Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition: Bike to Work Day Riders Enjoy a Morning Perk with Fair Trade Certified Coffee

Bike to Work Day riders were treated to Fair Trade Certified coffee for the second year in a row as part of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's 18th Annual Bike to Work Day, Thursday, May 13th.

All of the coffee served at the events 17 morning energizer stations was Fair Trade Certified thanks to the efforts of the Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition and five local Fair Trade Certified coffee roasters including America's Best Coffee Roasting Company, Capricorn Coffees, Equator Estate Coffees & Teas, Sugarlump Coffee Lounge, and Wild Card Roasters.

Volunteers from the Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition were up early in the morning brewing over 85 gallons of Fair Trade coffee to fuel the morning ride of a record breaking 100,000 plus participants. In recognition of their efforts, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition prominently posted signage at all of the morning energizer stations explaining their organization’s commitment to Fair Trade and included statements of support in all of the outreach materials for the event including their website, e-newsletter and the summer edition of their print newsletter, the Tube Times.

This year’s Bike to Work Day was busy than ever with ridership in San Francisco’s Market Street corridor up more than one third from last year. According to the SFMTA, cyclists accounted for more than 75% of all traffic on Market Street between the hours of 7:30 and 9:30 am.

Cyclists old and new were joined by a record number of elected officials including Mayor Gavin Newsom, Supervisors Eric Mar, Carmen Chu, Chris Daly, Bevan Dufty, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell and John Avalos, along with SFMTA Director Nathaniel Ford, SFMTA Chairman Tom Nolan, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Director of the Department of Public Works Ed Reiskin, General Manager of Parks and Recreation Phil Ginsburg and Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting.

Together city leaders and members of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition gathered on the steps of City Hall to celebrate an exciting array of new bicycle improvements that were added to the streets in time for the event including new green separated bike lanes on Market Street and five new on-street bike parking corrals on Valencia Street’s vibrant and busy commercial corridor.

The event was San Francisco’s contribution to the international celebration of World Fair Trade Day, which once again drew tens of thousands of supporters to hundreds of citywide events like ours during the two week period between May 1st and May 15th. The Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition is proud to add the over 2,500 people who enjoyed coffee, the hundred thousand plus who rode their bike to work and the tens of thousands more who received word of this event via the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s outreach to the rapidly growing official tally for World Fair Trade Day 2010.

Thanks again to all of our sponsors for providing the coffee to make this happen, to our intrepid volunteers that stayed up all night to brew it and to the people of San Francisco for turning out in such great numbers to show such a simple act as riding your bike to work or choosing Fair Trade Certified coffee can change the world.

See you all at Bike to Work Day 2011!

Bay Area Fair Trade Coalition Member, Heather Franzese poses with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom after a quick cup of Weaver's Organic Fair Trade coffee at the Mid-Market Energizer Station.

For a complete set of Bike to Work Day photos click here: