Mayor Greg Stanton hosted a cycling event for local residents to promote bike riding awareness in the community and to celebrate the city’s festive holiday lights down Central Avenue.
Bike riders from all over the valley joined Mayor Stanton Saturday evening to ride their bicycles from Nina Mason Pulliam Rio Salado Audubon Center near the Salt River on Central Avenue through downtown to Margaret T. Hance Park.
About 40 bike riders geared up with helmets and jackets to enjoy the weather.
Stanton arrived at the park and welcomed the riders with handshakes and hugs and announced the purpose of Cycle Central PHX.
“We are here to celebrate the holidays and promote bicycling,” Stanton said. “We love biking and I hope we can do this more often.”
Nancy Bonnett heard about the event on Facebook and was excited to take a night ride with a larger group of people.
“I live in the center of downtown and I am always riding my bike,” Bonnett said. “It’s a beautiful day to be out and it’s good to be in a big group.”
As an experienced cyclist, Bonnett appreciated the fact that the mayor was advocating bike awareness as well as taking the initiative to bike ride with the community.
Cycle Central PHX was an open event to the public where anyone who was interested in sightseeing downtown was welcomed to attend. A variety of age groups attended from young college students to people in their mid-30s and elderly couples.
Caesar Chaves, a member of the Downtown Bicycle Action Group, believes the city of Phoenix is improving on providing bike lanes and accessibility but feels residents are concerned about riding their bike in 40 mph traffic.
“The goal for our group is to get people out of their cars and on bikes,” Chavez said. “I think if the city keeps encouraging groups like ours, it will allow more participants to help with the awareness and importance in bike riding.”
ASU architecture and urban planning graduate student Whitney Warman attended the event as a recommendation from her professor who teaches her human resources course.
“My thesis for class is to see how people can get back on bikes and reclaiming the public realm,” Warman said. “It’s hard to get people to choose the bike over the car but there is a strong bike advocate system that’s all about pro-bike and anti-car.”
Attendees enjoyed the bike ride and took photos at CityScape where they were able to rest and socialize with the mayor.
Contact the reporter at amanda.e.cruz@asu.edu
