I chose to research Philadelphia for my top fifty bicycle friendly cities project. My family visits Philadelphia regularly and, in my experience, it does not seem like the most bike friendly place so I wanted to see just what is going on there that makes it so bike friendly. After doing some research, however, I realized that there is quite a bit of work being done to make the city a haven for bikers.
The majority of this work is being done in conjunction with the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, a non-profit organization which was founded in 1972 with the aim of making bicycling more attractive to residents as well as providing more resources for people who choose to bike. On their website I was able to find a number of important things that would help a person begin biking. I was able to gain access to information regarding bike shops, bike trails, biking clubs, commuter routes, bike rentals, laws regarding bicycling and bicycle education classes. All of these things help to create a vibrant bicycling community.
I looked at some of the maps for different commuter routes and was astounded by how easy it would be to bike through Philadelphia. This group has made biking in the city a much less daunting task. I think that the coalition is the single greatest asset to the biking community in Philadelphia.
Unfortunately, I did not continue with my bike riding this week. I did, however, take a long walk on Saturday. I enjoyed being outside on such a beautiful, sunny day!
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