Do you watch TV sometimes and think, “Glad that’s not me”. Today is National Bike Day and it’s the first time I’ve stopped to give it a moment of attention. At first I used to judge and criticize people that participate in what I thought was a bit purists for my taste. 
Today, I’m pledging to myself to leverage this “I am living large with a green view of life now” and get on my bike for play in the month of May. Last time I peddled my lanky legs on my bike was a year ago. I loved it, so why not spice up my life to add some green flavor across this most beautiful Bay Area.
Today, all over the news I’ve seen thousands of really cool people getting on their bikes. Now that’s what I call being green. They have excited me to step out of my work from home, isolated type of lifestyle that binds me to my computer.
Cities all over the nation participate, however my hometown, San Francisco really gets green and has set up Energizer Stations so that people can stop in on their morning and evening commutes. The energizer stations have food, red blinky lights and reflective leg bands.
I didn’t see many kids participating and wonder why? Most children are driven to school in cars or buses, and one child out of every 4 is overweight. It’s probably hard for parents to coordinate the bike ride to numerous schools and to work. Maybe we petition for a “Bike to School” day. Do we have one of those? Since 1956, May has been recognized as National Bike Month. The third week in May is designated Bike to Work Week; and the third Friday of May is Bike to Work Day. I say we double up the third week and add “Bike to School” along with “Bike to Work”.
How do we know if National Bike Day was successful?
I found some data from Denver saying that in 2008 over 10,352 people tried biking to work for the first time during a city-sponsored event.
I know for me to feel successful I will stick to my pledge of riding once a month and find a biker buddie thanks to a local social network with bike forums… http://www.sfbike.org/?bikebuddy
I’ll be using that link to local bike forums to find one. If you’re not in the bay area, find your cities bike day site and look for a bike buddy forum. Best way to use a forum is to listen to what their saying, ask a few questions and I bet I’ll you find someone really cool to hold you accountable to getting on your green bike machine and reducing your carbon footprint.
I’ll keep my eyes and ears peeled for inspiration from the riders today to understand what motivates them.
I also want to know:
• How many people participated?
• What were their previous bicycling habits?
• What do they see as their future habits — will they ride more?
Between you and me, we’ll know exactly if we DON’T or DO want to make biking an integral part of our life. This seems to be a pattern in my life lately, where I am much more interested in balance of healthy physical activities. It’s changing my life, big time!
So, what do you think? If you commute from the shower to the office, like me, what are we going to do?
Summer is just around the corner and your diet sucks, your workout is non-existent, and you have zero time left in the day to remedy either one. Kidding. Of course, that’s not you or me.
What’s a potential workaholic like you or I to do? Well the first thing we humans do is make excuses that we must overcome.
I ’m out of shape
It takes too long
It’s too far
No bike parking
My bike is beat up
No showers
I have to dress up
It’s raining
The roads aren’t safe
I think we should add two more
I’m lazy
*I hate biking
