridership numbers increase and are offering riders a few extra incentives.  Bike Pittsburgh will be providing free coffee, breakfast treats and copies of its new 2016 bike map at five pop-up cafes throughout the city. Cafes will be run from 7:30-9:30 a.m.

Pop-up cafe locations are:

• Downtown - Market Square
  
• South Side - Hot Metal Street and Water Street
  
• North Side - Roberto Clemente Statue (next to PNC Park at start of Roberto Clemente Bridge)
  
• Oakland - Schenley Plaza
  
• Bloomfield - Friendship Park (near the corner of Friendship Avenue and South Millvale Street)

“Bike to Work Day is the perfect day to try bike commuting to work,” says Bike Pittsburgh director Scott Bricker in a press release. “You’ll feel supported and welcome, and it’s a great time to meet many of the thousands of people who ride to work every day.”

And in conjunction with Bike Pittsburgh's free pop-up cafes, Healthy Ride, the city’s bike-share, will be offering free rides all day at each of its 50 stations.

“We want to see more riders on Bike to Work Day than ever before,” says Healthy Ride director David White in a press release. “Bike share offers those without a bike the ability to use active transit as a means of commuting.”

All Healthy Ride riders must register at healthyridepgh.com, or by calling 412-535-5189, before renting from bike-share stations. Registration is free, but requires an active credit card. Riders not already accustomed to using Healthy Ride bikes can watch the video tutorials on its website.

“Biking is both fun and terrific exercise. It builds strength and stamina, and improves cardiovascular fitness, mental health and sleep quality,” says Evan Frazier, senior vice president of Highmark Health, one of the prime sponsors of Healthy Ride. “It’s also environmentally friendly, so you’re not only improving your own health on your way to work, you’re improving the health of our great city.”