Biking to Work

Well, I have finished my first week of biking to work. Luckily, I made it through the week dry and alive. There were no major rains that I had to combat and I was not run over. Although, there were probably some angry commuters who might have liked to run over this biker who was passing them while they were sitting still. It was actually surprising and refreshing to find that people wanted to strike up a conversation just to talk about biking and how I liked it.

One thing that I really noticed and bothered me like a bad itch was the number of drives who will go out of their way to impede a biker. On THREE separate occassions, mind you I have only been biking for a week, cars went out of their way to move further to the right in order to block me from passing and getting up to the front at a red light. I guess, they felt that I would be cutting in line and couldn't have a bicyclist doing that. These were not subtle moves out by a foot or so... These drivers actually pulled out 4 or 5 feet and covered up the bike lane to block me. It was laughable how childish it was but I have come to expect exactly this type of adolescent attitude from Atlanta drivers.

All in all, It was a great first week and I intend on continuing the bike rides until I get run over or I can work from home. I have tried to talk some of my co-workers into biking to work but I think this will be a tough sell. My bike is currently the only bike in the lot and I work in a building with at least 250 employees. So, it's not a small place. Biking has just become that unpopular.

Imagine if only 5 % of us started biking to work. We'd cut down on pollution, global warming, dependance on foreign oil, respriatory problems, road kill, and many other maladies. It may be altruistic, utopian, and dreamy but it would be nice.

Benefits of biking to work...

It's great exercise. You burn about 500 calories per hour (http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=7783)
Stress is almost non-existent
Saves money on gas and car maintenance
No greenhouse gas emissions
Reduces our dependence on foreign oil
Piss off angry commuters

More info on biking to work

www.bike-to-work.com
www.aviodtherush.org
www.biketraffic.org
www.bicycleuniverse.com
www.bikemonth.com