Bike Pgh offers free Bike Valet at Festival

Visitors to the Three Rivers Arts Festival can “go (there) green” by biking to the festival. Bike Pgh makes it easy for visitors with their bike valet which is open noon to 9 pm every day of the festival (weather permitting,) through the generous support of the Colcom Foundation.

People riding bicycles leave their bike at valet service at the entrance to Point State Park. Volunteers from Bike Pgh carefully tag each bike and keep bikes safe as visitors enjoy the festival. “People know us,” said Bricker, “They know that we are not going away, and they trust us.”

This is the second year for the valet service, but Bike Pgh is not new to the idea.  We’ve done between 12 and 20 valet events since 2005,” said Scott Bricker, executive director of Bike Pittsburgh, “We were one of the first bike groups in the country to start offering this service.”

The valet served nearly 300 bikes last Saturday, its busiest day so far. “Replacing car trips reduces congestion in the city, congestion, decreases carbon dioxide emissions, burns calories and saves riders money,” said Bricker.

The idea began four years ago when the festival first implemented green initiatives. “There were no bike racks that year,” said Bricker, “We wrote a blog post about that and the Cultural Trust responded. They reached out to us and invited us to get involved.”

Bike Pgh Bike Valet at Three Rivers Arts Festival – Images by Renee Rosensteel