We thoroughly enjoyed Bike Month 2014, finally taking more advantage of it. My girls especially liked getting a t-shirt and buttons, as well as holding the big “I Love My Bike” signs above (which they, sadly, did not get to keep).
Well, MAY IS BIKE MONTH came to a close last week, and it was a good month for our biking crew. Our little ladies got “bigger girl” bikes, and The Little Mister took a few more jaunts on his Strider Bike. Mommy signed up online and tracked her miles for the first time, took many opportunities to ride for both work and pleasure, and even surpassed her mileage pledge! Meanwhile, I got more serious about biking at all hours and doing everything I could to replace car trips. My back had been bothering me at the end of April and I didn’t know how much cycling I’d be doing in May, so I set a small goal for May…that I blew past the first week! Some quick highlights:
- Riding with my children and Mommy to Fairytale Town for Kidical Mass
- Riding to the Inagural Sacramento Republic FC Soccer Match at Sacramento City College
- Riding with my lovely wife for a couple of dates to some favorite Downtown restaurants, enjoying the breeze and the carefree feeling we had when we were back in college (a couple of kids we were, practically, back in the day…)
- Riding to the evening Farmers Market a couple miles away with our girls riding their own bikes! (This was their longest-distance outing yet, and they did a GREAT job!)
- Riding to the wonderful Sacramento Zoo, passing through all the bike-friendly, tree-lined streets of Land Park
- Riding nearly every weekday morning with my little guy, all over the city, exploring and going to parks and getting treats. He is such a joy, although his tendency to be super cute and say funny things has distracted me on a couple of occasions while I should be watching the road. I just can’t help it…he’s hilarious.
- Meeting a whole lot of new people–fellow cycling enthusiasts and non-bikers, alike–and engaging in a lot of good conversations about being outdoors, slowing down, doing our small part to help the environment, and the like. I was lucky to get to speak with more than one person who is now ready to make the leap to cargo-biking and committing to replace a large chunk of car trips with bike trips. I hope I can be a small catalyst in these transformations…Seeing Elle and Anna on their Yuba Mundos opened my eyes two years ago, and it sparked in me more than just a lifestyle change. I’m excited to see more and more people, especially in our little corner of the world, seeing that such things are feasible and making these choices.
Obviously, tracking daily mileage and no-car days and knowing I’d write about it later all made it easier to find extra motivation to leave the vehicle behind, but I hope that–going forward–I can stay motivated to make the choice, each day, to ride instead of drive.
I’m still nowhere near my friend and biking guru Elle from TinyHelmetsBigBikes (for whose team I rode in May) when it comes to true dedication to the bike and leaving the car behind for good, but I’m ready to use the ol’ 4-cylinder only when absolutely necessary. I got in the car 5 times in May, and for two of those we were going out of the county for family obligations. I even got to make another bike trip to Costco, which was easier this time around (now that I knew how to plan a little better). In town, I used the car 3 times (One of those involved our huge dogs, who I am not at all brave–or crazy–enough to try to ride with!) and found that I did not, even a little bit, miss driving. Obviously, tracking daily mileage and no-car days and knowing I’d write about it later all made it easier to find extra motivation to leave the vehicle behind, but I hope that–going forward–I can stay motivated to make the choice, each day, to ride instead of drive. One of the biggest positives of the month was that the impact (albeit small) of us choosing to bicycle finally really hit home with my daughters. I took them to school most days (which was new) and picked them up (as usual). On many occasions they pointed out to me that they liked riding instead of “making the air dirty and wasting gas,” as they said. This doesn’t mean that there weren’t a couple of occasions where the added travel time bothered them momentarily or that they didn’t sometimes bicker about who got to sit in front, but–by and large–the molding of our transportational “new normal” was quite smooth. Most importantly, there was a lot more time to listen to my children, reach behind my back for a tickle, and get to know our streets and scenery better. Also, you certainly seem to run into friends more while cycling than driving, I’ve found.
Here are the final stats for the month:
Miles I rode TOTAL: 367
Miles with kid(s) in tow: 309
Miles Little Mister rode behind me: 269
Miles the Little Ladies rode behind me (combined): 266
Miles the Little Ladies rode on their own!: 14
Overall Rank: 1513 of 9914 (top 15%–way better than last year!)
No-Car Days (in-county): 28 out of 31
I hope you all had a happy May Is Bike Month, as well, and here’s to the notion of 2014 is Bike Year!
8legs2wheels 