By John Darling The cheap, healthy and environmentally friendly bicycle becomes center stage in Ashland this week with the startup of a Community Bike Program and the celebration of the city s annual Car-Free Day today. The Bike Program operates in a small repair shop at The Grove Youth Center on East Main and offers free lessons on how to repair your bike.
Organizers welcome volunteers to teach bike repair.
They may also barter volunteer repair work for bike rental. The Bike Program will be a centerpiece of Ashland s Car-Free Day festival from 3 to 6 p.m. today in Triangle Park on Siskiyou Boulevard. A crew from the Bike Program will be there with tools to teach citizens how to make simple repairs, said volunteer director Jim Hartman, an Ashland High School science teacher. However, the program was abandoned after vandals trashed most bikes by running over them with cars, leaving them on railroad tracks, rolling them down steep hills and tossing them in the creek, he said. The Community Bike Program helps promote awareness of a sustainable Ashland, whose residents list traffic and parking as their chief concerns, said Wheeldon.