Burden to speak at Bike Night

Bike Night will be from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Prairie Harvest.

Bike tune-ups (by donation) start at 4:30 p.m. Black bean and quinoa salad and a rhubarb dessert will be available for purchase.

At 6:30 p.m., Dan Burden, a nationally recognized authority on bicycle and pedestrian facilities/programs and a former National Geographic photographer, will speak at Prairie Harvest Market & Deli, 601 N. Main St. in Newton. He founded Bikecentennial and worked with others to develop the 4,300 mile-long TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, bringing cross-country cyclists from around the world through Newton and Hesston.

Burden brings together many disciplines and issues — street design, traffic calming, public safety, bicycling and greenways — into a holistic vision for creating healthy, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly communities.

Burden has spent the last 30 years developing, promoting and evaluating alternative transportation and sustainable communities at national, regional, state and local levels, and he is the founder of Walkable Communities. Time magazine has identified Burden as one of the six most important civic innovators in the world, in recognition of his efforts to create better places to live, work and play.

On Friday, Burden will conduct a walkability audit in Hesston. This event is sponsored by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Harvey County Health Department, the Harvey County Council of Governments, and Prairie Harvest Market & Deli.