• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Environment at Work: Help Improve the Environment and Bike to Work This Week (Listen to Audio): Plan a Route and Join Other Commuters Friday on National Bike-to-Work Day

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 09:04 CDT

By Melissa McGrath, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

May 17--Friday is National Bike-to-Work Day, so hop on your bike, pedal your way to work and help improve local air quality.

You won't be alone. Many people in the Treasure Valley already ride their bikes to work. Still, local transportation officials are hoping more people will choose to bike or walk to work instead of driving this month to celebrate May in Motion, an annual month-long effort to inform Treasure Valley residents about alternative transportation options.

"I love the feeling of the wind in my face, and I know I'm doing something good for me plus I have the extra benefit of doing something good for the environment," said Mim Davidson, a database analyst at Idaho Power who has ridden her bike to work for more than five years.

Biking to work is enjoyable, Davidson said, and not as difficult as she thought it would be at first. Most people think getting to work by bike is difficult because it will take longer and you might work up a sweat.

But Davidson and other bicycle commuters said the key is to ease into a routine.

"If you set yourself too high of a goal, you don't succeed and it's too hard to do and you don't feel good about it," Davidson said. "I just thought, OK, I'll try one day a week. Then I thought this feels good. I'll try two days a week and then it was three days a week."

Now, Davidson tries to ride every day if the weather is good. In the winter, she'll ride if it's above 35 degrees and not raining.

Biking to work doesn't take much more time than driving, Davidson said. She found a route that gets her from her house near the intersection of State Street and Collister Drive to Idaho Power offices in Downtown Boise in about 20 minutes. It usually takes her 15 minutes to drive to work, she said.

She usually doesn't ride hard enough to work up a sweat, but Davidson brings a change of clothes to the office just in case and sometimes showers in the locker rooms at Idaho Power's office. It helps to have a biker-friendly office that provides bike racks and showers, Davidson said.

Idaho Power is installing new bike racks inside the building so commuters can keep their bikes somewhere secure.

Other offices also help out their bike commuters. Hewlett-Packard Co.'s campus in Boise, for example, has set up a bike shop where bike commuters can access tools and bike pumps any time of day, said Charlie Solomon, who oversees the bike shop for the HP Boise Cycling Club. The security bike patrol uses the shop as well, he added.

If you are interested in biking to work, Solomon suggests talking to someone at the office who is already doing it. They might know the best route to the office or can share other tips, he said.

If you are nervous about getting on a bike again regularly and riding along busy streets, consider taking a bicycle education course, said Dwight Tovey, a licensed instructor with the League of American Bicyclists and treasurer of the Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance, a group of local cyclists.

Beginners also should go out on their bikes over the weekend to plan the best route to the office.

"It's a great way to get to work, and you get to work much more awake and ready to work. And then you get to unwind on the way home," Tovey said.

Bicycle commuters had a few other tips for beginners:

-- Buy and wear a helmet.

-- Take a backpack or install panniers, or saddlebags, on your bike to carry necessary tools and a change of clothes.

-- Bring along a bike pump, spare tube and patch kit in case you get a flat tire.

-- Carry a cell phone or enough money to make a call in case you need assistance.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NYSE:IDA, NYSE:STT, NYSE:HPQ,

Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

More News in this Category