Madison cyclists prepare to Ride the Drive

If a red-shirted volunteer asks you to change your regular Sunday drive route this weekend, it’s because up to 25,000 bikers could soon be passing through as part of Madison's fifth annual “Ride the Drive” event.

The event, which invites bikers from Madison and surrounding areas to enjoy riding on closed roads between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. each year and participate in activities along the route, began downtown in August 2009 and has grown to include an additional event in another part of the city each year after.

“I think this, in five short years, has become one of the signature events in Madison that doesn’t involve beer,” said City of Madison Parks Division Recreation Services Coordinator Anne Whisner, who has coordinated Ride the Drive for the last three years. 

The event has roots in Bogota, Colombia, according to former Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. In 1976, the city hosted "cyclovia," which means "bike path" in Spanish. The event spread to the United States in the early 2000s, Cieslewicz said. He said Madison was “probably in the first group of cities” to hold such an event.

“The idea behind cyclovia is really just get people reintroduced to their bikes,” Cieslewicz said. “There’s a lot of people out there this Sunday who might not have been on a bike in 20 or 30 years. They’ve got some old Schwinn in the basement that they haven’t seen in awhile, they pump up the tires, they put a little grease on the chain and they go and they realize ‘hey, this is a lot of fun.’”

Whisner said the event has 160 volunteers, who perform many tasks, including guiding cars at intersections, staffing information stations, collecting donations, handing out balloons and providing support to participants.

Volunteer Jason Robinson has worked the event for three years, and will serve as an “Area Captain” this year, overseeing other volunteers in his assigned area. He said Ride the Drive not only offers a chance to “ride on a street that I never get to ride on normally,” but also creates a central biking hub, at least for one day.

“One of the things that’s very cool is that it brings a lot of the bicycle-related resources into play in one place at one time,” Robinson said. “That and it is really cool for that one day not to have to worry about traffic.”

Road closures will include parts of John Nolen Drive, Blair Street, East Washington Avenue, Pinckney Street, Mifflin Street, State Street, Gilman Street, Frances Street, West Dayton Street, Bedford Street and North Shore Drive from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Key intersections on these roads will be open and drivable under the direction of police.

The second Ride the Drive event this year will take place on the west side in August. Robinson said the expansion to other parts of the city is a great part of recognizing Madison’s different bike venues.

“It’s not only awesome that they do the downtown Ride the Drive, which I think is superb in and of itself, but I like that they’ve got the second one that they do every year in August that they’re moving around to different parts of the city,” he said. “Madison isn’t the campus, Madison isn’t the downtown, Madison is actually a pretty big place that has lots of different neighborhoods that are all very interesting venues for biking.”

For more information on the event, including road closures, visit http://www.cityofmadison.com/parks/ridethedrive/downtown/route.cfm.