by Larry Lagarde

If you're visiting New Orleans soon for French Quarter Fest, JazzFest or simply to enjoy our awesome Springtime weather, here's a thought:

Take the money it would cost to rent a bicycle or car for your visit and buy a bike instead from RideTHISbike .com. When you're done with the bike, we'll make it a snap to donate your bike to a worthy local non-profit that's looking to make New Orleans greener and more environmentally sustainable.

Most major New Orleans tourism destinations are clustered within easy bicycling range of one another. As a result, if you're in the French Quarter, Downtown, Warehouse District, Marigny , etc., chances are you'll get around faster on a bicycle than you could driving a car or taking a taxi.

By donating your bike at the end of your visit, you can help a variety of charitable, non-profit organizations that are working hard to improve life in New Orleans. In fact, here's how one non-profit plans to use bikes to fulfill a core mission.

Green Light New Orleans
Green Light installs modern compact fluorescent lighting ( CFL's ) in homes free of charge. To date, they've removed over 150,000 incandescent lights, eliminating @ 60 million kilowatt hours of electric consumption at a savings of $7 million.

To make their CFL light bulb program even greener, Green Light wants volunteers to ride adult folding trikes to install CFL's . Our folding tricycles are ideal because they have a low center of gravity, making them very stable even when the rear basket is loaded with CFL's . Since the trikes fold compactly, they take up less room in Green Light's cramped warehouse too.

Several other non-profits have expressed interest in accepting JazzFest bikes as donations. Look for more about their plans for donated bicycles later this week.

NOTE:
Per Mandy Decker with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival , bike racks will be available at both the Gentilly & Savage Street gates to JazzFest.

Labels: charity , donation , Jazzfest , New-Orleans-JazzFest