Bike To Work Week: A DTE Recap
For many of you, the wheels are still spinning on your morning commute, but for those of you who look to Bike To Work Week as that once yearly excuse to bust out your old road bike and spandex - we sincerely hope you're considering sustaining your biking to work ways. 
Bike to Work Week Spokane was another wild success, with nearly 1,500 registered commuters in this the second year of formal organization for this national event. Improvements to this year's event were the awesome energizer stations set up on Wednesday morning from Cheney to north Idaho, and the improved communication and information distribution of the organizers and participants. Then there is the Bicycle Benefits program - a first of its kind in the state of Washington. By proudly displaying your helmet's Bicycle Benefits sticker, you are entitled to incentives that participating retailers have agreed to. It's a testament to the organizers of this great event that Spokane is the first Washington city to adopt this great program.
Not enough can be said about the tireless effort and dedication put forth by the volunteer organizers / committee members. If you happen to know any of them personally, or maybe you are friends or followers of theirs on Facebook, Twitter, etc, give them a big thanks. One of us happens to work very closely with several of the organizers, and the work they put in was above and beyond the call of duty and the quality product that was resulted was evident by their convictions.
At the heart, Bike To Work week is an effort by cyclists to create more cyclists; to share their passions, to raise awareness about the benefit of cycling - both from an alternative transportation standpoint and a health and fitness standpoint - and to actively champion improved bicycle amenities, infrastructure, and regulations.
Enjoy the below observations from DTE's respective Bike To Work Weeks.
Bart:
Like most weeks between April and September, last week I spent the majority of my morning commutes on the seat of my bicycle - which makes me "one of those guys" as a friend in Seattle called me over the weekend. But I'm cool with being one of those guys, probably because compared to other "those guys", "this guy" hit the bicycle commuting jackpot when I scored a job at Mountain Gear corporate last year. Before scoring the gig, my only bicycle commuting experience, was out of desperation and / or hard times, and my only real bicycling experience period was a 4-year bmx phase I went through in middle school - now I'm a bona fide bicycle junkie, and my shed at home is a testament to that. But back to making you all jealous of my bicycle commuting fortunes. Mountain Gear's corporate offices out in the Valley, better yet, Mountain Gear in general, fosters an infectious bicycle culture that was evident the first day on the job. Employees are not only encouraged to find alternative ways to commute, but are aided in their pursuits with ample in-building bicycle storage, on-site bicycle amentities for repairs, locker and shower facilities so you can really crank out a morning commute, supervisors and management who understand the often-times chaotic scheduling and hours of bicycle commuting (because they do it too), and periodic "Bike to Work"-like competitions and incentives.
I could tell stories for days of the many trials, tribulations, and joys of riding to work both last week and the entire last year, but I felt it better served to use this rare first-person opportunity to share with you the alternative-commuting supportive environment I call work, in hopes that other local businesses and organizations would read it and become inspired to implement some of Mountain Gear's approaches to their own work places. Or maybe even encourage them to step out and share some of their own experiences, approaches, or strategies for motivating their employees to commute alternatively.
So let's continue this conversation, we'd love to hear from you:
- email us at bartly7@gmail.com or jamespauldillon@gmail.com- leave a comment in the comments section of this post
- write us on our Facebook page
- Tweet us on our Twitter page
Paul:
Biking to work is new to me. And going up Sunset Hill is scary. In addition to being steep, there’s no room for cyclists with cars whizzing by, all the more reason for new infrastructure as our bike advocates are fighting for. But in terms of my attitude toward cycling to work, I think of something organizer Barbara Chamberlain told the S-R, last year: "I think people would be scared off if they had to change their whole life all at once. But it's so doable, once it's part of your routine." We are all creatures of habit, and it takes a simple event like Bike To Work week to make us realize change is easily within our reach. I hope readers realize the impact of this alternative commuting: biking to work at least four days a week (presumably eight miles, round trip), would save yourself 54 gallons of gas annually and 1,140 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.
For me, riding a bike is still so much fun. There's something intrinsically thrilling, especially when traffic is bumper to bumper, and you're passing stressed out commuters. "It's like being a kid again," Chamberlain said, "if you remember when having a bike meant freedom.” Amen.
