Quote Originally Posted by MDHillSlug View Post
I thought the idea of Bike to Work Day was to *bike to work*. Since I don't work anywhere near Freedom Plaza, how does this work? I'm just not getting it.

Sometimes I think that bike commuting would suck the joy out of biking. Still, I wish I could figure out a safe route that would allow me the opportunity every now and then. I used to bike from Somerville, MA to Harvard Med School in Boston, but I was younger and didn't think about the dangers so much.
They've got "pit stops" all around the area. Those of us who work in DC go to Freedom Plaza, where they have a rally, speakers, food, drinks, free t-shirts and waterbottles, etc. I assume they do something similar, although probably on a less-grand scale since they're smaller, at the other pit stops. The pit stops are at these locations:

Washington DC

* Freedom Plaza

Maryland

* Bethesda
* National Institutes of Health
* Bowie Town Center
* Bowie Old Town
* College Park
* Hyattsville
* Frederick
* North Bethesda
* Rockville-Rockville Town Center
* Rockville-Falls Grove Transportation Center
* Silver Spring
* Waldorf

Virginia

* Alexandria
* Arlington
* Dulles-AOL Campus (AOL employees only)
* Fairfax Corner
* Fairfax University Mall
* Leesburg
* Reston
* Springfield
* Sterling
* Tysons Corner
* Vienna

As far as bike commuting sucking the joy out of biking, it's just the opposite for me. I absolutely LOVE my bike commute. The 7 mile ride home makes me leave work behind. I'm riding on city streets, but for the most part they aren't terribly busy, and the busy one is a designated bike route even though it's narrow and doesn't have a bike lane. If I had to ride on four-lane roads with cars whizzing by at 40 or 50 mph, I wouldn't even think about bike commuting.