May - National Bike To Work Month!

The Cascade Bicycle Club is promoting the local Bike To Work with several corporate sponsors. I've been able to persuade 3-4 other co-workers to commit to a minimum of a 5 day bike commute for the month. I am captain and will score a shirt for the organizing effort. We will wear arm bands during the commute and prizes will be given out randomly throughout the greater Seattle area.

I'm wondering what is happening this month in other communities. Maybe we could even eventually make it an international event! :D



http://www.cbcef.org/btw/2006/cc.html local link

http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bikemonth/index.php national link

Well, I am going to start biking to my 2x a week spin class, and trying to bike instead of ride whenever possible (for example, to go to the doctor this afternoon). We're going to have DD start to walk to school (now that it seems to have stopped raining).

Usually there's a big "Bike to Work Day" event here in N. CA, and they have booths set up and hand out goody bags to commuters. Pretty cool!

No community effort that I know of. But my husband has started commuting. Four miles, lucky guy. I bought him a seatpost rack/ trunk. I like to ride and then meet him for his big commute home. His El Camino gets 12 mpg so we are saving about $25 a week on gas. Whoo-hoo!

My commute at this point consists of walking to the kitchen for coffee and back to my desk. :D When I go to the office it's a 22 mile drive, but there's a good 10 mile halfway point where I could park and ride in. I might give it a try.

Our local bike club has a Bike Buddy program -- you can hook up with someone who will find the best route to your office, give you advice about biking to work, and help you with other logistics. They've had it for a while, but since May is Bike Month, they got some press in the paper last week. Yay!

One other guy in my office bikes to work fairly often, and my husband and I do regularly after the weather turns (i.e. now). All three of us only have a 6 or so mile commute, but it's in and out of a river valley, so we can actually say it's uphill both ways ;) I think a lot of my coworkers live far enough away that it'd be difficult to convince them. I like the Park and Ride idea, though -- if you even reduced your commute by half, you'd be getting some exercise in and consuming a little less gas.

I'm banned from the bike by my physical therapist for at least the next week, it would figure that it's Bike to Work Month ;)

Edit: after reading the link, it looks like it's Bike Month, and there's a Bike to Work Week (15th-19th) and Day (19th). Bike Month, Bike to Work Month, not much difference ;)

We also have a "Bike to Work Week" in Wisconsin from May 15th thru the 19th. The company I work for has about 20 employees (only 3 women) and I decided to get some events going.

I've got a number of people planning to ride at least one or more of the days. One guy already rides on a regular basis to work. I have lured them by promising daily rewards (Gatorade, Power Bars, etc.). Each employee also gets a raffle ticket for each day that they ride and we'll have a drawing at the end of the week for prizes. I have also promised a meal for Friday's lunchtime for all participates ....of course that means I'll have to do some cooking Thurs. night and won't be able to ride myself on Fri., but whatever it takes to bribe them to give it a try.

Albuquerque, New Mexico: Friday May 19th is Bike to Work day. This year they're setting up food/water/prize stations at all the major bike trail intersections for both breakfast and lunch. I volunteered to man one of the stops (after reading about someone here manning one last year and meeting Trek I think??). I'm really excited!

now for the funniest part: the person organizing the volunteers sent me an email last Fri telling me what stop I was manning, what time to be there and leave and if I was planning on riding my bike that day?? (ROFL...welll....it WOULD be Bike to Work day and I Am a bike commuter so I don't know.........let me think about that one) :rolleyes:

I got the day off work on the 18th. I plan to see how many refresher stations I can swing by on a decent route. Last year I'd planned to do this and it rained, still rode but just headed to work.

It's a little late to propose this but 511.org (California commute site) has this contest going where you form teams of 5 riders, log your miles and compete for misc. schwag.

This goes in the vocabulary section but what's the orrigin of "schwag"?

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Originally Posted by fatbottomedgurl

My commute at this point consists of walking to the kitchen for coffee and back to my desk. :D

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This is pretty similar to my commute. I consider my morning trainer ride as my version of my bike to work.

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Originally Posted by Trek420

This goes in the vocabulary section but what's the orrigin of "schwag"?

