Champaign County Bikes, a local bike advocacy group, will host the second annual C-U Bike to Work Day on Tuesday to promote bicycling over driving to work and school.

Rebecca Bird, the event’s organizer and Urbana city planner, said organizers want to encourage people who regularly drive a car to work or school to try riding their bike as their main mode of transportation. They also want to recognize the people in the community who ride their bikes on a daily basis.

“Mainly, our goal is to get people who drive to work and who live five miles or less from their work (to participate),” Bird said.

The event will have 10 bike stations set up around the Champaign-Urbana area, including three stations on the University campus. Bird said each of the stations will serve breakfast, along with free gifts, such as T-shirts, tote bags and reflective stickers for participants.

Each of the bike stations will offer various types of activities. Some stations will be host to bicycle mechanics to help with bike maintenance, including brake checkups. The station in Downtown Urbana will have an Urbana Public Television videographer filming participants explaining why they love to bicycle. The interviews will then be complied into a short film.

Every station will also offer information, such as a map of bike routes in Champaign-Urbana and the rules of the road for bicyclists.

Jeffrey Hickman, professor at Parkland College, helped organize and promote the event at Parkland. Hickman said the college is hosting a bike station, and it hopes to encourage the students and faculty to participate in the event.

The event has 740 people pre-registered. According to Bird, over half of the participants are University students, faculty and staff. She said in addition, a large number of Parkland College and Urbana public school students, as well as Champaign-Urbana city employees, will be participating. She added that this event will help take 250 cars off the road.

“It’s important for people to register as high numbers will help us in future bicycle planning and infrastructure projects, like getting federal grants for more bike lanes,” Bird said.

Jennifer Gonzalez, an Urbana resident, is participating in the Bike to Work Day event. Gonzalez said it’s an important event for the community to get involved in.

“It’s a really great community-wide effort to promote sustainable transportation,” she said. “We really do have a lot of great avenues for people to save money on gas or have a relaxing trip to work rather than the stress of the hustle and bustle of driving.”