Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington and Cedar Hills resident Amy Roy review their bike route to the Beaverton Farmers Market.
“I haven’t been on my bike in a year!” proclaimed Cedar Hills resident Amy Roy as she mounted her bike at the Cedar Hills Recreation Center on Saturday morning. Amy and several other Washington County residents, including Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington, joined Women on Wheels for a three-mile group instructional ride from the recreation center to the popular Beaverton Farmers Market.
From bike lanes to quiet neighborhood streets - and even a few moments of sharing Saturday traffic with motor vehicles - riders experienced bike infrastructure in the Cedar Hills and Beaverton area and learned skills for riding a bike for transportation. The group ride, sponsored by Metro and Drive Less Save More: Cedar Hills, is part of a series led by Women on Wheels whose mission is to empower women to travel by bicycle and other alternative transportation.
“Group rides are important for women,” said ride leader and Women on Wheels co-founder Janis McDonald. It gives them space to practice bike handling skills, ask questions in a nurturing environment, socialize, learn new routes and rediscover the joy of biking.”
As Saturday’s group ride coasted into the near-full bike parking of the Beaverton Farmers Market, participants chatted about discovering low-traffic streets to avoid busy intersections and streets, and shared their excitement of future trips to the market on their own.
These workshops and group rides are a part of a larger regional campaign to increase the number of women using all available travel options, Choose What Moves You. The campaign is a partnership between Metro, regional travel options partners and the Oregon Department of Transportation. While encouraging all residents to use travel options, the effort aims to provide learning opportunities, tools and information that are especially relevant to women’s concerns and barriers to walking, biking, taking transit or sharing a ride.
Increasing the number of women using travel options is an important step and measurement for creating a region where walking, biking and transit are safe, comfortable and convenient. At the heart of the effort is the recognition that women have different and more complex travel habits and barriers to regularly using travel options.
New travel options tools include a new regional Family Bike Guide and the online Getting Around map found at the Metro web site. The online map quickly connects residents with their near-by transit stops, bike routes, trails, schools, bike shops, park-and-ride and ride share opportunities.
Find a listing of upcoming events, an interactive map and more travel tools