Ride Wednesday this week!

It's not Friday--but I rode today because I will not be able to on Friday and what a great day it is to ride!
My goal has been to ride at least once a week--whatever day it may be.
Maybe the site should be "ride any day you can".org??

Carpool Chatter

This morning my carpool buddy mentioned some new Google mash-up thingy focused on using public transportation so I went to google.com and found Google Transit. Curiously enough Kansas City is part of the fun so I played around with this new tool for a bit and thought it a worthy addition to the Ride Fridays toolkit.

I live across the state line so this tool doesn't know about The Jo (the Kansas equivalent to Kansas City's The Metro) but this tool at least gives you a way to get started on planning a route using public transportation options. If you're not sure where to start give this a try.

http://www.google.com/transit

Lincoln, NE

We are spending the weekend in Lincoln, NE to visit Chris and his girlfriend and the bike culture here is incredible. Lincoln's downtown is a great example of how to make an area bicycle-friendly. Bike lanes are available throughout to reduce opportunities for car/bicycle arguments and there are bike racks everywhere so you can secure your ride.

The buses also run regularly and are generally full. Covered bus stops are at most major intersections and, from what we saw, run regularly throughout the day.

Granted Lincoln is a college town and college kids are more likely to bike and bus than us regular working stiffs but they've done a nice job making it easy for residents to give their car the day off. By setting things up this way it becomes self-sustaining. You can take the bus to get places so you do. You can ride your bike safely in the bike lane so you do. You can lock your bike when you get to your destination so you do. This isn't a complex solution but one that seems to evade suburban planners. Other urban areas could learn a lot by looking at downtown Lincoln, NE.

Kept one car off the road today

W rode to school today, covering for the rest of us slackers, who all had various excuses. Gas was up another 20-plus cents overnight, too. Why, I remember when gas was just $3.39, sonny ...

(Fenders are a must; roads are wet!)

: That's a Trek Soho S, Planet Bike Cascadia fenders, Brooks B72 saddle, because I know I'm going to get asked! The bike is pretty easy to set up in "comfort" mode, FWIW.

Looks like we got us a convoy ...

With these slightly warmer temperatures, it's clear that more and more people are riding their bikes to work. (Not that I saw anyone else today, I left WAY too late!)

Since commuting by bicycle can be intimidating, Eric's kcbike.info site has info about the various 'convoys' that can help you get going on this challenge. If you can get to one of five KC-area starting points at a scheduled time, you can ride with a crowd to a predetermined destination - maybe one matches your regular commute?

What A Difference A Day Makes

This morning gas was $3.39 a gallon at my local convenience store. That price board really scared me until I remembered I was on the bus - whew! According to CNN oil prices are at record highs and show no sign of coming down. The true oddity this morning - I was the only person on the bus when we left the Park & Ride. My new bus buddy jumped on this morning but there were only 5 people on this morning when I jumped off for coffee. I know a lot of my fellow bus riders are IRS people so I suspect they're taking today off to recover from the recently concluded tax season.

Todd called a while ago to make sure we're meeting at Coffee Girls. He'd planned on taking the bus, but ran out of time and rode his bike instead. So here we are at Coffee Girls having our daily fix, and by not driving this makes our coffee basically free.

Today's tally - THREE cars taking the day off! w00t!

Bigger, Rideier, Fridayer...

The Ride Fridays contingent just got bigger! Monday I had to go to Chicago with a co-worker for a day-long research seminar and in planning our logistics I discovered that this co-worker is right on my daily commute and very near the bus route. Now I have a carpool buddy on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and, hopefully with a bit more arm-twisting, a new bus buddy on Thursdays and Fridays!

Oh, and I represented today and took bus 013 from my Park & Ride to my office. I need to throw a notebook in the Jeep so I can track how often I buy gas these days. Used to be every Wednesday afternoon before school. Yesterday was Wednesday and I still have a half a tank (and yeah, that includes my trip to the airport and back)!

I have to admit the most fun yesterday was riding my bike to the local pub after my Business Law final last night. Although there was no bike rack in front I managed to find a large stationary object to serve as a bike rack. I enjoyed a couple of Fat Tires out of sincere appreciation for the environmental work the folks at New Belgium are doing and then headed for home.

We are not alone.

I've added New Belgium Brewing's "Follow your Folly" site to "Similar Ideas (over there on the left, quite a bit down)".

Because this doesn't make any sense so far, I'll let New Belgium's wording bail me out:

• Currently more than 10,000 strong, we on Team Wonderbike have pledged to bike - not drive - better than 8 million miles in the coming year. But that's just the beginning. We need you (and your family and friends too) to take the pledge and commit to biking whenever you can.

Team Wonderbike? Yeah, you need to head over there and experience it yourself (make sure you've got a current browser, the site is quite demanding). That said, Ride Your Bike!

The Cutters win again!

