The bike rack at my work.

Background: I refuse to get a car or drivers license while I live in the city. Michael has one so if we need to get out of town (out to Elk, WA most commonly) we use his and he drives. Still he was picking me up quite often and I wanted to get off the bus, since that too uses gas (and stinks in more ways then one.) I started riding my bike on April 16th.

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Now: I have been riding my bike to work for a month now, except for 3 days when I took the bus and twice when Michael picked me up (we have a bike rack for the car.)

At first it took me 38 minutes to get to work (going from my apartment at 29th and Perry, down Southeast, across Sprague and to my work at Howard and Riverside – downtown.) As my stamina has improved I have cut that time to 24 minutes, about double the time the bus takes going down Grand I believe.

I know I was originally planning on going down Grand or Bernard but that proved somewhat suicidal, it would be shorter but they are very busy streets. SouthEast is through residential neighborhoods though and has a nice bike lane that not too many #$%@ cars park in (I can call the city to get them towed though.)

As anticipated, I bought a charge value card for the bus, I ride it back up when I get off work, at 8pm. I am still not completely comfortable riding at night and my stamina is not yet there to get all the way back up SouthEast (big long hill.) I tried the other day and got 3/4 of the way there before waiting for the bus. (My poor muscles…) Still I have cut my bus cost in half.

I am using my husband’s bike at the moment since mine was cheep and not made or riding every day. I would like to get one like his (which cost about $300) but shorter. (Michael is a foot taller then me and has a Giant bike.) I stop at the store almost every night (it is about 4 blocks from our apartment) and pick up fresh produce for dinner and then ride home. Once every week or two we drive down and pick up heavier things (flour, canned food etc.)

I feel I am doing pretty well, after the first week I have not had a problem getting motivated to ride. Michael is starting to think about riding as well, so he will be mostly free of his car during the week. His route to work has a lot of construction detours though so we will see, they are tearing up the roads. If he starts riding, I will need a new bike sooner then I anticipated, but that isn’t so bad since we will be saving gas money.

Since I have begun this ride to work, I have inspired 3 other people to start riding at least 3 times a week. On Thursdays (when I work early in the day) I meet up with a couple people en route and we ride downtown together, safety in numbers. It feels really good to know you can inspire people to change. Which is why I wish to share this update, I feel Mother Earth is thankful of my efforts.

My body is grateful too! I have lost 3 inches on my waist!