Organizers of the annual Ride A Bike To Work Day in the City of Oregon hope to attract at least 50 participants in the event this year, which is scheduled for May 20.

Rodney Shultz, a deputy city engineer and a member of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Government’s pedestrian bikeway committee, said about 37 city employees participated in the event last year and about 42 in 2006.

“It’s become something people look forward to doing,” Mr. Shultz said. “When we started in 2004 it was pretty must just employees in the department of public service.”

A rain date has been scheduled for May 22.

With the leg of the city’s bikeway plan between Corduroy Road and the Starr Avenue extension completed last year, a bike ride to the city municipal complex on Seaman Road is becoming easier, said Mr. Shultz.

“People try to meet up and get a group of bikers together and then make their way to the complex,” he said. “It takes a little pre-planning. Some people bring a change of clothes to the office the day before.”

This year, organizers are focusing on tying the event to the Safer Routes to Schools program in an effort to get more teachers, administrators, and students involved.

Under that program, the city and Oregon School District are partnering to promote and encourage children to safely walk and bicycle to school.

The plan is being developed under the guidelines of the National Safe Routes To School program and is initially being implemented at Starr Elementary School and Fassett Middle School.

The city received a grant of $150,000 through the Ohio Department of Transportation to improve sidewalks along school routes.

Vicki Laurell, the school district’s transportation supervisor, said the grant will fund the extension of sidewalks along Starr Avenue between Coy Road and Wheeling Street and possibly along some side streets. The extended sidewalk system will also benefit pedestrians who’ve been walking in designated bike lanes, she said.

A public meeting to discuss the project is scheduled for May 14 at 7 p.m. at Fassett.

“We want to make bicycling and walking to school a more appealing alternative,” she said. “It also reduces some of the congestion at the schools when parents drop off or pick up their children.”

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