Two Wheeling: Proud of You, Lou!

I was sitting in a CLE seminar last week when I received an email from a Whetstone HS '74 classmate, Lou Flocken. "Hey, Doug, I just got a bike and want to start biking to work on occasion when the weather is nice. Would you mind helping me chart my route?"

I was thrilled! My friends at Consider Biking (www.considerbiking.org) and I have been working very hard to get more folks biking to work and school through our bold "2 By 2012" initiative. Each convert is a milestone and cause for celebration.

Lou is a 54 year-old senior administrator at OSU East, the hospital off East Broad almost to Bexley. Lou lives in old Worthington which means his commute is approximately 14 miles.........pretty ambitious. I emailed him back, suggesting he pick a day and I'd be happy to ride to work with him. "How about Monday? The weather forecast is good," he emailed back. "Monday it is," I replied.

I met Lou at 6:45 am along the Olentangy bikepath near our alma mater. Lou said he wasn't all that comfortable riding on the streets and wanted to stick to the bike path as much as possible. We planned to take the bikepath downtown and then Long Street, which has very light traffic, east to the hospital. Unfortunately, the bikepath is closed (again) at OSU so we had to detour through campus. As we were about to head back west to catch the bikepath I suggested to Lou that we ride the rest of the way down High Street. "It's really comfortable on High, especially since they installed the sharrows, and we'll save about 10 minutes." Lou readily agreed.

As we biked through the neighborhood around the newly restored Lincoln Theatre, Lou suggested we take a detour. We biked all through the neighborhood as Lou explained all the work being done by the City and various non-profit housing organizations to improve the housing in the area OSU East is also very involved in making a difference in the neighborhood. Lou also pointed out the greenest house in the City which had been built by the students and teachers from Worthington Kilbourne HS. Our detour confirmed-it's a lot easier to see and feel your community on two wheels.

We arrived at OSU East at 7:50. Lou had left Worthington at 6:30 am, so his commute via bicycle (including our detour) had taken 1 hour 20 minutes, quite a bit longer than the 30 minutes he normally spends commuting via car. But since last November, Lou has been working out religiously and he figures the extra time it takes to bike to work is an extra workout and well worth the addtional time. Lou rides at a pretty good pace, but if he keeps it up his commuting time will go down significantly. If he ever gets comfortable riding the whole way down High Street, he'll be able to make it to work in 40-50 minutes.

As I left Lou in the parking lot to head to my office, I asked him to email me to let me know if he feels any more productive at work today, and to keep me posted on his twowheeling commuting.
I'm super proud of my friend and happy to have him as a member of our merry twowheeling band.