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I've heard that the original word was "SWAG" which was supposed to be free stuff. SWAG stands for "Something we all get".

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Originally Posted by Adventure Girl

I've heard that the original word was "SWAG" which was supposed to be free stuff. SWAG stands for "Something we all get".

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Ohhhhh and here I thought "something we all get" was a COLD!! Silly me! :rolleyes:

May 19 there will be a kick off in downtown Providence.

there will also be a Ride of Silence in Cranston, RI...I think that will be on May 17 at 7pm...but I am not sure. I recently found out about the ride of silence. It is national and is run in various communities. It is in rememberance of people that were killed riding their bikes.

I don't have the link handy (I'm at the school library)...Once I get it I can post it if anyone is interested. They are held all over the country.

www.rideofsilence.com

I think someone posted it in the charity ride also but I rode this last year and I will ride it again this year - it was truly one of the most moving events I have ever done.

thanks for finding the link Corsair! I haven't ridden one yet, but plan on going this year.

It sounds powerful.

The ride of Silence for Seattle (may 17th) and Ride to Work Day (May 19th) are during the week i have my son, so I dunno if I'll be able to do either. I attempt to commute every day he's at his Dad's, and Wednesdays when he's with me.

I have a goofy health-care-worker's schedule. Darn it, would y'all PLEASE stay healthy so I can ride my bike more?!?!:D

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Originally Posted by KnottedYet

The ride of Silence for Seattle (may 17th) and Ride to Work Day (May 19th) are during the week i have my son, so I dunno if I'll be able to do either. I attempt to commute every day he's at his Dad's, and Wednesdays when he's with me.

I have a goofy health-care-worker's schedule. Darn it, would y'all PLEASE stay healthy so I can ride my bike more?!?!:D

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Oh, sure, like you wouldn't have to just sit around there just waiting for them to get sick! Welcome to my world. Do you think the pregnant women ever take my needs into account? NO they do not! :rolleyes: :p

That said, I will be riding my bike to work many days. L.

I ride my bike to work every day too. Or at least part of the way. It's about 40 miles, so I take the train most of the way and then cycle the last 2.5miles from the station to the campus. But it should still count, right?

And yesterday, I cycled half the way home agian. When I got to the station, no trains were running (accident on the line) and it would be at least an hour before any trains turned up. So I got back on my bike and thought I'd cycle up to the next station stop while I waited. Ended up getting completely lost at one point and did a long detour (today I brought the map and will find the right route). Did 22 miles before I got to the station I was aiming for. But the weather is so beautiful here at the moment that it didn't feel that long at all. And today it is even sunnier and warmer so I will cycle part of the way home again today, with a map this time.

Oooo. :D I actually got to ride my bike to work today. A lot of the schools I go to I can get to as quickly or more quickly if I bike rather than take public transport. One has bike stands. One has convenient railings near the office/main entrance. :(

It was a lovely day for a ride. I ended up taking a roughly 3km unscheduled detour on the way there though. Was riding along the canal deep in thought/daydream and when I came to, I realised I wasn't even in the right borough anymore - had completely missed my rejoin-the-road point. :o Thankfully I pretty much knew where I had ended up and had my trusty A-Z in my bag (I'd been cursing having so much junk in there earlier :eek: ). I was later than I meant to be, but I wasn't late late. :rolleyes:

I did cycle with a map yesterday and had a very nice ride on winding country lanes through the fields and even through a little bit of forest. And I have discovered that this route takes me over the highest point in the whole county! Granted it's the highest point in the lowest/flatest part of the country, but still! I get to cycle up a fairly long (but not very steep) hill through a forested bit. Then cruise down the other side and over a very nice canal. And today is another glorious sunny day so I think I will do it again!

I haven't figured out how to do it yet, but you can map out routes with Google Maps. I posted a 'cue sheet' for my commute on my blog, and a regular visitor was kind enough to render it at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=163806 (and no, it's not door to door... pretty much starts at the first major turn, so my many fans and the paparazzi won't discover it and be hurtling themselves at my screen door like so many frenzied moths...)