There are five of us: three participants and two guides. (Depending on the number of riders, larger groups are split up and assigned guides.) Although the tour is popular with visitors, on this evening we are all from the area.
Megan Allsup, a South End resident, admits she hasn’t ridden a bike in a long time. This is the second excursion for Allsup’s friend, Madeline Carr of Brookline, who describes the Emerald Necklace tour as “awesome.’’
Bikes@Night is geared to exploring the waterfront, a good choice on a day when temperatures topped 90 degrees. After a lesson from Schwartzberg on arm traffic signals, we take off, single file, tooling along the Rose Kennedy Greenway, cycling past the Aquarium and children in bathing suits cavorting in a fountain. We squeeze past cars in a bumper-to-bumper Friday night jam.
We stop at the Intercontinental Hotel, near Independence Wharf, and Schwartzberg launches into a brief history of the harbor, Fort Point Channel, and the intricacies of Chapter 91, a Massachusetts law that protects the public’s access to waterways. We’re impressed. It turns out that by day, Schwartzberg is an urban planner at the Boston Redevelopment Association. On nights and weekends he gives bike tours.
“Biking is the best antidote to sitting in an office all day,’’ he says. “I never owned a car. In the day, I ride in my suit.’’
Our other guide, Chris Thompson, earned a degree in political communication from Emerson College. A later perusal of the tour company’s website reveals a staff rich with degrees from Berklee College of Music, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern, Boston University, and Wesleyan, with interests as diverse as economics, city planning, backcountry skiing, international relations, rock ’n’ roll, and chamber music. What they all have in common is a passion for cycling and a love for the city.
“Everyone who works for me rides,’’ says Andrew Prescott, 34, Urban AdvenTours owner and self-described CWO (chief wheel officer).
