Two Wheeling

Judge Klatt Joins Our Ranks!

Judge Bill Klatt, who sits on the Franklin County Court of Appeals, is one of my best friends.......we've played together in the Klatt Brothers Band, a local rock and roll band, for more than 10 years. Bill and his family live in Clintonville and he works downtown at the County Courthouse at Mound and High. I've told Bill for years that he's a perfect candidate for biking to work because he doesn't need a car to get around during the day (people come TO judges, not the other way around) and since he wears a black robe, he could just leave his bike clothes on underneath.......and noone would ever know.

Bill began cycling recreationally last fall and told me he intended to begin riding his bike to work twice per week in the spring. I told him I would be happy to help him map out his route and ride with him on his inaugural ride. Yesterday was the day.

Despite rupturing his Achilles tendon earlier this year and not being able to exercise, Bill is in fine shape and had no trouble making the ride downtown. He rode surprisingly fast for much of the journey and experienced the vagaries of riding to work when we got drenched by a rogue thundershower a block from the courthouse. We rode home together along the Olentangy River bikepath at the end of the day. I think Bill really enjoyed it and will continue to ride to work a couple of time per week. He says that there are 4 other folks at his office that are riding.

Bike commuting is not limited to those of us that work downtown. My good friend, Dave Potts, who lives and works in Dublin rode  his bike 10 miles to work for the first time yesterday and intends to continue to ride to work when he can. Many suburban communities have extensive bikeway systems and if you live and work there you may find it to be a surprisingly bike friendly environment. Did you know that 85% of our daily automobile trips are 5 miles or less? We can, and should, substitute biking and walking for a good percentage of these trips and improve our personal, environmental and community health in the process.   

Where Did All These Bikers Come From?

I can't believe how many new bike commuters I'm seeing on the bike path this year! I think $4 gas has a lot to do with it, but I think there's something more going on here.

I met and rode in today with Paul. Paul was riding a hybrid with 2 big packs on a rack, so I assumed he was commuting. "How far you going?" I asked as I passed him. "All the way downtown," he replied. "Whoa, I need to hear about this," I told him as I slowed my pace and rode alongside him.

Turns out this is Paul's first day commuting from his home in Westerville to his job as a software developer at Nationwide...........a 44-mile round trip. Paul appeared trim and fit and looked the part of the experienced cyclist in spandex shorts, etc. "Why did you decide to do this?" I asked him. "Well, I won a bike at Nationwide a couple of years ago and began cycling for fun and exercise. With $4 gas, I began to consider commuting and just decided to give it a try. I'm aiming to do it twice a week and see how it goes." Paul is 55 years old.

"What's your family think of this?" I inquired. "My wife is amused," Paul responded. "Welcome to the club," I told him.

Our community, and our conventional notions on the proper way to "move about" our community, are changing. Every day there are citizens like Paul deciding that just because we've driven around in climate-controlled boxes for most of our lives, doesn't mean this is the best, or only way, to get around town. Pioneers like Paul are demonstrating that we can put our personal energy to productive use and not "waste" it on a treadmill or elliptical machine. This is the way (I believe the only way) we will achieve personal, environmental and community health.

The tipping point is near........c'mon and help us change the world.....two wheels at a time.

Goose Attack!

The  Canada goslings hatched this week.....hundreds of them along the Olentangy River.......cute, little balls of yellow fuzz. Mom and dad are always nearby, shepherding them on their way........and are understandably protective. Experienced cyclists know to avoid Mama and Papa Goose this time of year.

I've been hissed at dozens of times and I've seen geese put their heads down like they're ready to charge me, but today was the first time I've ever been attacked.

I was almost downtown and as I neared a 90 degree turn in the bike path, I saw a family of geese crossing the path. One of the adults had already crossed and the other adult and a half dozen goslings we getting ready to follow. As I slowed to make the turn, the adult goose nearest the path put its head down and started to hiss. Having seen this behavior many times before, I didn't think much ot it. But as I passed 3 feet in front of this hissing goose, it suddenly took off and flew right at me with its mouth open. I was shocked, but instinctively contorted my body to avoid his charge. Fortunately this was enough to cause him to miss me. The adrenaline rush enabled me to accelerate quickly so he didn't get a second chance to nip me.

I hope to have many reinforcements with me on Monday when we do our opening day ride to commemorate National Ride Your Bike to Work Week. I'll be ready for the geese if they decide to attack again.

Join Us for Opening Day '08!

Please join us on Monday, May 12, for our 2008 opening day ride!.......this also corresponds to the first day of National Ride Your Bike to Work Week and we're having a big celebration all week, kicking off with breakfast on May 12 on the State House lawn. The Mayor will be there to announce the Bicentennial Bikeway Plan. There will be events and festivities all week.......you can check it all out at www.considerbiking.org.

There will be groups of bikers riding downtown on May 12 from different points all around the city, and we're hoping to have hundreds of cyclists at the kick-off breakfast.

Our group will meet at 6:15-6:30 at Urban Coffee next to Hill's Market near the starting point of the Olentangy bikepath. Calfee will again spring for coffee, etc. and we'll begin our ride downtown at 6:45-7:00.

If you live south of Worthington (e.g. Clintonville, University district, Victorian Village), you can either ride up to Urban Coffee to meet us, or hook up with us on the bikepath as we wind our way through your neighborhood.

I hope you can join us on May 12 for Opening Day '08!

