Campus & community, Campus news

Multiple mayors take town-gown ride on Bike to Work Day

By Cathy Cockrell

More than 300 students, staff, faculty, retirees and Berkeley residents arrived on two wheels, and in high spirits, at the Sproul Plaza energizer station Thursday for Bike to Work Day 2015. The scene at the corner of Bancroft and Telegraph, as in the past, featured swag bags for cyclists, bike registration by the UC Police Department and morning refreshments.

New this year was a town-gown ride that headed downhill toward City Hall around 8:15 a.m. The entourage of about 50 included Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and Chancellor Nicholas Dirks’ wife, associate professor Janaki Bakhle, as well as Morten Kabell, mayor of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Albrecht Schröter, mayor of Jena, Germany (a Berkeley sister city).

Among other notables on the scene: Berkeley councilmembers Lori Droste, Jesse Arreguin and Linda Maio; Ruben Lizardo, the campus’s director of local government and community relations; and Vish Palekar, CEO of Fremont-based ​GenZe Electric Bikes.​