Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The Future Of Transportation - Bicycles

Coming up next month is the nth annual Front Range Bike Week including Bike To Work day. This year it's June 27th.

The last time I was able to bicycle to work, the fun ended when some squirrel on a mountain bike t-boned me at a blind corner on the trail. Since then I have never been employed near enough to home that a bicycle seemed like a viable form of transport.

Sometime back in the early 90's though when the idea was first floated, I was working in a building at the top of a 12% grade about a mile long. The flyer that appeared in the company info kiosk showed a yuppie-like fellow with his briefcase bungeed on the back of his 10-speed, pedaling his little heart out presumably delivering the PJ-4 forms to the 8AM meeting. What was noticeable was that nowhere on the flyer did the word "bicycle" appear, just the graphic.

Being unable to resist the temptation, I upgraded the flyer, and replaced some of the ones in the kiosk:
A big improvement. You accomplish everything advertised, and you don't die of a heart attack on the way in. I'm working on getting our H.R. department to recognize my 1100cc Honda Sabre as a "bike" for purposes of brownie points with the health care provider.

Of course if the ride was downhill both ways, I might be more easily convinced to use the peddler. Click the link. It's quite a ride.

3 comments:

Jess said...

I didn't used to ride to work either, because of the distance. But then I got a folding bike, and I keep it my trunk. So I still drive some of the way to work, but I ride my bike at least a couple of miles every day. There's a big hill on my route too, so depending on how I'm feeling, I can choose to ride it or drive it. I prefer to ride it though - it's so much fun to go down on the way home.

Cincinnatus said...

DRCOG's campaigns are vapid. I think that they actually increase traffic.

Billll said...

Not for nothing is it commonly referred to as Reason To Drive.