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A Car-Free Ride to Work

Posted on: Friday, 6 May 2005, 03:00 CDT

They are the office oddballs, the transportation equivalent of geeks with slide rules or pocket protectors. They arrive each morning in form-fitting shorts or tights, helmets, flashing lights and sometimes a bright orange reflective vest.

John Leftwich of Hanging Rock is one of them. For nine years he has navigated a trusty bicycle along area streets to his job at an AEP warehouse in Southeast Roanoke, then back home each evening.

Leftwich, 44, said for him bicycle commuting is the only way to go.

Ten years ago, he weighed around 240, at 6 feet tall. He sat around a lot and often felt like hell.

"It dawned on me, 'Dang, I'm kind of out of shape,' " Leftwich recalled. He joined a gym, but wasn't much of a gym rat. He biked to the gym a few times, and enjoyed the ride so much that he quit - the gym, that is.

He's been bicycling to work ever since, 25 miles a day round- trip. That's about 56,000 miles - or about two times around Earth at the equator. Knock off a few thousand for the really rainy mornings he drives; add a few thousand for the longer pleasure rides he takes on the commute home.

Today, he's 50 pounds lighter and feels great.

Neal Jamison is another bike commuter. Most mornings around 6, you can find him rolling along Brambleton Avenue on his daily commute from the Cave Spring area to the Norfolk Southern building downtown.

Jamison, 37, is a runner. But the running began to intrude on the time he could spend with his wife and their 7-year-old son.

"I was having trouble finding time to exercise," said Jamison, who works in NS' information technology department. "Riding to and from work would be the best way to work some exercise in while minimizing the time I spend away from my family."

Betsy Henderson starts two days each week with a 5 a.m. visit to the Roanoke Athletic Club. But her workouts don't end when she leaves the club. After she gets home and readies herself for work, she hops on her bike and rides 4 miles from her Roanoke County home to Hidden Valley Middle School, where she teaches physical education all day.

Henderson, 52, says her her 15-minute bike jaunt is hardly a workout. But she finds a lot of value in the longer route she takes on the way home.

"The value is in not driving home, where there are plenty of excuses not to go for a ride," she said. "If I ride the bike to school, then I have to ride it home."

Atypical commuters

Commuting by bike is far from the norm in the Roanoke metro area. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Leftwich, Jamison and Henderson are among 2,000 people in the Roanoke Valley who regularly commute to work by foot or by bicycle.

They and other "clean commuters" - carpoolers and bus riders - will be honored Friday during a lunchtime picnic in Elmwood Park. Ride Solutions, an agency of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission, sponsors the event. Ride Solutions' goal is to promote clean air by reducing the use of cars.

Shane Sawyer, a planner with the RVARC, concedes that 2,000 pedestrian or bicycle commuters out of the metro population of around 240,000 doesn't seem like a lot. But he suspects the real number is higher.

"The way [the census] asked the question was, 'Do you walk or use a bike as your "primary means" of getting to work,' " he noted. And the question lumped cyclists and walkers together.

"Especially on a nice morning, if you drive around . . . you'll see there are a lot of people on bikes in the peak commuting hours. That tells me there are more, at least anecdotally."

Other census numbers suggest the biker-walker numbers may actually be dwindling, however. In the 1990 census, more than 2,700 people said they walked or rode bikes to work.

Buddhas on bikes

If you listen to Leftwich and others describe what they get out of bicycle commuting, it's hard to imagine the number of folks doing it could be shrinking. Leftwich proselytizes on the joy he derives from riding in bright sunshine, in the dark, when it's 13 degrees outside or even pouring rain.

It's not about the gas money he saves, or even such "green" benefits as conservation or reducing smog.

Rather, Leftwich describes a far more personal experience. It's partly a reach back to his earliest taste of childhood freedom, when his dad took the training wheels off and he rode his bike around the block for the first time. And it's partly the delight he feels at watching the world pass by up close and slowly - the chirp of birds, the first flower that blooms in spring, squirrels gathering nuts in the fall, the view he gets from the top of a hill.

"In a car . . . you're going too fast, you don't see things," he says. On a bike, "you're not totally oblivious to everything like you are in a car."

For Neal Jamison, a chief benefit is how his ride home melts away the workday stress.

"When I walk out that door with my bicycle, no matter how bad the day has been, it's not a bad day, he said. "Even if it's raining outside, I'd rather be biking in the rain than sitting upstairs in the office . . . and when I get home I'm just in a totally different frame of mind."

Potholes,

other problems

Commuting by bike does carry a set of risks and frustrations.

Jamison and Leftwich take in stride the funny looks they sometimes get from co-workers. Henderson, the physical education teacher, said she's taken some razzing from students, but more kids today think it's "cool" that she rides to work than five years ago. Several have told her they wish they could ride their own bikes to school.

Much more important is the vulnerability factor. The laws of physics dictate that a 25-pound bicycle is no match for a 3,000- pound car. So a bicyclist's survival depends in large part on his or her attention to approaching vehicles, potholes, ice-slickened spots in the road and other obstacles. Most of all, a bicyclist has to be noticed by drivers.

Leftwich and Jamison do their best to draw attention to themselves. Their bikes are adorned with headlights in the front and flashing lights in the back. Jamison wears a reflective vest. They ride defensively.

But no precaution is foolproof.

Leftwich was riding down a short, steep hill next to Carilion Roanoke Memorial a couple of years ago when a Cadillac turned right in front of him. He laid the bike down and slid under the car as it screeched to a halt. The wreck destroyed his bike. Leftwich walked away from the accident bruised but whole.

And finally, there are some nasty drivers out there.

"I've had things thrown at me, I've been swatted at, cussed at, flashed. I had one guy throw his truck sideways in the road and jump out at me," Leftwich said.

"But for every ugly story there's a good one. I can think about the time I had a flat on the side of the road on a drizzly day, and someone stops and says, 'Hey man, you need a ride?' "

Dan Casey posts articles about area cycling on the Web site Dan Casey's Bike Rides, the Best of the Blue Ridge. www.roanoke.com / outdoors / biking. He rides his bike to work most days.

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

Bicycle commuting can slim your waist, save your money and clear your head before (and after) a hard day. Yet there are plenty of reasons why people imagine they can't do it. Here are the most common.

-Takes too long - Actually, depending on how far you live from work, commuting by bike may be even faster than in a car. Bicycles can often cut through traffic jams. And you can usually wheel your bike, unlike your car, right up to your front door.

-Messes up my work clothes - Carefully iron and fold your work clothes and carry then in a knapsack or messenger bag. Or take a week's worth of clothes to the office and leave them there on Sunday nights.

-Makes me sweaty and smelly - If your workplace doesn't have a shower, you might be able to shower at a nearby gym. Or try the shower-in-a-bag trick: Carry a hand towel moistened with 2 / 3 cup water and 1 / 3 cup rubbing alcohol in a large zip lock bag.

- I'll get get wet / cold or slip on ice / snow - If you're dead set against riding in rain, drive on those days. But riding a short distance in the rain isn't that bad. And knobby-tired mountain bikes are fun and easy to maneuver in light snow.

- The parking problem - Some employers will let you take your bike inside the office. If not, ask them to install a bike rack outside - and make sure you lock up your wheels.

Clean Commute Day picnic

Friday, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., Elmwood Park (next to the city library on Jefferson Street). Call 342-9393 for lunch reservations.

Ride Solutions, which helps workers find alternatives to single- person commutes sponsors the picnic for anyone who bikes, walks, rides a bus or carpools to work. Free lunch and informational exhibits.

Source: Roanoke Times & World News

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