7th Annual Bike to Work Day

Hello Anchorage!  Tomorrow is the 7th Annual Bike to Work day and there are estimated to be at least 2,000 people participating.  If you've been wanting to try out commuting to work on your bike, tomorrow is the day for it!  Check out the Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage website or facebook, and read up about the various commuting stations throughout Anchorage (Bacon and bread, how can you go wrong there!).

For inspiration, I thought I'd post some pictures of myself and other friends commuting throughout the year...

This is my friend and coworker Mark Haldane commuting yesterday morning.

He was teaching a class on Kayaking at work, so he brought his own Kayak with him on his commute!

Me biking to work in the beginning of February.

This photo is at Westchester Lagoon; I'm about to head up the hill toward West High School...

my roadie enjoying some fresh pow

Enjoying the wildlife while biking across town to my parents house...

(last summer)

Oh and PS...I'm teaching my first ever class at REI tonight:  Bike Maintenance for Women 101, wish me luck!

Bicycle Commuting Again...

Last night I got my Randonee all set up for winter bicycle commuting because I am completely sick of driving.  Driving to UAA and paying to park is a process, so I decided to make my roadie work for winter too.  I took off the rack and fenders and changed out the 700x35 touring tires for 700x40 studded Nokian Hakkapeliittas.  Here are some pictures, wish me luck on this chilly day (0 degrees).

 Getting the tires back on after swapping them out...

 my bike maintenance helper :)

 studded bike tires, a thing of beauty for us winter bicycle commuters

people aren't nice sometimes...

mileage: 7.5

total July mileage: 139.3

I left my house on my roadie with a giant shopping bag hanging from my hand and a somewhat negative attitude. I didn't really feel like doing anything this morning. But I decided that biking always makes me feel better, as does getting my money back for things I've bought that don't really fit (meaning I never wear them), so I headed out towards Nordstrom to return some stuff. It was so pleasant, riding down the street with little to no traffic at 10:30am. I got to Nordstrom and returned what I needed to. I also shopped around a little bit, but I didn't really need anything (who really needs anything from Nordy's?) and so I headed back to where I locked up my bike.

I unlocked my bike and reattached my handlebar bag. I stood there for a few moments, not really sure what I felt like doing. I got on my bike and started heading home, riding on the sidewalk for a block because of heavy traffic. The sidewalk was plenty wide, and I moved out of the way for pedestrians rather than making them move or getting too close. These two large women with mean looks on their faces looked disapproving at me as I approached. One of them mumbled something and I couldn't quite make it out, so I just smiled at them because like usual, biking even two miles had put me in a great mood. Then I realized just as I was passing them on the outer inch of the sidewalk what they were repeating over and over. "Not a bikepath. Not a bikepath. Not a bikepath!"

Seriously? This is Anchorage. There are very few actual bike lanes on our roads, and many drivers are outright aggressive towards cyclists in the streets. You can't share the sidewalk for a second with a cheerful cyclist who went out of their way to get out of your way? Why do people have to be so mean? I just don't get it. This is why I fully support the efforts of the Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage to make this a much more bike friendly city. In many cases, there is no alternative to riding on the sidewalk, no matter how mad certain pedestrians might get about it. What they don't realize is that most serious cyclists don't enjoy dodging pedestrians and "cruising" along at a snails pace of 7 mph which is usually required when trying to dodge the various obstacles found on a typical stretch of sidewalk in Anchorage.