Bike-To-Work Day Brainstorming Session

Hey everyone, I received this email from Dawn Vinson of the Center City Commission in regards to the upcoming Bike to Work Day. May is going to be a huge month for bicycles in Memphis. In addition to Bike to Work day on May 21st, the Bicycle Film Festival will be returning to Memphis that very weekend! Here's your oppurtunity to become part of the action:

Good morning!

One of the Center City Commission’s goals is to ensure that Downtown is safe, attractive, and livable. Encouraging the use of alternate forms of transportation is one strategy toward that objective. For a variety of reasons, an increasing number of people are rediscovering the bicycle as a means of transportation for work commutes, errands, and social activities. The CCC wants to support this trend for Downtown Memphis and make the bicycle a reasonable, safe, and enjoyable option for Downtown residents, employees, and tourists. The bicycle is ideally suited for getting around the 6.5-square-mile radius of the CBID, and its use contributes to desired street-level animation and community.

The American Bicycle League (http://www.bikeleague.org/) has established the month of May as National Bike Month and promotes a Bike-to-Work Week and a Bike-to-Work Day each year. The CCC plans to promote Downtown Bike-to-Work (or School) Day on Friday, May 21, 2010, in conjunction with this national initiative. In order to make this campaign successful, we need your help. We would like to hear your ideas about collaborative activities, programs, and events that would make participation fun and as effortless as possible, as well as ideas about how we can assist you and/or your organization in any activities you may already be planning. We also want to talk about ways to encourage people to continue to ride their bikes Downtown after Bike-to-Work Day is over. As national attention is focused on issues such as urban sprawl and the revitalization of urban centers, it is becoming clear that the cities that will thrive in the future are the ones that not only accommodate but encourage a variety of transportation modes – public and personal, motorized and human-powered.

Please join us for a brainstorming session on Thursday, January 21, 2010, at noon here in the CCC conference room at 114 North Main Street (Main and Adams, across from City Hall). Lunch will be provided. Please contact me to confirm your attendance by Tuesday, January 19. We look forward to hearing your ideas and working with you on this initiative.

Dawn Vinson
Development Project Manager
Center City Commission
114 North Main Street
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
(901) 575-0555
(901) 575-0541 (fax)
vinson@downtownmemphis.com

See you there!