This is shaping up to be a really fun event. Hope you all can participate!
http://bike-pgh.org/events/car-free-fridays/
i've been spreading the word about this at work and trying to organize some group commuting. it's amazing how close some of my coworkers live to the building - most of whom own bikes and don't commute! i'm hoping that by trying it once or twice they'll love it and want to bike everyday. thanks for this 
awesome! sometimes that's all it takes. even if they do it once a week, it still means something. we'll have a Car Free Calculator up by then, so y'all can keep track of how much money and CO2 you're saving.
I totally love that you have to show your helmet to get the free breakfast.
rock on. I work at Hillman right next to the plaza and bike from Sq. Hill.
nice, there's some great discounts around town that we got for yinz. it'll be posted soon
hey everyone, the discounts are up and solidified now. check it out:
http://bike-pgh.org/events/car-free-fridays/car-free-fridays-discounts/
Define "Low Carbon Footprint Beers". Is this PA beers? or just Pittsburgh Beers? I MUST KNOW
every friday belvedere's has this special, but 50 cents off, so they are extending the discount for CFF to $1
joy said that they define it as local beers, or beers that are made naturally, like some of the organic ones and small brewers
i'm gonna take a friend out to a bunch of this stuff for her birthday, prolly starting with free yoga and ending who know where, brillo, belvies?
def going to penn brewery and dollar spak slices too
I'll probably be participating (since every Friday and car-free Friday for me) but I'll miss out on the morning activities. I'm in work before the scheduled start times.
nice full page add in the city paper
also, got an article in, ahem, saturdays pg
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09157/975610-140.stm
ha! you and your saturday paper conspiracy theories.
Looking at the map, I think I have the only group coming in from an outer suburb. (That's me in the upper-left corner of the map.)
It may be worth mentioning my travel plans. At present, I intend to come into town via Bellevue, then Shadeland Avenue. It's relatively flat, with very light traffic, unlike Perry and Perrysville.
This means I likely will pass very near Sara's group at Brighton & Marshall at about the same time she's planning on leaving. I wonder if it would make sense for the two groups to travel as one.
At this point, zero people have contacted me directly, but (a) it's early, and (b) a few will likely show without contacting me first.
so i managed to get my girlfriend to try biking, and she likes it. in fact, she's just graduated from law school (well, graduation is tomorrow), and has been going to bar review classes in squirrel hill, and she's been biking every chance she could. a) shadyside to squirrel hill ain't no easy thing for n00bs, so, you know, applause, please. and 2) i want to make sure that commuting every day to school is covered in car free fridays. i mean, i doubt that anyone is going to require one to say where one works in order to get a banana and some coupons at schenley plaza, but i love the idea of this and i want to be able to take her there and say cheers to you!
so, in short: this is open to people who commute to school also, yeah?
School counts. No doubt! As long as you go car free that day you're in for the discounts all day and breakfast at Schenley Plaza too.
A biker only breakfast is being held at Fifth Avenue Place.
yeah, the first rule of car free fridays is tell everyone about car free fridays.
the second rule of car free fridays is don't drive a car that day
From the PG article: "It will begin at 6 a.m. at Kayak Pittsburgh, Downtown, and finish at 7:45 p.m. at the brewery."
Sounds like a double century to me!
you get a special prize if you get to every location on the discounts page
... and a third rule. More of a request, actually.
If you visit any of the businesses offering a discount on Friday, please thank them for their support. A lot of local businesses are very generous to Bike Pittsburgh.
Stu/Mary
Since Stu will be coming past my location at approximately the same time, I can shift my location, if that makes sense. Is there a location that you'd like to have covered, but is currently in need of a ride leader?
i'd like to volunteer for this either downtown or at schenley.
Where do you sign up to lead a bikepool?