I Do Miss White Castle

There's not much I miss about commuting by automobile, but there is one thing..........White Castle. Back in the old days, when I drove a car to work, I'd usually swing by the White Castle drive-through at Kenny and Henderson to get a cup of coffee. I love White Castle coffee.

Today was one of the rare days that I needed to drive to work and, of course, I immediately headed for White Castle (out of roughly 240 work days in a year, I will bike to work approximately 200 days........if my friends see me on one of my rare "car days", they give me hell ).  The drive-through was stacked up, so I parked and went in to get my coffee. As I walked up to the counter I could hear my favorite White Castle employee taking an order from the drive-through, "Welcome to Whhhhhite Castle, can I take your order?" "A medium black coffee, please." "That'll be 80 bucks, rock on around to the second window." Ah............it took me back.

Spring is always wonderful, especially after a long winter.........but on a bike it is TRULY GLORIOUS. As the spring bulbs emerge and the flowering trees and shrubs burst into bloom, our merry band of bikers shed their winter spandex and balakavas and don their shorts and lightweight jackets.......another sure sign of spring.

Despite the fact I drove TO work, I will be at Bill's feet at 5 for our Friday night ride home.....hope to see you there. 

Friday Night Biker Gang

Kudos to Jeff Willis who was the only intrepid biker who showed up last Friday and rode solo to Fiesta Time where Bob, Bob, Kurt, Doug, Eva and David joined him to kick off the weekend. I'm confident there is a multitude of riders biding their time.....waiting for warmer and drier weather to join the gang......but so far we've had pretty slim pickings at Bill's feet on Friday.   

I don't crash often, but when I do......

......I really crash hard. I've been sick all week with cold and flu and couldn't even think about riding.......when I was finally able to drag my butt out of bed on Thursday, I was grateful to have use of my son's car to get to work (I didn't have the strength to hike up to High St to catch the #2 and didn't want to expose all the folks on the bus any way). I hope to be back in the saddle on Monday.

I'll be at McKinley's feet tonight at 5 to take the weekly  FNBG photo and then I'm DRIVING to FIESTA TIME to meet the biker gang.......I should be there by 5:30 or so. Come join us! (It'll be a lot more fun when we can all be on bikes, won't it?)

P.S. I finally figured out  how to download photos into the photo album......check it out, especially the ones of the OSU marching band practicing after dark next to the bike path, and let me know what you think. 

Gang of One

The Friday Night Biker Gang met at the McKinley Statute at 5 pm Friday night for their end of the week ride home......this week we detoured through Fiesta Time, a colorful new Mexican restaurant at the old Talita's location in south Clintonville. The snow and ice kept our numbers down this week (actually it was just me, raising the question of "can you have a gang of 1?")......but when I arrived at Fiesta Time I was met by 12 fellow bikers who walked, bussed and, yes, drove their "boxes" to meet me for drinks and dinner. I met some great new friends and we had a big time! As the weather improves I'm sure our numbers will swell........I plan to take a photo every Friday of the Friday Night Biker Gang and post it for you to see. I hope by summer I'll need a wide angle lens.

Spring is right around the corner.......get your twowheels ready to go and meet us at 5 pm  at the feet of President McKinley some Friday night soon!

That's More Like It

I rode Wednesday in the most beautiful snowfall ever.......the snowflakes fell so slowly they seemed suspended in air. I rode my hybrid with better traction and thought I'd be the only one on the bikepath. I was pleasantlyh surprised to overtake another rider who was on his way to OSU.......Clay moved to CBus two years ago and teaches writing to OSU engineering students (boy, that sounds like fun, doesn't it?). He came from Eugene, Oregon where he commuted by bike and only missed 2 days in 4 years. The average winter temperature in Eugene is 40......very conducive to cycling. Clay lives in  Clintonville and loves CBus. I told him that we will soon have a better bikeway and bike-friendly street system.

Today it was 8 degrees when I rode to work.......it really doesn't bother me one bit to ride in these temperatures, so long as the pavement is dry.

With snow tonight, the commute tomorrow will be iffy, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. I hate not to ride, if I can avoid it.

Calfee Achieves 20.5% Mode Shift on First Day of Eco-Bucks!

Today was the first day of our Eco-Buck Program......we pay our employees $1 for each day they bike, walk, transit, blade, unicycle (I'd like to see that one) to work......we pay $.50 for carpooling......anything to cut down on fossil fuel usage.  The scorecard for our first day of Eco-Bucks was as follows:

                                                           1 walker

                                                           1 biker (me)

                                                           2 busers

                                                           5 carpoolers

That's pretty darn impressive for our 44 person office (especially considering that several of our colleagues were out of town and didn't have a chance to participate.) This equates to a 20.5% mode shift for the day! Thus, we're well on our way to helping CBus achieve our BHAG of a 10% mode shift  by 2012 (aka our "2X2012" Goal).

Roll, the coolest bike shop in CBus, heard about our Eco-Buck Program and loved it so much that they offered to match our Eco-Bucks dollar for dollar with Roll discount dollars......every time our employees receive their Eco-Bucks they'll also receive a Roll gift/discount card for the same amount. Sweet!

On Friday, I sent out an email to lots of friends at other CBus companies explaining the Eco-Buck Program and asked "Who's Gonna be Second?" to adopt this program and the 2X2012 goal. Well, two other companies adopted Eco-Bucks and 2X2012 today and many others are recommending it to their HR departments for consideration. I think the tipping point on this is a lot closer than we think.

When we reach our 2X2012 goal, get out of the way........the young people, and companies, will be flocking to the greenest city in the country. C'mon help us change our community, and the world, two wheels at a time!