Bike To Work Week Under Way

Local and national bike organizations are encouraging cyclists to ditch their cars this week for "Bike to Work Week," a national celebration aiming to encourage citizens across the country to bike to work, or for pleasure, on a regular basis.

The week culminates in Bike to Work Day on Friday, held rain or shine, when cyclists can make a "pit stop" at one of 58 locations across the Washington metropolitan region for T-shirts, refreshments, giveaways and bicycling advice.

There are 13 pit stops planned across Maryland on Friday. Two of the stops are in Rockville:

• 7-9 a.m.: Rockville Fallsgrove Transportation Center, 521 Fallsgrove Drive.
• 7-9 a.m.: Rockville Town Center, 199 E. Montgomery Ave., in front of the .

of these pit stops during last year's Bike to Work Day.

A map of all planned stops in the region is attached to this story.

The national celebration began in 1956, as a League of American Bicyclists public outreach campaign and event to encourage more biking. Since then, it's grown tenfold in the Washington metropolitan region. Participation has risen from a few hundred in 2001 to 11,000 last year, according to the organization.

Data from the American Community Survey shows Washington, as one of the country's 70 largest bicycling cities, with 3.1 percent of the total worker population reporting they bike to work—a statistic six times greater than the national average of 0.5 percent.

The league attributes the "bicycle friendly" cities' successes, in part, to the degree in which they promote bicycling through education, encouragement, enforcement, evaluation and engineering.

Cyclists are encouraged to visit as many pit stops as they'd like on Friday. Cyclists need to register at one of the pit stops in order to pick up their free T-shirt.

For safety and commuting tips, check out advice from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. For more, visit the Bicycling in Rockville page on the city's Web site.