Photo by Lillian Glaros
By EVONY SALMERON
Park resident Brooks Boliek recalls how excited he was to finish the 97-mile 2024 Gran Fondo National Series Championship bicycle race last year in 20th place for his age group—dead last.
Boliek, who pedaled in the 65-to-69 age group, said he was just happy to finish after watching many of his same-age competitors drop out or opt for shorter routes.
“The competition sort of falls off after 60, for whatever reason,” said Boliek, who lives in the city’s Berwyn neighborhood. “People die, or they decide that they’ve done everything, or they don’t want to. But my thing is, so I know I’m going to try and compete until I move into the 70 age category because, partly, I can podium at nearly every event I go into because there’s only going to be five of us.”
College Park has a growing community of riders, thanks to an abundance of trails, city efforts to make streets bike-friendly, and multiple clubs and group rides for local cyclists.
College Park Bicycles employee Doug O’Neal estimated that hundreds, “if not thousands” of cyclists live or ride in the city. “Those are cyclists of all abilities: recreational electric bike riders, road riders, competitive cyclists, triathletes, and let’s not forget the kids,” O’Neal said. “So yeah, a lot. College Park has a very strong cycling community.”
“I mean, you can ride your bike all the way from here to Virginia without hitting many streets,” Laurie Lemieux, the owner of Proteus Bicycles in the Hollywood Shopping Center, said. “So we’re a really nice hub for that.”
That bike shop is home to the Proteus Velo Club, which hosts two 8:30 a.m. group rides—one 20 miles and the other, 30, on Saturdays, and a 60- to 75-minute, medium-paced ride meet-up at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays. The Velo Club has about 50 dues-paying members and its Google group has approximately 250 cyclists.
Likewise, cyclists gather at College Park Bicycles, 7301 Baltimore Ave., at 10 a.m. on Saturdays for a 30-mile ride.
Proteus Bicycles houses a coffee bar called Proteus Brew, which is a hot spot for cyclists from around the DMV who participate in the group rides. After the rides, cyclists return to the shop for coffee and conversation.
“This feels like a bustling community center coming here,” said Joe Hoffman, who lives in College Park’s Yarrow neighborhood and bikes to and from the Metro on his way to his job in the District. “We’re trying to come here more.”
Hoffman added that he and his wife, Nicole Freeh, “only recently just decided we really need to make a concerted effort to do all our errands on bike.”
The bikeability of College Park contributed to the couple’s decision to move from Baltimore to College Park, Hoffman said.
“It’s so funny because our house online says the bikeability score is only 50 out of 100, but I would say that’s inaccurate,” said Hoffman, who said the couple enjoys biking at the Lake Artemesia Natural Area at Lakeland. “We bike everywhere we can.”
Along with Lake Artemesia, a favorite for College Park cyclists is the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail, which connects College Park with Riverdale Park and Hyattsville. The Trolley Trail traces the path of the old streetcar line that once connected the District to Beltsville.
The College Park City Council in recent years has tried to make non-motorized transportation, like bicycling and walking, a priority.
Mayor Fazlul Kabir, an avid cyclist, said College Park has invested in “very aggressively” building sidewalks and bike lanes.
“We like to see kind of multimodal opportunities, and we like to see less dependencies on the cars,” Kabir said, “because this is a healthy way to live longer, and we like to see residents participate in walking and biking more and more.”
City Councilmember Susan Whitney (District 2) said enabling cyclists to ride to and from work helps the city reach its sustainability goals.
“It’s sustainable … in terms of health. It’s a really healthy way to get around,” Whitney said, adding, “And it’s also sustainable environmentally, you know, fewer emissions.”
Donald Hays, co-chair of the College Park Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, credited the city’s focus on bike-friendly streets, in part, to the University of Maryland’s student body, noting that the average cost of owning a car is approximately $12,000 a year, a price most full-time college students cannot afford on top of tuition and rent.
“That’s just kind of obscene to ask that of students,” Hays said. “And so I think that one of the reasons that we have such a pull towards bikeability and walkability is that students are voting with their pocketbooks.”
Among the best parts of cycling, according to the Bolieks, who started biking together when they got married in 1991, are the social and health aspects.
When Jeri Boliek cycled with her husband in the District, she said, she couldn’t find any women to ride with. Now that they live in College Park and are a part of the Proteus Velo Club, Boliek is able to meet other women on trails and big group rides, she said.
“I think there’s just a great camaraderie about learning from each other, taking care of each other,” Boliek said.
Brooks Boliek said cycling is one of the best forms of exercise because it’s “easy on the joints.” He cited studies that prove riding improves health, increases lifespan and mitigates loneliness.
“We want to live as long as we can and be as healthy as we can, and do all the things that we think we can do and then die,” Boliek said. “You know, we don’t want this long, slow decline through madness into death. We want to avoid that.”