The Long Way Home

Red bikes make the trip for sustainability

October 9, 2007

Avi Keremidchieva ‘10 is raising the (chocolate) bar on sustainability by using a Dickinson Rides red bike instead of a car to visit destinations as far away as Hershey, Pa.

For those who feel that they are giving their all for sustainability, the bar has now been raised. Instead of driving the 20 or 30 miles to Harrisburg or Hershey (one way), sign out one of Dickinson's red bikes and start pedaling.

That's exactly what international business & management majors Avrora "Avi" Keremidchieva '10 from Bulgaria and Luan Nguyen '10 from Vietnam have done—not once or twice but several times.

"At first we did it as a challenge for ourselves," says Keremidchieva. "We rode the red bikes out of Carlisle to Mechanicsburg. After we got there, we weren't tired, so we just kept going ... on to Camp Hill and then to Harrisburg."

Their first trip to Harrisburg last year took about two-and-a-half hours. Since then they've managed to get the triptime down to an hour and a half, even with having to use out-of-the-way back roads and side streets. This fall, the biking duo extended its excursion to Hershey, although it took four hours because of traffic.

While Keremidchieva enjoys the physical workout, the continuing reason for the trips is actually to make a point: "Taking the red bikes on long rides makes a positive statement about the importance of sustainability generally and shows that you don't need fancy equipment to get around—the red bikes do the job and have never broken down."

Keremidchieva reports that biking around Carlisle is actually more difficult—because of the heavy truck traffic—than getting around Harrisburg.

But biking here, she says, is easier than back home in Bulgaria because "American drivers are much more courteous to people on bikes."