The Westchester Putnam Biking and Walking Alliance held a fundraising cocktail party last Thursday evening at the lovely home of Paul and Karen Lightfoot in Briarcliff Manor. Paul is an active rider and member of the Westchester Cycle Club and WPBWA. The founder’s of the group, David Wilson, President of the WCC and Michael Oliva, Mid Atlantic Trail Coordinator for the East Coast Greenway have been working hard getting this advocacy group going and welcomed the 40 people who attended.

I was asked to speak with New York Time “Spokes” blogger David Goodman. Moderator, author Ben Cheever lead the conversation. While Cheever  was hoping David and I would disagree on some of the issues we found nearly total agreement during the discussion. We spoke mostly about how to bring cycling and walking into our daily lives, one of the main missions of the WPBWA.

David touched on the successes of bike lanes and other initiatives in New York City which while way behind most European cities is one of America’s leaders. We agreed that traffic congestion and the green movement are the current catalyst behind the change, but the Mayor Bloomberg has had great influences on changing the conditions in the city. We also agreed that the suburban communities face a different set of issues. Issues in Yonkers are different from Mount Kisco, which are different from Peekskill and each has their own local offcials to work with.

Here’s how Paul Lighthfoot felt about the evening.  “My neighborhood is within one walking mile of schools, a train station, parks, trailways, restaurants, shops and more, but is “landlocked” by a street too dangerous for walking or cycling.  The WPBWA provided the know-how and resources that enabled our community to organize and persuade the town to build us a sidewalk to the high school and village.  I hosted the event to help the WPBWA strengthen itself for my communities and others nearby.  Westchester County could and should be a place for safe biking and walking.”

The topic of greatest interest in the room was on the “Safe Routes to School” initiative. Currently less than ten percent of our students walk to school, less than one percent rides a bike. People commuting to work are about the same percentages, while in Europe well over 20 percent walk and ride to work with some countries nearing 50percent. Local committees will be organized through the WPBWA to work with the many towns to build a safer network for students to get out off cars and buses on having a healthier path to school. I’ll also suggest that not only are safer routes to school are needed but so are secure routes. ( Please vote in the current poll on how what age would you allow your child to ride a bike to school solo? )

The question that stumped me was from last year’s WCC cycling commuter of the year, Karin Weisburgh of Larchmont who rides 11 miles to her job at Consumers Union in Yonkers. She asked how do we get more weekend worriers like you to commute to work?

I really didn’t have an answer, it’s such a person choice on where we live and work. I didn’t have this organized of an answer at the time but here are my thoughts. Your employer needs to provide an infrastructure to facilitate this. Commuters needs secure bike parking and showers. Maybe zoning laws for businesses requiring bike parking and showers?  Our communities need to build networks of bike trails and lanes to provide safer routes during rush hour travel.

The night raised over $5,500 towards these  goals. To join or contribute to the WPBWA please click here.

I really enjoyed meeting everyone, thanks for the chance to speak about one of my passions.