Bowie Hosts Two Pit Stops for Bike to Work Day

Local and national bike organizations encouraged 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 D.C. region for T-shirts, refreshments, giveaways and bicycling advice.

There are are two pit stops planned in Bowie. The Bowie Old Town Pit Stop will be held at the fire station at 13008 9th Street from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. The Bowie Town Center Pit Stop will be held outside the food court at 15606 Emerald Lane, also from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m.

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

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

Data from the American Community Survey shows Washington, D.C., 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 .5 percent.

The League attributes the "bicycle-friendly" cities' successes, in part, to the degree in which it promotes bicycling through education, encouragement, enforcement, evaluation and engineering.

A new report on the region's bicycling trends out of The Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute at Penn State shows Fairfax at the bottom of many categories, including the percentage of car-free households, at 4 percent, and percentage increase in bike commuting.

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

For safety and commuting tips, check out advice from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA).