Though it was a hard winter, the weather is clearing. Lots of things happening locally on the cycling front. Read on for info about rumble strips, local rides and charity rides and advocacy activities.

1. Penn State Cycling Nittany Cycling Classic: The Penn State Cycling Club still needs volunteers for its bike race this Saturday out at Black Moshannon from 11:30am-1:10pm.  If you or anyone else you know would be willing to marshal a corner of the race course it would be a huge help to them.  Contact Andy Artz at ada5145@psu.edu or Cici Cruz-Uribe at amc472@psu.edu. You can also ride the race! Come out and strut your stuff up Black Moshannon for the chance to win prizes and glory!  The winner of the Cat 4 race will also receive a free one-month membership to Fitology.
   INFO: http://collegiatecycling.org/eccc/wiki/uploads/Calendar/2014-Road-PennState.pdf
   REGISTER: https://www.bikereg.com/nittany-cycling-classic  
2. Bike Month – May is bike month. CRBC is not currently planning any major events due to volunteer shortages, but the School district will be holding many events including a photo scavenger hunt, school challenge rides, and bike fair and group rides on May 31^st. Stay tuned for more details.
3. A Centre Region Bicycle Advisory Committee (CRBAC) has been formed from CRBC members, local bike club leaders, COG planners, police, and others. The committee’s purpose is to promote a safe bicycle experience through awareness, proper enforcement, intelligent planning and effective education in the Centre Region. This is part of our next steps in taking the region from Bronze to a Silver Bicycle Friendly Community!
4. State College Cycling Club’s Tuesday evening road rides have resumed for the season:
   INFO: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/statecollegecycling/info
5. RUMBLE STRIPS: PENNDOT District 2 announced at the State College Transportation Commission meeting that the district adopted a policy of no new side rumble strips unless the road shoulders are at least 6 feet wide. This exceeds PENNDOTs criteria of 4 feet and should be welcome news to area cyclists.
6. Charity Ride season starts early this year. Here’s the lineup of local charity rides
   1. April 27 – Bestwick Spring Ride 36 and 74 mile rides with world champions.  
      INFO: http://www.bestwickfoundation.org/event/spring-ride-2014/
      REGISTER: http://www.sagepayments.net/eftcart/additem.asp?M_id=383539475157&P_id=193546
   2. May 4 – The Linden Loop  5 and 28 mile bike rides, 5 mile run, 5 mile walk.
      INFO: http://rockhillschoolatlindenhall.blogspot.com/2013/02/2013-linden-loop-registration-form.html
      REGISTER:  https://endurancecui.active.com/event-reg/select-race?e=7540154
   3. May 17 – Tour for Dyslexia 35 and 75 mile rides.
      INFO: http://tourfordyslexia.org/
      REGISTER: http://tourfordyslexia.org/register/
   4. June 28 – CVIM Cycling for Care
   5. August 3: PASA Bike Fresh Bike Local  25, 50, 75 mile rides (and Elk Creek brews for those over 21)
      INFO: https://www.pasafarming.org/events/pasa-events/bike-fresh-centre-county
      REGISTER: https://endurancecui.active.com/event-reg/select-race?e=7435553

Many thanks to Dr. Melissa Bopp for attending Wednesday’s CRBC meeting and presenting her findings from recent studies about active travel in Centre County. Melissa is a researcher in Penn State’s Department of Kinesiology. She discussed some of the significant influences on biking for transportation in our community and also examined some of the economic implications of active travel in downtown State College. It was a great presentation and gave us a lot to think about in terms of what we can do to further bike/ped travel in the Centre region.

You can download and view the presentation here:
biking_for_transportation_crbc_sept 2013.pdf