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RIDE TO WORK DAY - JULY 21, 2004

Motorcyclist's 13th annual Ride to Work Day is Wednesday, July 21st. The worldwide event involves hundreds of thousands of individual commuting riders and scores of organized rider groups. Participation in the yearly demonstration is estimated to triple the number of riders on the road.

According to the Ride to Work nonprofit advocacy organization, "Ride to Work Day reveals that motorcyclists come from all walks of life, work in all occupations, and range in age from teenagers to grandparents." The American Motorcyclist Association and many other worldwide rider organizations actively encourage all motorcyclists to ride their cycles to work as a grassroots demonstration on the third Wednesday in July each year.

"Riding to work on this day shows the positive value of motorcycling for transportation. Commuting motorcyclists everywhere are seeking employer recognition and appreciation of riding, and greater governmental and public acknowledgment of the advantages of transportation motorcycling. For many people, riding is a socially responsible form of personal mobility that saves energy, helps the environment and provides a broad range of other public benefits," stated Andy Goldfine, this year's event organizer.

Many motorcycles are lightweight, efficient and consume less resources per mile than typical automobiles. A motorcycle’s size and nimbleness advantages over cars and light trucks also means that adding more of them to the daily transportation mix makes urban parking easier, reduces road congestion and improves traffic flow. Experience consistently shows that urban motorcyclists reach their destinations faster and are more alert upon arrival than those using automobiles.

Each work day more than eighty million cars and light trucks commute on American roads, but only about 200,000 individuals regularly ride their cycles to work. In countries where mobility is an issue, like Japan, Germany, and England the benefits of motorcycling for transportation are widely appreciated. In the United States, a smaller percentage of the seven million currently registered cycles are used for daily transportation and commuting.

For more information about Ride to Work Day visit http://www.ridetowork.org or call 218.722.9806.