The Tale of the Most Reluctant Bike Commuter Evar.
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Let me be clear. I love my car. It has seat warmers and a most excellent sound system (especially with the volume set on sternum vibrate-o). It hauls the kids, their gear, the groceries, and my bikes. I have a close and personal relationship with my car.
Unfortunately traffic has become so bad it’s *driven* me out of my car and onto my bike, kicking and screaming the whole way.
I hate the traffic on Maple Avenue in Vienna, it’s always snarled. Most of my local trips are within a few miles. So… I had a rack surgically implanted on my mountain bike. Then I hung some big-ass panniers on the racks and asked Jan @ Bikenetics to throw some enormous fat tires on the bike formerly known as Free Willy. And suddenly I found myself pedaling around for transportation and not recreation. Where did I go wrong?
So far my biggest problem is a lack of bike parking. My dentist was great and let me bring my bike right into the waiting room. The grocery store, not so cool. I had to chain my bike to some sort of pipe. When I asked about a bike rack I received a blank look followed by the observation, “Yeah, three other people ride their bikes here.” It’s going to be all uphill on the education front.
I’m a fair weather commuter. I told myself if I couldn’t find a safe route I wouldn’t do it. I found a safe route using the mapping feature on the Ride with GPS website. I told myself if it took more than 45 minutes to get there I wouldn’t do it. It took 35. Every excuse I came up with fell apart. So I rode to work. And did not die. I did it again. Still here.
I can’t do it everyday. But on days when I can, I will. Unless it sleets. Or rains. Or snows.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]604[/ATTACH]Happy Trails (I still love my car)
ann
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