This past month on May 17, Bike Newark hosted a National Bike to Work Day Celebration at Mentors’ Circle. Citizens who live and work in the city were encouraged to bike to work and stop by the celebration beforehand for free breakfast and an award ceremony.
The event, recognized nationally, is meant to educate people on the benefits of riding a bike instead of sitting in a car for their morning commute.
“It’s something that the community has been doing for several years now,” Mike Deshon, a member of Bike Newark, said. “We encourage people to bike to work on this particular day and come and enjoy free breakfast, network and hear from some local speakers.”
Deshon explained that Bike Newark recently became a nonprofit, and works with their partner organizations: the City of Newark, University of Delaware, Newark Bike Project, DelDOT Bicycle Solutions and DE Commute Solutions, to make the city more accessible to citizens who bike.
“I’ve been on the organizational committee led by city planning staff Mike Fortner for probably a good 12 years now,” Deshon said. “I am just a community member and avid bicyclist and when I retired from UD in 2012, one of the things I picked up was joining this community effort to better conditions for bicycling in Newark.”
Bike Newark also implemented an award ceremony during the 7:30 a.m. celebration; Joe Spadafino received the Bicycle Friendly Community Leader Award for his efforts to make the city more bicycle friendly during his time as the director of Newark Parks and Recreation. The award was presented by Newark Mayor Jerry Clifton.
“A few things he has worked on I wasn’t so happy with from a cost point of view, but I never doubted that they were good things or that they wouldn’t be used, my issue was a cost issue,” Clifton said. “I am happy to say that on those couple issues, we might have disagreed, but Joe has proven me wrong.”
During his career working for the city of Newark, Spadafino has spent countless hours improving biking amenities and bikeways in the city so that Newark could be recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as a Bicycle Friendly Community since 2010.
“Because he has a position as the Parks and Recreation Director for the city of Newark, Joe has been stalwart in terms of supporting bike-friendly projects,” Deshon said. “In the time that we’ve worked with Joe, which is the better part of 10 years, he’s been very helpful as a partner liaison to Bike Newark.”
One of Bike Newark’s upcoming projects that Spadfino has been integral to implementing includes the installation of four kiosks at three different locations on the Central Loop and at Olan Thomas Park to give information to citizens about the trails.
“These kiosks that we are hoping to install include bike route information as well as other information about the parks themselves like their history,” Deshon said.
Bike Newark is also hoping to revise the 2014 Newark Bicycle Plan, develop a bike-parking proposal, provide advocacy for bicycle safety and much more by the end of 2024.
“I think what has happened over the last 10 years or so, the consciousness of the city government when it comes to bikers has been raised a long way over what it was when I came on the scene in 1997,” Clifton said. “I am just looking forward to doing my part to keep the level of consciousness of being a bike-friendly city high.”