Cycle News Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Bike tour to close streets

South Oak Park side streets in the Ridgeland Historic District will be closed Sunday afternoon when the village hosts its first bike event.

The event will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday at Pleasant Home, 217 Home Ave., where participants can gather on Pleasant Street and register. There is no fee to participate. Safety bike training for children also will be available at Pleasant Home.

Participants can bike or ride the two-mile route, which will highlight 10 homes. The walk/ride ends at 4 p.m.

"Forty-four intersections in all will be blocked," village spokesman David Powers said Thursday. "There will be volunteers at all of these 44 intersections and officers at Oak Park, East and Ridgeland (avenues). As the ride progresses to the east they'll be able to open the streets."

The route winds through the Ridgeland Historic District, which spans the width of the village from Harlem Avenue and Austin Boulevard.

"Everything coming south of South Boulevard will be diverted," Powers said. "The best advice for someone coming south would be to go to Harlem or Austin around the area" that will be closed.

The ride/walk will give residents the opportunity to explore the historic district with the added calmness of no vehicular traffic.

"It's to promote people being healthier and that it's OK to ride bikes," said Amy Little, a member of the village's Environmental and Energy Commission. "We've been pushing for two years to get this done."

Little said the idea for the walk came from commission members who are avid cyclists. They decided a walk through a historic district would enable the commission to work with other village commissions, she said.

The walk is co-sponsored by the Environmental and Energy Commission, the Historic Preservation Commission, the Oak Park Health Department and the Oak Park Cycle Club.

"Many people don't know what the Ridgeland Historic District is all about," Little said.

Ten homes will be featured on the walk, but no information about the homes will be given, Little said. The Oak Park-River Forest Historical Society and the Historic Commission has put together a guidebook of 100 noteworthy homes titled "Ridgeland Revisited" which will be available for sale Sunday.

"This is really to get people out of their cars and bike riding more and exercising," Little said. "We want to make it as interesting to people as we possibly can."

(Source: http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/rf/09-29-04-392431.html)