The morning was perfect for a bicycle ride. Over 85 bicyclists gathered at REI at 9801 Rhode Island Avenue in College Park for the 15th Maryland 500 Bicycle Awareness Tour. The Tours are organized by Bill Kelly, chairman of the College Park Area Bicycle Coalition. REI provided door prizes, restroom, water, water bottles, and bicycle safety checks by REI's chief mechanic Jill DiMauro. Water bottles were also donated by Larry Black of the College Park Bicycles and the Mt. Airy Bicycle Company.
Bicyclists were soon rolling down Rhode Island Avenue with a police escort led by Captain John Brandt of the University of Maryland Police Bike Patrol Program and twenty bike patrol officers from five local police departments. The Tour went south on US 1 through College Park and Hyattsville into Mount Rainier for a rest stop at the Mount Rainier Nature Center. Bicyclists drank punch, ate oranges and bananas, visited with friends, and repaired one flat tire.
The return was on the Anacostia Trail System to Greenbelt Road, and then on Cherrywood Lane (one of the few roads in Maryland with designated bike lanes.) Cyclists used the tunnel at the Greenbelt Metro Station to get to the other side of the rail tracks. Back at REI there were more bananas and drawings for the door prizes donated by REI.
The next Maryland 500 Bicycle Awareness Tour will be the last Sunday in October, October 28th.
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page created April 29, 2001 |