Statistically your pretty safe biking to work on roads heavily traveled by automobiles but that doesn't mean things can't go wrong. See the video below of a perfect example of how a group of fellow cyclist, biking to work, were taken out by an driver no doubt engaged in various types of electronic communications.
HANGUP AND DRIVE BUDDY!
I don't have the strongest resolve. If you saw my will power walking down the street you would probably be tempted to call it a sissy and break it's glasses. People make the mistake thinking that I am a pretty structured individual because I bike to work every day all year round. This daily structure comes pretty easy to me when the alternative is riding the bus which makes me motion sick.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE bike commuting, and I absolutely hate driving a car or riding a bus to work, that said I often would wonder if I would bike twice a day every day if I didn't need to. What would happen If I didn't have a commute at all? Would I still bike as much? Would I bike more?
That question was answered over the last month or so as I have been working from home every day. Aside from the occasional bike ride with my daughter, the bikes were parked. I did jog a few times which I'm finding out can be pretty fun as well as a good way to offset bone density loss often attributed with cycling (or so "they" say).
So I didn't have a commute and I didn't bike every day. I just didn't think about it much, which is awful. Soon I will return to the office but only for 3 days a week. For the other two I am going to give myself a ride schedule that demands I do certain rides on those days I work from home. What makes me think that a ride schedule can demand anything you ask? The gut that is forming holds a lot of weight (punny) and has started making the exercise demands... and I am listening.
I am looking forward to these new rides as they will be purely recreational and will have no destination. You know, just bike rides. Being a father of a three year old and one more on the way has made the recreational ride a distant thought as of late.
I watched this 5 times already. I'm going to bed now and expect to watch it several more over breakfast.
Does that mean if you want to take your bike into a building you have to carry your bike from the bike like to the door or just hope there is something heavy to lock it to in the bike lane.
WTOP has an article out today detailing how Betheseda, Maryland is about to get royally BRAC'd. Basically, by way of Base Realignment and Closure the Walter Reed Army Medical Center is going to be absorbed into the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. This is unfortunate as the NNMC is right across the street from the NIH which as we all know employs roughly 115% of DC area residents.
"Today, you have about 500,000 visits to the Bethesda campus," says Phil Alperson, the BRAC point man in Montgomery County. "After BRAC is fully implemented, you'll have about a million visits per year."
"You currently have 3,000 people crossing the street from the Metro station to the Navy (Medical Center). By September, that number will double to 7,000."To put that increase more clearly...
"There also will be a campaign to get people out of their cars and onto bikes -- a popular concept across the street at National Institute of Health.I'm curious to see how this will effect my commute into Bethesda. A large number of commuters I talk to work at NIH which has fostered a healthy bike commuting environment. For my sake and all those who frequent BRACthesda I hope the Capital Crescent Trail is "bumper to bumper" come September.
Joe Cox, employee transportation coordinator at NIH, counts more than 600 members in the bike commuter club there.
Even when the weather is bad, we have some die-hard commuters. Their motto is they're 'non-polluter commuters.'"
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