Louisiana holds many music, food and art festivals each year, but now bicyclists are riding their way into the tradition.
The Baton Rouge Advocates for Safe Streets sponsored the Velo Louisiane bicycle festival Saturday and Sunday at BREC’s City Brooks Park.
Mark Martin, B.R.A.S.S. founder and president, said the festival spread awareness of the meaning of bicycling.
“I’m trying to get people past the basic idea that a bike is a child’s toy or a poor man’s last choice,” he said.
Velo Louisiane began Saturday with East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden leading a family fun ride with about 150 other riders. Evening festivities included a stationary bike race competition, a bicycle-themed art show and viewing of bicycle-themed films. Martin said nearly 250 people attended the night festivities.
A bike parade, bike polo, BMX ramps, bike safety training and races continued Sunday after the Queen song “Bicycle Race” echoed in the opening ceremony. More than 200 people attended the festival throughout the day.
“This is a culmination of people who enjoy biking,” said Mike Guy, construction management senior. “It’s nice to see people come out and better their community.”
Martin said the bicycling culture and community has grown a lot in the last couple of years. He said this growth contributed to the organization of the festival.
Baton Rouge was declared a bronze level bicycle-friendly community last year by the League of American Bicyclists, Martin said. He said Holden’s bicycle program is starting to mark bike routes, paint sharrows and construct bike facilities in Baton Rouge.
Martin also said the Army Corps of Engineers will pave the levee top from Baton Rouge to New Orleans as part of the larger Mississippi River Trail. The importance of bicycling as a form of transportation is being recognized on a national level as well, he said.
The University has also made improvements to accommodate the increasing number of bikers on campus.
More than 700 new bike parking spots were constructed around Middleton Library and next to Lockett Hall this year as part of the University’s parking master plan. Phase II will introduce bike lanes and share the road arrows or sharrows on campus.
Student Government also created LSU Bikes, a Web site dedicated to bicycling advocacy where students can map safe biking paths and look up the rules regarding bikes in the state and on campus. SG’s bike auction raised $4,050 by reselling abandoned bikes left on campus.
“Baton Rouge has a lot of challenges when it comes to biking,” said Rosanne Scholl, mass communication and political science professor. “The facilities are substandard compared to other cities of its size, but we’re improving a lot.”
Clayton Weeks, mathematics senior, said the LSU Cycling Team has returned as an active student organization on campus with 15 members. He said members compete in road races and criterium races in Louisiana and the surrounding states.
Anyone interested in bicycles should “get brave and go ride a bike,” Weeks said. More people coming together in the biking community means more attention paid to the needed biking facilities, he said.
Martin said what once was a community of cycling racers has evolved into a community of people riding bicycles for many reasons.
Bike polo was set up on the tennis courts at Brooks Park with BMX ramps in the grass nearby with teenage bikers doing tricks in the air.
“Celebrating bikes for other reasons goes to show it’s not a competition sort of thing, but it’s also enjoyable, and we have to celebrate it,” Martin said.
The festival was created to increase bicycling awareness and to build camaraderie among the bicyclers, he said.
Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]