For me, promoting cycling is a no-brainer - it combines a healthy lifestyle with an environmentally sustainable one, and it can be affordable and safe if you do it right.

The weather was perfect on Wednesday, September 28th for the First Annual Longwood Campus Bike Fair.  Over 200 students and staff from the Longwood community attended the lunch-hour fair.  The event was organized by Students for Environmental Action in Medicine (SEAM), Harvard Medical School and Harvard University Office for Sustainability. 

The inspiration for this event came from Janine Knudsen’s (HMS 2014 and SEAM Leader).  Janine wrote:

It was very exciting to host the first ever fall Bike Fair for the Harvard Longwood community.  The inspiration for this event came out of my experience last year fielding tons questions from my classmates about bike commuting, purchasing, maintenance, and safety, and the realization that many other people on the Harvard Longwood campus must be dealing with these questions.  The number of cyclists commuting into this neighborhood is growing exponentially, and we're lucky to have great facilities and transportation offices that support and encourage this growth.  At this fair, we also brought in local organizations to address people's questions and help both new and old students start riding.  I would love to see this become an annual fall event to encourages new students to consider cycling and helps returning students keep up the good work.  For me, promoting cycling is a no-brainer - it combines a healthy lifestyle with an environmentally sustainable one, and it can be affordable and safe if you do it right.

A special thanks to all the local vendors who participated: Harvard Transportation Office, Harvard Security, Commute Works - MASCO, Quad Bikes, Back Bay Bicycles, Boston Cyclist Union, and Mass Bike