So my bicycle sits on my back patio with a sticker saying, “One Less Car”. It hasn’t been ridden for a while and the tire is flat. And with no commute since November there is either too far a distance, or no reason.
Google just announced they are giving their overseas employees a free bike and helmet so they’ll ride to work, be healthier, and to be eco-friendly. They even have a few versions of Google bikes to choose from, including on that folds.
I rode bicycles in Amsterdam on one dream trip (wish I had that image of a small girl standing with a red coat, on a platform in front while her dad pedaled). It’s the funnest place ever to ride a bike. Motorists are used to seeing bicycles and it’s a bit of a game to dodge each other. People are riding their bikes with bug shields, yacking on cell phones, even carrying their kids.
Writing about cool projects like Google bikes, organic locally grown produce in their cafeteria, and solar panels makes me want to work for Google! I had the closest brush when I was talking to Mozilla.
In college my friends and I really got in to riding bicycles and outfitting them with baskets to carry our stuff. I didn’t have a car until my senior year and I only married into one. My friends and I loved to ride our bikes through the hallways at night in the science building. We used to use our bicycles to carry groceries. Hence, I’m known online not just as newspapergrl, but as grocerybike.
To find bike routes, check out bikely.
Publishing your bike odometer stats on Twitter would be a good incentive for riding the bike.
As for me. I am pathetic. A couple years ago a puppy showed up on the porch during a snow storm. When I go off on a bike ride, she sits at the window and looks sad; So, I essentially stopped riding because of a mutt.
I went several years where the bike’s odometer chalked up more miles than the car.
Kevin,
Don’t stop going altogether.
Couldn’t you just take the doggie with you occasionally!
They just LOVE to RUN!!
Uhoh.. where did my comment go??
Cycling with dogs is a bit cruel. A decent bike ride starts at 10 miles … which is too far to run a doggie (especially on pavement).
I could drive to dirt roads for short rides … but then I would increase my carbon footprint. Al Gore is already mad at me. I would hate to make him fly out to Salt Lake to yell at me for driving my bike to a bike trail.
Last year I saw a boy ride over his dog which he had latched with a leash to the bike. Everything about combining dogs and bikes comes out as cruel.
Kevin..
I had no intention of being “cruel” to anyone including a doggie!
The reasom I mentioned it is that I had a “doggie” myself and I
used to do a bit of biking and I would take the dog to run on
short trips. (5-10 miles) and he loved it cause he told me that!!
hahah
Cool idea from Google. Probably will get a good ride in the press because of the novelty. I’d love to ride my bike more often. Unfortunately, mine too sits with a seriously deflated back tire. I’m afraid the only action it sees is the occassional weekend ride through our neighborhoods.
One of the issues with bike riding in Houston is the lack of bike lanes and the absence of a decent public transporation system to get to far-flung locales.
When I lived in California and worked as a newspaper editor there, I wrote a weeklong series about what it was like to give up my car for a week. Fun stuff. I found it was a much easier go in California than in Texas.
Good to see a company taking this approach.