ancy jo Manney — with the oversized gold scissors, Mike McGurk and Maria Hatcher, the plaza property manager, endure the heat on Bike To Work Day 2017. Photo by Mike Salmon.
Bicyclists in Springfield now have another option when parking their bikes at
Springfield Plaza. Officials cut the ribbon May 19 on a custom bike rack near David’s Bridal on Old Keene Mill Road. It was Bike To Work Day, where Nancy jo Manney at the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce manned the Springfield pit stop earlier, so biking was on her mind. “Central Springfield is more walkable and bikeable, if we can get them here, there’s not a lot of bike parking,” she said.
The bike rack is from Transurban, a company better known for the express lanes on I-495 and I-95. It’s part of their community grant program that provides funding for community programs in the corridors around their projects. North Springfield was impacted by the I-495 express lanes a few years ago, and then by I-95 express lanes after that. From the 395 community grant program, Transurban has also funded a Walking and Biking program at Polk Elementary School in Alexandria, SCAN of NoVA for prevention of child abuse and Meals on Wheels.
Transurban spokesperson Mike McGurk was at the ribbon cutting. “Our wider mission as a company is to improve transportation in communities,” McGurk said. Transurban is now working on the I-395 express lanes all the way to the Pentagon and Crystal City. “There’s grants all the way up 395 available,” he said. In other cases, these grants have been used for trees and shrubs, and a similar bike rack was installed on Maple Avenue in Vienna a few years ago.