Friday, May 15, 2009

National Bike to Work Day

I only found out yesterday that it is National Bike to Work Day today... good thing I knew! Just kidding, I would have ridden my bike anyway. Not that I ride it everyday...I wish I could say I did, but some days I am running late, or I know I have to run errands after work, or it's raining. I have to figure out how to deal with those issues. (The rain issue is mostly *gulp* laziness...I do have waterproof pants and a rain jacket). I ride to work in skirts or nice clothes regularly, and haven't really found that to be a problem. I do have to re-do my hair when I get there, or choose a bike helmet-friendly coif (like a sleek low ponytail and bobbypins pulling my bangs to the side). I always carry a small travel-size deodorant with me, incase I need to update my 'pits when I get to work (o: . I have panniers in which I carry: my laptop, my lunch, a large purse, and often several other odds & ends. My biggest frustration is going up and down the 3 flights of stairs at my apartment building. My bike is light (I think it's ~25lbs), but all that extra stuff in the panniers makes the back end very unwieldy. And we all know that my upper body strength is sad (though I am working on that!). I often wish our landlord would build a bike garage downstairs...but I know that's never going to happen. In any case, I love riding my bike --wind and sun on my face (properly SPF'd), the slower pace of passing things so I have enough time to notice things like kids having a play sword duel in an abandoned construction site, or the flowers blooming. Knowing I'm burning calories instead of fossil fuels is an added bonus to something I enjoy already.

If you're interested in more bike stuff, here's a link to the League of American Bicyclists. Incidentally, they say that Kentucky ranks #27 (up from #29 last year) in 2009 compared to the other 49 states.
How can we make biking to work normal? See what TreeHugger has to say about that. (I like the part in the Copenhagen video there @ 2:04-2:05 where there's a mass of commuters on bikes in the streets).

Did you bike to work? What frustrations do you deal with? How do you deal with them?

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