Spokes Council seminar to teach rules of the road

Junior art history major and bicycle cooperative Spokes Council member Genesis Perez, along with the other Spokes Council members are putting together a biking seminar aimed at teaching women road rules, safety and basic bike repairs. The event will be Nov. 12 from noon to 3 p.m. in the Student Union, Key West 218B.

"This seminar is an informational and hands-on workshop for women. We're going to cover the basic things you need to know in order to ride your bike safely, legally and efficiently," Perez said.

Spokes Council is a free bicycle cooperative at UCF. Along with offering free bicycle repairs, members work with university officials to make the campus more bicycle-friendly. The group has worked for cyclists to have more parking on campus and to eliminate dangerous bicycle lanes that lead cyclists straight into turning traffic. Group rides, organized by Spokes Council, teach inexperienced cyclists proper ways to ride in the road.

The first half of the seminar will be inside the Student Union and will include a presentation and open discussion about road rules, bicycle safety and basic bike repair. The second half of the seminar will be outside at Spokes Council's workshop where participants can get a chance to use the club's tools and workspace to tune up their bikes with help from Spokes Council's members, if needed.

"The idea came from many different sources," Perez said. "Spokes Council needs more participation from women cyclists, especially in the actual shop. This is also a service learning project for my intro to women's studies class and honestly I just wanted to see more girls on bikes and to help build a community for us here at UCF."

Marcus Bagnell, optics Ph.D. student and president of Spokes Council, has been involved with Spokes Council for two years and enjoys being a part of it because it is a great way to find people to go on rides with and learn about other people's experiences riding. Bagnell hopes this seminar shares enough information about riding that more people will want to share the experience and be able to do so safely.

"A lot of people would like to ride but don't have the knowledge of how to ride safely or maintain their bikes. The most common repair issues, luckily, are also often the easiest to fix and you can get back to riding a lot sooner if you don't have to go to a bike shop every time some small thing goes wrong," Bagnell said. "This event will help UCF by educating riders on skills that they need to stay safe on the road and keep their bike running smoothly."

With an emphasis on safety, Perez believes this seminar is not only to encourage women to become more involved with riding, but to teach anyone who is interested how to participate safely.

"We're going to talk about everything from how to properly ride in the road to what to do if you're in an accident or if someone is following you to teaching you how to change a flat tube," Perez said. "This type of knowledge helps you not only become a better and safer cyclist, it creates a more well informed and, in turn, a stronger cycling community."

Perez has been heavily involved in the planning of this event, because it is important to her to spread the word across campus, especially to women on campus, to get more involved and to know when something goes wrong with a bicycle, Spokes Council has resources to help.

"It's all about community and sharing our skills and supporting each other to stay safe and to stay smart about bicycling," Perez said.