Instructor spurs cycling awareness with bike to work month

While Bicycling Magazine has again named Portland the “#1 bike friendly city in the United States,” Gresham has room to improve spurring economics instructor Ted Scheinman to organize on-campus events for Bike-to-Work month.

Scheinman registered MHCC for Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s Bike-To-Work Month in order to encourage students and staff to walk and bike to work for the entire month of May. Scheinman also coordinated a Biker Commuting Workshop and Information Center event Wednesday.

The event was in cooperation with Linda Hoppes, ASG director of public safety and campus sustainability, the City of Gresham and the Gresham Transportation Management Association (G-TMA). (G-TMA) is funded by Metro Regional Government and focuses on “the use of walking, biking, carpooling, transit, and other modes (of transportation), rather than driving alone,” according to it’s website.

The Biker Commuting Workshop and Information Center included different activities to encourage non-bikers to bike. “I want to promote that (biking) so, I was trying to see what (events) were going on,” said Scheinman.

There were promotional materials tools for those who wanted to learn more about how biking is beneficial to one’s health and fitness. Bike maps and prizes such as water bottles and seat covers were also given out.

“The bike route map helps find safer ways to commute. Gresham’s Bicycle Transportation wants to give bicycle safety awareness and [they want] to share information [by] giving bike maps so that people can feel comfortable and safe to ride,” said Scheinman. “There are some challenges, conflicts between bikes and cars. Sometimes cars don’t see bikes.

“MHCC isn’t really that easy to bike to. There are a lot of busy roads that can be unsafe for bikers to commute,” added Scheinman.

Scheinman said he only bikes to work sometimes because for him it’s a long distance. “It is 45 miles to commute roundtrip from where I live it takes about an hour in a half for me to ride,” he said. “It’s a fun journey,” he said with a chuckled.

When asked about the turnout of the event Scheinman said, “I was amazed, we had about 50-75 people show up.” He added, “I was very pleased with the turnout.”

We [also] had a store called Outer Rim come and they had a clinic that showed people how to repair their bikes,” said Scheinman.

As ASG has recently purchased a bike repair station and several bike racks for the campus, the clinic was on campus just in time to demonstrate how simple it is to repair a bike.

“In front of public safety there is a bicycle repair station that has air if your [bike] is on a flat,” said Scheinman. He said there are also tools available to aid in repairs.

One of the benefits of bike commuting, said Scheinman, is that “It reduces parking and it’s a lot cheaper.”

For more information about bicycle commuting to MHCC, contact Ted Scheinman at 503-491-7104 or [email protected] or G-TMA at [email protected].