January/February 1985 RAIN Page 19 Indiana Lieutenant Governor John Mutz is "chauffeured" downtown to promote Hike, Bike, and Bus Week. Hike, Bike, and Bus Week by Dorothy Mack Indianapolis is widely known for the 500-mile (auto) race on Memorial Day, but it is also a fairly flat city that is conducive to bicycling, and it has an active bicycling comqmnity. Hike, Bike & Bus Week (HBBW) rolls around every spring in Indianapolis to remind folks that there are often better ways to get around than in a private auto. We want to encourage bicycling as transportation, and expand the notion to include walking, running, public transit, carpooling, and any other innovative means of travel that reduces pressure on individuals, society, and our earth. "Meet people face to face instead of bumper to bumper" is the slogan of the HBBW Committee, a loosely knit group of volunteers who spend four months a year on the project. A set of traditional events have evolved for the week. One of the most unique is the "Great Commuter Race," in which people travel from four points in Indianapolis using various forms of transportation, and meet downtown on Monument Circle. This takes place during morning rush hour, and the travel time for each person is recorded. However, we are not primarily interested in travel time. (The car driver often wins, even after parking and walking a block to the Circle.) This is a media event to draw attention to the feasibility of alternate forms of transportation. Other featured events have included the following: D Group runs and bike commutes from the "great commuter race" starting points to Monument Circle on Walk/ Run Day and Bike Transit Day, respectively. The goal of these events is to attract public participation, unlike the great commuter race, where we try to limit participation to avoid attracting real racers. D "Chauffeuring" a celebrity downtown on a tandem bike during the bike ride described above. We have chauffeured the mayor, the lieutenant governor, a state senator, and a TV anchorman. D A drawing to give away free monthly bus passes and two round-trip Amtrak tickets to Chicago. D Hike, Bike & Bus Fest, noontime, on Monument Circle. A "captive audience" of hundreds of downtown workers are invited to visit displays of groups such as Metro, Amtrak, Human-Powered Vehicle Association, Central Indiana Bicycling Association, Indianapolis Ridesharing Program, and the Indianapolis public library. Live music and helium balloons attract attention. Our expenditures are minimal, about $300 per year, greatly aided by in-kind contributions. Our two main contributors are Central Indiana Bicycling Association (CIBA), which provides cash, and Metro Transit, which prints materials and has provided monthly passes to give away. The most important events of HBBW occur wherever individuals use alternative transporation in their daily lives. For this reason, it is difficult to measure our success. We receive most of our compliments on a one-toone basis. People tell us that they started using some form of alternative transportation during HBBW, and then continued.DD Dorothy Mack, who has been reading RAIN for 6 years, originated Hike, Bike & Bus Week (HBBW), with Linda Miller Thomas and Jim Maher, in 1978.
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