Walk, Bike, Roll, Dance at Streets Alive!

September is Transportation month for Get Your GreenBack Tompkins, a community-based campaign to inspire all 42,000 households and every business in Tompkins County to take at least one step to save energy and money. In collaboration with Creating Healthy Places and many other organizations, Get Your GreenBack Tompkins is sponsoring a family-friendly street event called Streets Alive!

Streets Alive! involves closing off to cars a stretch of Cayuga Street from Ithaca High School to Court Street and opening it up to walk, bike, dance, play and socialize in the street. The closed off street is an invitation to active living and to exploring alternative ways of moving around in the city.

Dozens of organizations are supporting the event which will take place on Sunday, September 23rd from 1-4 pm. Zumba, Hula and Hip-Hop dancing will be offered by Finger Lakes Fitness, Ithaca Carshare will have free ice cream and car demos, and Way2Go is organizing a bike rodeo, where people of all ages can learn bike riding skills. There will also be bicycles to use courtesy of Big Red Bikes and free bike repair from RIBS and the Friends Bike Clinic. For added motivation, Get Your GreenBack is sponsoring a free raffle with prizes from local bike and sports shops.

Human-powered transportation is clearly good for our physical health, but it is also healthy for our pockets. The AAA estimates that driving costs on average 60 cents per mile, and we drive a lot, which is why according to the Census an average family of four spends almost $11,000 a year on transportation. Learning to walk, bike, bus, or carpool for our travel needs can make real financial sense.

Go to streetsaliveithaca.com for more information on the event and to volunteer, and getyourgreenback.org for a list of bike shops in the county, transportation options for other September community festivals, and to learn about other energy and money saving ideas and share your own.

Streets Alive! is partnering with three other events taking place the same weekend. The other CommUnity partners are Earthdance, the Food Justice Summit, and Latin Roots.