Bicycle riding, sharing focus of workshop
My Nguyen
Issue date: 10/13/09 Section: News
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More than 40 students, staff and faculty attended the first in a series of six monthly workshops on sustainability issues in Dr. Martin Luther King Library on Friday.
The workshop focused on international and local bicycle-sharing programs and speakers discussed the benefits of riding a bike.
The discussion started with presentations by a group of panelists including Rod Diridon, executive director of Mineta Transportation Institute; Corrine Winters, executive director of Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition; John Brazil, Bicycle and Pedestrian Program coordinator of the city of San Jose; Lilia Scott, transportation planner and bike share program expert; and Andy Chow, commute specialist at SJSU Transportation Solutions.
Katherine Cushing, SJSU director of sustainability, said the workshops provide people with tools that they can use to reduce their impact on the environment and lower their ecological footprint.
"The goal of these workshops is to help create a culture of sustainability at the university and bring together all the different factions of the university - faculty, students and staff - around shared interests of sustainability," Cushing said.
Candice Carbonell, a junior environmental studies major, said she attended the workshop to promote Bike to School Day, which will be Thursday, and learn more about bike sharing.
"I'm leading the transportation development group within the Environmental Resource Center, so I really wanted to get a broader view of what a bike share is and what the people in the community have to say," she said.
Carbonell, who rides her bike every day, said the workshop was informative and that she learned a lot of interesting things.
"There are a lot of problems, especially with bike lanes, that I am more aware of now," she said.
President Jon Whitmore said he attended the workshop, because he supports the sustainability efforts.
"I do try to bike to work a couple of days a week if I can, so I thought I'd learn something," he said. "And I also wanted to support the efforts of what's going on, and I donated the folding bike that was going to be given away here, so I wanted to see who got it."
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