Most Riders Ignore Ride to Work Day
Did you ride to work on Monday?
I guess I’m just one lonely voice in the wilderness. Every year I plug Ride to Work Day and never do I see those hordes of bikes out there that I hope for. Did you see them Monday? Neither did I.
I did ride to work on Monday and out of curiosity I counted the number of bikes I saw. I counted 16 besides myself going, and 12 coming home. I rode again today (Thursday) and on this totally non-special day I saw 21 bikes on the way in and 19 on the way home. So much for let’s all go ride to work on one particular day.
And by the way, I won’t be keeping a running count because it’s way too distracting. I had to keep telling myself to forget about the dang bikes, watch where you’re going and watch out for other traffic. Also by the way, I am pleased to say that on neither day did some other driver try to occupy the lane I was already occupying. That happened to me three times the previous two days I rode to work.
What was really odd, I thought, was that whereas there are four BMW riders who ride to work at the National Park Service nearly every day, on Monday of all days not a single one of them rode in. Of the seven or eight bikes that are typically parked in the lot there, only two Harleys came in. Plus me.
So yeah, apparently almost nobody pays attention to Ride to Work Day. That puzzles me. I mean, why wouldn’t you? I suspect the biggest part of it is that most riders have never heard of it. It needs better promotion. What can I do, other than what I’ve been doing for years? I’ll have to think about that. I don’t know about you, but I’d just love to see the streets of this town filled with motorcycles some day, making all the drivers’ eyes pop out wondering what the heck is going on. There’s got to be a way.
Biker Quote for Today
Ride to coffee, coffee to ride.
Tags: ride to work day
June 21st, 2014 at 7:42 pm
This is the first I’ve heard of Ride To Work day. It’s worthy of course but I always assumed that Ride To Work Day was any day the morning temps were above 37 degrees and the rain probability was no more than 30%.
Bike to Work day is June 25 this year. When DRCOG first proposed it I was working at the top of a 14% grade and the idea of riding a bicycle up that was laughable, at least for me. The flyer that appeared had a picture of a yuppie in a suit frantically pedaling his 10-speed, some text, and nowhere on the flyer appeared the word “bicycle”.
So I changed the picture. I’ve updated the text and the result will appear on my blog, hopefully this weekend.
June 25th, 2014 at 5:44 pm
I rode to work that Monday but totally forgot it was Ride to Work day. I’m guessing we’ll see more participation in the future as gas prices keep crawling steadily up.
Personally, I ride darn near every day there’s no ice involved – under me or falling on me. Hail hurts even with armor :(