I'm sure you all know about it already, but next week is Bike to Work Week and next Friday is Bike to Work Day. Let's all hope for the country's single most perfect weather day next Friday!

Do you have lots of coworkers who'll be biking to work? In my company of 400+ people, I might have 1 other person who maybe will ride is bike once this week. I'll make up for it by riding extra.

And since it's 6:30 am on a Sunday morning, I'm going to throw this random rambling rant out there. MA sometimes irritates me with its Boston-centrism as far as biking goes. They are running "Bay State Bike Week" here, but every single event is in downtown Boston. Free food? Downtown Boston. Free T-shirts? Boston. Police escort on routes? Into downtown Boston. I even just tried to join the 250,000-mile pledge and when at their request I went to update my profile on their web site, I put in my non-Boston zip code and it said "Enter a valid number." GAH!! So people outside Boston wouldn't ever commute by bike to somewhere not-Boston? I'm feeling irritated. Also I wish I would see an uptick in bike commuters this week or month, but I know that if this year is like years past, it'll be exactly the same as always -- me on my bike alone. Celebrating Bike to Work Week isn't really the same by yourself.

On a more productive note, any ideas on how to encourage reluctant coworkers to even consider trying bike commuting? Many of them live 50+ miles from work (I know!) and one drives over 120 miles a day roundtrip from Connecticut. Those people all tell me "Oh sure, I'd love to bike to work... it'd TAKE me a week to get here!" I try to suggest doing a partial commute, driving most of the way and parking and biking the rest, but there's no interest. People just see that it's impossible and that's it. How to make it seem doable and non-intimidating?