Get Ready Princeton, 400 Cyclists Are Coming To Town On Aug. 28

PRINCETON, NJ — All roads lead to Princeton on Aug. 28, as over 400 cyclists will be riding into town for an overnight stay.

The cyclists are part of the first New York City to Philadelphia Greenway Ride – a 125-mile spin to help raise funds for the East Coast Greenway in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Participants making the overnight stop in Princeton will stay at local hotels or camp at the YMCA.

“We're going to be filling restaurants with hungry cyclists, filling hotels... I'm so excited to bring these hundreds of people from all over the region and over 20 states, to Princeton,” said Dennis Markatos-Soriano, Executive Director of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, which is based in North Carolina.

An alum of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Markatos-Soriano recalls his time “biking all over town” as a student. “I'm excited about the progress that Princeton has made to make biking safer throughout the community. And it has achieved silver level bike friendly community status, which is a good step forward. And we want to work with Princeton to continue to make great progress,” said Markatos-Soriano.

With local businesses recovering from the pandemic, Markatos-Soriano said communities can greatly benefit from the “outdoor economy.”

“Coming out of this pandemic, we can get people outdoors. The outdoor economy across the country is almost a trillion dollars now. And we want for communities like Princeton, and others all over the country, to benefit greatly from that outdoor economy,” he said.

Cyclists aged 15 to 78 will start their ride at 8 a.m. from the Liberty State Park moving southwest through various routes including the Essex-Hudson Greenway, Middlesex Greenway, and Delaware and Raritan Canal Towpath.

They will begin arriving in Princeton around noon, heading to the Princeton Family YMCA where a number of them are expected to camp overnight, while others will be staying in local area hotels.

“We are all ready,” said Bobby Dobra, Membership and Healthy Living Director at YMCA, responsible for coordinating the event. “Our tents are set up on the field, our locker rooms and showers are ready.”

“This event is going to bring a lot of awareness on how we can do better for the environment,” said Dobra.

Lisa Serieyssol, chair of the Princeton Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC) said it was an “exciting moment” as such an event has never happened in Princeton before.

“I think there's been a lot of good planning that went into this. And there's been a lot of positive response from the business community,” said Serieyssol.

The PBAC was recently awarded the 2021 Marty Epstein Advocate of the Year Award for excellence in advocating for the bicycle and pedestrian safety movement.

Read More Here: Princeton Pedestrian & Bicycle Committee Receives Advocacy Award

Serieyssol believes having the cyclists in town will help raise awareness on the benefits of biking.

“They're covering 125 miles in two days, for certain what it's going to do is bring awareness to our community and the region about the number of people that are interested in bicycling, whether it's for pleasure or work, or for exercise.”

She also hopes that this will become an annual event. “I think after this weekend's ride experience, there will be more interest and more opportunities to do more for and with the riders that are going to participate,” she said.

With just a week to go, participants have already raised more than $230,000 to aid East Coast Greenway Alliance’s work to develop the greenway.

Markatos-Soriano said the fundraising efforts by participants could snowball into significant public investment.

“We have an advocacy model that turns dollars donated to our organization into strong impact,” Markatos-Soriano said. “So for every dollar, we've raised historically, we've turned that into over $50 and public investment. We see these funds turning into over $10 million that will move many miles forward in the region between New York and Philadelphia.”

This event will also help local communities raise awareness on the climate crisis, said Markatos-Soriano. “This is such an important time for us, as a community and as a country, to move forward our public health, to advance our efforts to tackle the climate crisis, and to really bring people together, in equitable public space. That is exactly what we aim to do through this ride and through our continuing efforts to complete the East Coast Greenway.”

Meanwhile, volunteers are needed to help with guests on Aug. 28 and 29. Tasks include unloading/uploading rider’s overnight gear, monitoring traffic, Setting up and breaking down bike parking, distributing water, and serving and restocking breakfast for riders on Sunday morning.

To fill out the volunteer registration form, click here. For more information, click on this link.

A number of outdoor events are also being planned for these two days, the details of which will be made public soon.

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