Bike to Work Day
Bike to Work Day 2006
Friday, May 19th marks the 2006 Bike to Work Day, sponsored by the Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA) and a whole host of other groups.
WABA is encouraging people to bike to work and rally with their fellow bike commuters at “Pit Stops” set up across the area. WABA is also organizing “commuter convoys,” along the most popular routes, so that novice riders can be guided by experienced bike commuters.
Since the bicycle is probably the cleanest, most efficient form of transportation available to mankind, I figured I would give it a shot commute by bike.
One problem:
While I live in Arlington, I work 27 miles away by car. By some amazing quirk of fate and/or the total stupidity of road design in Virginia, the distance to work by bike is only 25 miles via the Custis Trail and the W&OD. These two trails roughly follow the paths of Route 66 and the Dulles Toll Road, respectively, and take me right to the giant boxes where I work.
I’m estimating this will easily take me over an hour if I bike the entire thing, or 1 hour if I start from some point in Vienna via Mass Transit.
While Metrorail does not allow bikes during the rush hour, Metrobus does, and all 1,450 Washington D.C. region buses are equipped with racks to carry up to 2 bikes per bus. So, should I get lazy, I can always rack my bike and ride part of the way.
I love the concept of Bike to Work Day, but it wasn’t practical when I worked in Reston (two different jobs, 3.5 years total) or Annapolis (a year). When I worked downtown, every day was bike to work day except when it was raining or there was snow on the ground. Now it’s rather a moot point as my ‘commute’ is limited to reaching for my laptop in the ‘morning’.
I think maybe I need ‘Bike Somewhere Else Day’ to get me off the couch for a change.