Bike Commute Week observed with award and activities

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on May 14, 2010

Every day during the academic year, Ken Hoffman rides his bike two miles from his home on West Street to Hampshire College, where he teaches math and natural history.

And he's been doing it since Hampshire opened 40 years ago.

Hoffman will be recognized for his commitment to alternative transportation during Amherst's observance of Bike Commute Week next Wednesday. He will be the first recipient of the Arthur Swift Memorial Bicycle Commuter Award, named for the late UMass professor who was a key advocate for the Norwottuck Rail Trail and the connector along University Drive.

<h4>‘2 miles is nothing'</h4>

Hoffman, 69, rides his old road bike about 40 miles a week in the winter and 90 miles in the summer. "So two miles is nothing," he said.

When the weather is bad in the wintertime, Hoffman is still out there pedaling away on the shoulder of West Street. His commute takes about 15 minutes each way, and he often goes home for lunch. He even does all his shopping by bike, he said.

Next week's activities start Tuesday with a bike repair clinic on the town common from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. There will be a program on "The Art of Bicycling" at the Jones Library starting at 5:30.

This program will include a discussion of cycling and poetry in the Amherst of Emily Dickinson's time, starting at 6 p.m. Poet KJ Shapiro will read her "Because I Could Not Stop My Bike," a modern homage to Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death." Aaron Hayden will read a letter Dickinson wrote about her nephew, who loved riding one of the early bicycles of that time.

Alice Swift will present Hoffman with his award around 6:15, and at 6:30 there will be a showing of the 1992 film "Return of the Scorcher," followed at 7:30 by the 2010 film "The Bicyclists."

On Wednesday, there will be a bike rodeo on Spring Street from 1:45 to 4:45 p.m. Bike safety classes are planned in the Bangs Center's Pole Room at 4 p.m. for youths and 6 p.m. for adults.

On Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., an exhibit on the Jones Library lawn will feature old, contemporary and specialty bikes and equipment. At 1 and 2 p.m. at the next-door Amherst History Museum, Pat Lutz will speak about bicycling in Amherst in the 1870s.

All day Thursday and into the evening, short films about bike facilities in cities around the world will be shown at the library, including "Fixing the Great Mistake," "Taken for a Ride" and "The Story of Stuff."

On Friday, May 21, there will be a breakfast for bicyclists on the town common. At 6 p.m., a group bike ride starts at the common and will take the Norwottuck Rail Trail to Station Road and back.