If you're interested in leading a bike pool, please contact me.
marymeg AT gmail
Thanks!
i have to find my bike pgh member card. the only one i carry around is the one from 2007 (laminated baby!)
another pg article: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09161/976221-147.stm
that one actually made the transportation section, instead of the usual outdoors
Diana Nelson Jones from the PG is looking for Car Free experiences this Friday:
maybe this has already been talked about on this board, but i ran into this dude today outside crazy mocha bloomfield:
this is unrelated to car-free friday, at least officially, but a guy named moe with a super-sweet cargo bike/vending cart obtained a street-vending permit and will be selling some kind of delicious frozen icey treat (it's mexican and i can't remember the name of it) starting this friday! he plans to do it all summer and then come up with something hot to sell once it gets cold out. he's not offering a discount or anything, he just happens to be kicking off his business on car-free friday.
so, while you're running around getting your discounts in the east end, look for a dude with a bike-powered icey-treat vending cart with mexican flags stickin' out the back in highland park, bloomfield, lawrenceville from 12-5pm. whoo!
top for our blog post about the headlines it's making
http://bike-pgh.org/2009/06/11/car-free-fridays-is-making-headlines/
My Fridays are going to not only be car free but also care free. The T makes for an easy commute.
Here's the best of teh best as far as articles on Car Free Fridays.
Saw a lot of cyclists out in the morning. Nice to see!
Thanks for putting together the breakfast. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Downtown was hopping. I saw probably 40 riders there between 8:20 and 9:30. Talked to riders who had come in from Northside, Millvale, Lawrenceville, Mt. Lebanon, Squirrel Hill and elsewhere (even Green Bay, WI, but that's another story!)
Breakfast was much appreciated. A coworker and I will be splitting a BOGO discount at lunch today. We'll be sure to say thank you to the establishment.
Thanks to everyone who put this together - I had a little breakfast in Oakland, it was a cool kickoff.
Today was the first time I made the ride to work (Sq. Hill to Robinson). I cheated a bit and took the 33x to avoid some hills, but there were still plenty for me. I'm going to try to ride in at least every Friday - hopefully I'll be motivated to do it more often than that.
Bike + bus = car-free
That's not cheating at all!
Here's another PG article from today by Kaitlynn Riely:
http://post-gazette.com/pg/09163/976941-147.stm
...although I find pedaling preferable to peddling...
I was downtown at 6:30 before I had to get to work and also before any of the festivities started. While you all were having breakfast, I was working. But, no matter. I intend to be there for the evening ride and then dinner at Penn Brewery. Brotzeitteller and Bierkäse. Mmmmmmmm.
It was funny to read this press release just now:
Posted: 06/11/2009
Sure Bike Pittsburgh (Bike PGH) had a great Bike-to-Work Day with over a hundred commuters stopping in for their biker breakfasts, and with many more on the streets. The real celebrations, however, were after work at the Bike PGH Bike-FROM-Work Day Party in conjunction with a local brewery. Over 500 participated and help haul kegs of “Pale Ale by Bike” to the shindig.
Really? Wow. Time traveling press release. I hope I had a good time. Or will have a good time. Or will have had and may yet have a good time.
That was a write up after Bike to Work Day in May.
although i'm no longer in pittsburgh, thanks for the birthday present of starting this on my birthday (today)
happy birthday, whered you go?
Car-Free Friday was such a good day-before-my-birthday present.
- Dave and Andy's ice cream
- Piper's Pub Lunch
- bike ride in the North Side
- Free Spak!
- all-day happy hour at Brillo
so fun!
uh...and the penguins won
moved to maryland. well. moving, but currently working in nj/md part time... but haven't found a comparable bike-md yet, and i want to come back to pittsburgh eventually. there sure is a huge network of bike trails/ paths down here though
diana nelson jones from the post-gazette:
On Friday, she’ll use transit all day to run around.
She wants you to submit your car free stories for use in a future piece. Comments can be submitted to her email address: djones@post-gazette.com
go for it folks!
looks like ya'll have been sending in stuff...keep it coming!
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/citywalkabout/archive/2009/06/12/the-art-of-the-ride.aspx
Unfortunately I've not had much success recruiting other people for Car-Free Fridays, but at least I'm 3/3 myself... I took the bus last week but rode in again this morning.
