The city of Tempe hosted its 14th annual Tour de Tempe community bike ride and festival on Sunday morning at Tempe Kiwanas Park.
The free event consisted of a 12-mile bike ride through Tempe neighborhoods, a BMX bike performance and a bike safety rodeo, among other events.
Tanya Chavez, city of Tempe community outreach marketing coordinator, said the main purpose of the annual event is to introduce bicycling to people who haven’t tried it before.
“We’re really interested in getting the word out about bicycling and bike safety in the community,” she said. “Plus it’s a great way to come out and meet your neighbors and have a bit of fun.”
The more than 1,000 participants ranged from young children in strollers to their grandparents, and from novices to regular bikers.
Sisters and Tempe residents Janice Lisy-Anderson and Jean Gerstner said this was their first group ride, and it was a good way to get into riding
“We’ve just started riding, so we’re just here for the fun today. Our main goal is just to stay on our bikes,” Lisy-Anderson said.
Gerstner said they hope to make it an annual event for the whole family starting next year.
“We love Tempe and being part of the community, so we want to get more of our family out here next year,” she said.
Several other families echoed the same sentiment, including the Sanchez family, who has been participating in the tour for six years.
“We started when our kids were younger, and even though they’re all growing up, we still like to try to get together and do the ride every year,” said Erica Sanchez, a Tempe mother of three.
In addition to the ride, one of the other main events was the “bike rodeo,” an attraction focused on teaching kids bike safety.
The rodeo was developed by the Tempe Bicycle Action Group in conjunction with the city of Tempe, Tempe Police and Valley Metro in order to address common situations encountered while on a bike.
The booth set up for the tour included an obstacle course that was designed to safely simulate these situations for kids of all ages.
“Mostly kids do the interactive ride, but we want to offer information to people of all ages and build the infrastructure to get kids thinking about bike safety,” Tempe Police Bike Officer Derek Pittam said. “Tempe Police is mostly involved in offering legal information and helping run the course.”
Samantha Bollinger, Safe Routes to School coordinator, also helped organize the rodeo.
“The course is a way kids can practice being safe without hurting themselves or their bikes,” she said.
Tempe resident and father of two Ahmad Ahmad, said it was a good idea to include the rodeo as part of the Tour.
“I think it’s important because it gives [the kids] an opportunity to practice looking for cars and interact with other adults,” Ahmad said, adding that he hoped the event would help get kids more interested in biking and keep them active.
“Hopefully they had a good time today and we can keep biking together,” he said. “It’s definitely interesting to see so many people out on their bikes.”
Reach the reporter at keshoult@asu.edu.