We're all about the carpooling, bus riding, bikes for errands bit here, but there's no way I can fail to mention The Cutters taking Indiana's Little 500 again (Thanks, WIRED).

Single-speed bikes with coaster brakes are cool, too.

Coffee and Snow

At some point you have to give up on the weather getting better so I did just that today and pedaled up to the local Scooter's for coffee and wifi. The snow won't hurt me and I've been accused of keeping the bike too clean anyway so I made sure and rode through, not around, a big muddy puddle!

I'm happy to report that I saw another coffee junkie arrived on foot! He had his dog in tow so both of them got some Sunday morning exercise. Unfortunately that was the only other alternative transportation participants I saw. While I have to remember I'm in the heart of the American car culture I have to hold out hope that seeing a bicycle parked in front of the neighborhood coffee shop will raise awareness of all the options we have.

Bus 013

As Todd always asks on Friday mornings, "Did you represent?" Yup - another Friday morning bus commute is in the books. I really like the 7:05 bus as the route is much more direct and gets me here much quicker than the 6:20 or 6:40. With this new third run for the Metcalf Express and the timing option it creates for me it looks like I have two solid days a week on the bus. And, based on the timing I may be able to pull off three days a week. How cool would it be to only have to drive downtown twice a week? And this summer when the kids are out of school I might not have to drive at all!

Unfortunately it was raining this morning so I had to leave the bike at home and drive to the Park & Ride. With the weather being so crappy all week I haven't been on the bike much so hopefully I'll remember how to ride when the weather finally cooperates.

Happy Friday!

Bicycle for a Day!

Great ideas going on over at Bicycle for a Day, a New York-based effort that's reaching far beyond. Their words:

BICYCLE FOR A DAY (BFAD) is a fun, open and proactive invitation designed to inspire individuals, communities, governments and corporations to take a step towards solving the current environmental issues. BFAD is a global initiative bringing together people who choose to ride a bicycle rather than use gas-powered motor vehicles. Bicycling is one way to immediately reduce your carbon footprint.

Mark your calendar: Sept. 20 is "Official BFAD Day."

A Later Bus and a Little Math

The 6:20 bus has become a bit of a burden. I really like getting to the office early so I can have a little bit of time to myself to get the day planned but that has been less and less of a perceived benefit with each early morning ride. Getting up that early hasn't been all that fun and unless I get up really early I can't help with the morning routine for the dogs so I decided to give the 7:05 a try this morning. What a difference that start time makes! I had time to press a shirt, pack my lunch, brew my coffee AND spend some time with the dogs. And this bus doesn't go deep into downtown so I get to the office by 7:45. This later start worked very well and may turn out to be my regular bus on mornings when I don't have a 7:30 meeting.

So what's with this talk about math on a Thursday morning? I was trying to determine the most cost-effective solution for my monthly bus adventures as my 10 ticket pass was used up. At a minimum I am able to take the bus two days a week so that's 8 days a month or 16 trips. A bus isn't like an airline - you buy a one-way ticket to your destination and another one-way ticket to get back home. I could continue to buy 10 trip tickets at $16.50 each but because I can get a discounted monthly bus pass at work for $28 I opted to go that route. Today $28 will buy me about 8.5 gallons of gas and I can't get to and from work 8 times on 8.5 gallons of gas so this arrangement makes a lot of sense. I guess that's not much math but just enough to continue to make the point to me that riding the bus makes a lot of sense. Give it a try!

Get Your RideFridays Gear

RideFridays now has an online store! Get t-shirts, tote bags, buttons and stickers from our Cafepress store. We need your help in getting the word out so more people give their car a day off!

Twofer + The Bus Gets Busier

Thursdays continue to be the best park & ride day for my schedule. There aren't typically any morning events that keep me from getting on one of the three buses that stop at my local park & ride. In fact this Thursday I had a 7:30 am meeting (yeah, 7:30 - pretty sure that qualifies as cruel & unusual) and the 6:20 bus got me there in plenty of time. Fridays also continue to work so I was able to pull off a ride Thursday and Friday this week. If I can figure out the timing of some of the northbound stops I may be able to catch the bus even on the days when I have to drop one of the kids at school. Riding the bus is all about planning so to do it more I have to plan more.

And lots of people are doing the planning because the bus is getting more full each time I ride. Just since I last rode the bus there are more riders and with gas prices showing no sign of coming down I expect to see more and more new faces on the bus. Give it a try!

Bike to Work Week, and Bike Week announced

The League of American Bicyclists' Bike-to-Work-Week has been announced; it's May 12-16, 2008.

Bike-to-Work-Day is Friday, May 16, and a bit more in tune with what we talk about here. Which is NOT DRIVING YOUR CAR ON FRIDAYS!

KCBike has the KC lowdown, including the cool "Car-Free Challenge!" This is not just about riding bikes, you can walk, take the bus, or carpool. Great ideas!