Governor Jack’s Tour de Delaware scheduled for 9/21
By Kirsten Louise –
Governor Jack Markell is very excited to announce the 2012 Tour de Delaware. This one day ride begins in Newark and ends in Dover. Route stops are listed below.
INFORMATION REQUESTED FROM RIDERS:
Please email Kirsten Louise at kirsten.louis1@gmail.com ASAP and provide the following details:
- Your cell phone number
- In case of emergency contact
- If you need transportation BACK to Newark after Friday’s ride.
PRE-RIDE LOGISTICS:
- Snacks, beverages and supplies will be available all day via support vehicles on the route.
RIDE SCHEDULE:
See the Q-sheet for the ride in pdf HERE. Printed copies will also be available at the start.
Newark – 8:45am riders gather, 9:00am riders depart Trabant University Center, University of Delaware (Intersection of South College Avenue (RT 896) and Main Street)
Delaware City – 11:00am at Town Hall, 407 Clinton Street, Delaware City.
Odessa – 12:00pm – 1:00pm – LUNCH at Memorial Park (intersection of RT 13 & RT 299)
Smyrna – 2:00pm at the Aquatic Resources Education Center (AREC) 4876 Hay Point Landing Road (RT 9)
Dover – 3:30pm Legislative Hall in Dover, DE All times are estimated and there is no guarantee the ride will show up at exactly the time listed above, but it should be pretty close.
POST-RIDE LOGISTICS:
- Vans back to Newark will roll back to Newark NO LATER than 5:30pm
Thanks everyone and I look forward to seeing you next Friday, September 21st!
2 Responses
I congratulate the governor for his commitment to increasing bicycle access in our state.
But take a look at the picture that accompanies this article. That street is okay to bike on, I guess, if you’re a group of four fit adults. But a family with kids, a pedestrian, or a person with limited mobility would out of luck. Can you imagine a couple of 10-year-olds riding on that road, with cars and trucks whizzing by? Or an elderly couple, or a mom with a stroller, or a person in a wheelchair?
Dear DE Suburbanite:
I recognize that stretch of road, because I have ridden my bicycle through there a few times.
Yes, I can imagine all of the scenarios you suggest, with an enabling assumption or two to go with a couple of them.
I would hope that the parents of the family, and the elderly couple, have some bicycling experience under their belt, but this is really not a particulary scary stretch for cycling, and a high fitness level would not be necessary.
If the children are only 10 years old, I admit that it may not be appropriate depending on where they came from and where they are going.
I would hope that children cycling here have had cycling education. To be realistic, in America today, this would almost certainly have to come from their parents, but I wish that cycling education were routine for American children (as it is in Copenhagen).
Another wish of mine is that we had fewer “DE Suburbanite” types fanning the flames of fear, and more people visualising a shared experience of this world as their ideal, instead of constantly striving to be separated from others.
Yes, in taking my place on the roads as a cyclist, I have had many frustrating, and occasionally somewhat frightening, experiences, but the little successes, where a motorist and I both go away from a successful road-sharing encounter with a smile and a postive feeling towards a fellow being, more than make up for the negative side.