Earth week had its kickoff last Saturday, and Virginia Tech student participants are still going strong you could even say some of them are on a roll.
The awareness craze of Earth Week continued with the Critical Mass bike rally whoch took place Tuesday. Critical Mass started in San Francisco, Calif., in 1993, and has pedaled its way overseas to the United Kingdom.
The Blacksburg rally, though not nearly as large as some of its predecessors, served an equally large cause -- bicycle respect.
This was no Harley Davidson, leather-clad troop by any means. These bikes sported no exhaust, but instead they were armed with signs displaying phrases from "bikes are better" to the simple exclamation "critical mass."
The riders circled three times around the Drillfield and then continued their route through downtown Blacksburg.
One of the primary purposes behind the rally was to give speculators knowledge of how bicycles can be used to better the environment. Bkies are estimated to be 46 times more efficient than cars, the largest single source of air pollution worldwide.
Riders, however, had many different reasons for participating.
"I'm doing it because I think bikes are better than cars -- they don't pollute," said Pierre Grzybowski, a sophomore in Environmental Policy and Planning, and one of the coordinators of the rally. "And plus," he said, "it's a lot of fun."
The rally also served as a forum for the bikers present to exchange their different ideas on biking. Some riders, in addition to their concern for the environment, felt the rally was more appropriate in getting drivers to be more courteous in an attempt to make local roads more bicycle-friendly.
"Cars use bike lanes as passing lanes," said K.L. Crank, a graduate student in English and participant in the rally."The BT stops in the middle of (the bike lane) too.
"When I'm on my bike, I should be safe regardless," Crank said.
"People drive fast around the Drillfield, " said Bob Noble, a graduate student in statistics. "There is no bike lane around the Drillfield."
Despite the lack of bike lanes around the Drillfield at Tech, Grzybowski says riding a bike is by far the most efficient way of transportation. If saving the environment is not enough, he proposes other reasons why biking is more efficient, including bikes not requiring a parking pass, you don't have to look for a parking space and you can ride practically to the front door of all your classes.
"It makes more sense," Grzybski said. "You stay in shape, too."