I Come Into Work Happy. The Summer for Biking in Washington
"I come into work happy." says Ed Cabic who rides his vintage Mt. Shasta Capella bike 15 miles round trip from Alexandria to K Street. As a driver, Ed arrived at work every morning mad and stressed. Since he changed to biking says Ed "I went from hating my commute to having the commute be what I was looking forward to all day." And he lost 40 pounds too.
Ed's story is just one of the many delightful highlights from a wonderful story in the Washington Post's Style section this morning about this being the summer that Washington rediscovered biking (Cycling Back Around, by David Montgomery, August 2, 2008). Says the author: "This summer in Bicycle Washington, it's back to the future. Old bikes are back, new bikes look old. The riders, too, seem sketched from another age." Other tidbits:
- "Somewhere along the line, we made biking a hobby and a sport instead of a way to get around," says Alexandra Dickson (pictured here), an architect who commutes from Southwest Washington to her downtown office on a blue Breezer Villager that she calls Babe, after Babe the Blue Ox. "I'd like to see it get back to being a way of getting around."
- "What's happening is, the American conception of the bicycle-as-toy and the bicycle-as-sports-equipment is being infiltrated by the European notion of the bicycle-as-transportation and the Asian notion of the bicycle-as-cargo-hauler."
- The handlebars are set higher than the seats, so you sit upright and comfortable. What a concept. The reign of the purists is over, and all the accessories they forbade are permitted again. There are baskets in front and racks in back. There are chain guards so you don't get grease on your slacks, and skirt guards so you don't catch your dress. Kickstands are no longer a heresy punishable by sneering. Fenders are back, along with mudflaps, so you don't get a splatter trail up your back on rainy days. On some of the models, front and rear lights come installed."
It's just a wonderful story so please go read it. Everything old is new again in this summer when biking was rediscovered in Washington.
Some resources for bicycling as transportation to get you started:
- Car-Free Diet. Calculate the calories, money and CO2 you'll save by switching from driving to biking.
- BikeArlington
- Washington Area Bicyclist Association
Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.
