May 2005
Friday, May 20
Celebrate National Bike to Work and School Day
by Ellen Barton
Ellen Barton is a daily bike commuter on a classic 1955 Raleigh Sports Three Speed. A member of both the Bellingham and the Whatcom County Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committees, she works as a trail planner, and is the current president of the Mt. Baker Bicycle Club.
Wendy thought she was too busy to bike to work, but that changed on May 21 last year. With encouragement from her family and friends and the advice of a bike buddy, Wendy and 2,600 other Whatcom County residents joined the festivities on Bike to Work and School Day. Since then, Wendy regularly bicycles about once a week from her Happy Valley home to her job on James Street in the Sunnyland neighborhood.
“It’s a beautiful ride,” she says, “I’m on trails most of the way.” Her commute takes her along the South Bay Trail with views of the San Juan Islands and the bay, “Other people have to pay thousands of dollars to vacation on bike trails like this: I get to enjoy them everyday!”
She plans to take part in this year’s Bike to Work and School Day on May 20 (see below).
How Did She Do It?
Wendy doesn’t see herself as a sporty person and she was happy to find that bicycling to work doesn’t really require special clothes or equipment. Instead, what she needed was information: a basic understanding of the rules of the road for bicyclists and an awareness of where the bike-friendly roads and trails are. “Rhonda at Jack’s Bicycle Shop was very helpful,” directing her to the newly updated Mt. Baker Bicycle Club Bellingham-Whatcom Bicycle Map published in 2004.
The map includes basic bike riding guidelines and tips, as well as detailed bike-friendly routes both on and off road. “There’s information in the guidelines that, as a driver, I’m glad to know,” Wendy commented, “Every intersection is a crosswalk, whether marked or unmarked—who knew?” Bicyclists, just like other vehicles, are legally required to stop for pedestrians waiting to cross at crosswalks.
Another resource Wendy is looking into this year is the Traffic Skills course offered by the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department. Now that she feels comfortable bicycling on trails, she’d like to feel more confident riding on the roadways and sharing the road with other vehicles. Judy Murphy, the course instructor, adds, “Bicycling on roads is probably safer than driving on the highways, but that safety comes by knowing the rules.”
Ms. Murphy is certified as a bicycling instructor by the League of American Bicyclists and the course content is recognized as effective by bicyclists everywhere. “If bicycle riding skills were taught systematically in elementary school, children would be safer cyclists and they would become safer drivers when they grow up.”
Why Bother Bicycling?
Finding time to exercise was a challenge for Wendy with the demands of her job and the busy schedules of her two teenage children. But it was a combination of things that got her thinking about bicycle commuting. “My doctor kept nagging me about my weight, but I definitely didn’t want to join a gym. I read somewhere that the way you live at 40 is the way you’ll live at 80, so I started to look at my habits.”
Meanwhile, one of her son’s young friends was diagnosed with what used to be called adult onset diabetes. So many children are overweight these days partly because they don’t get regular physical activity. “When I first started planning to bike to work, my kids complained that they wouldn’t get driven to school. I made sure to include them in my test rides and now we bike together to their school on my way to work.”
Wendy’s work involves testing water quality and preventing pollution to area streams. She points out that while most people know that road run-off contributes a huge percentage of pollutants to waterways, it’s hard to make the connection in our personal lives between our own car trips and polluted streams. “A 12-minute drive to get a gallon of milk can’t matter that much, can it? That’s what I always thought, but it’s the combination of 60,000 12-minutes trips.” And the good news is that a short car trip probably takes the same amount of time by bicycle.
What Is Bike to Work and School Day?
May is National Bike Month and every year since 1998 on the third Friday in May (May 20 this year), Bellingham and Whatcom County celebrate Bike to Work and School Day. Started eight years ago by a small group of volunteers, it has grown to inspire thousands of people to bike commute. Last year, 2,600 cyclists participated in the festivities.
On May 20, over 20 Celebration Stations around town will welcome bicyclists on their morning commute rewarding them with free refreshments, gifts and prizes. At the end of the day, bicyclists gather at Boundary Bay Brewery to continue the celebration and to see who will win the over $1,100 worth of raffle prizes.
What Are the Politics of Bicycling?
Celebrating bicycle commuting encourages people who might think about bicycling to actually try it. It also gives us a chance to thank the many regular bicycle commuters whose choice not to drive helps keep our community healthy. Bicycle commuters benefit the community by reducing road taxes. Local road widening projects are a very expensive way to handle increased transportation demand and such widening projects are paid for with local property taxes.
The number of car trips on a given road is what determines whether it will be widened. In very simple terms, that means that each time we drive down the block for a gallon of milk, a meter is tripped that eventually results in a higher tax bill to accommodate more cars. Conversely, bicycle commuters are saving each of us that extra tax bill by reducing the number of cars on the road.
Studies show that we cannot build our way out of congestion, but our current transportation funding system has little ability to do anything other than build more roads. For example, it would be more cost effective to use a marketing and publicity approach to encourage bus ridership, but by the current regulations, road taxes cannot be used for that purpose. This is part of the larger problem that needs to be addressed if we are to balance our transportation investments for better cost-efficiency.
Another important problem is the 18th Amendment to the Washington State constitution, which states that gas taxes may only be spent on roadway projects that benefit motor vehicles. Is it time to amend the 18th Amendment? Perhaps if there were a coordinated transportation department at the local government level it would help the road building department (called Public Works) work with the bus service (WTA) and the trail building department (called Parks) to serve the walking and bicycling public.
The Mt. Baker Bicycle Club will conduct its annual “Pedal With Your Politician” on Saturday, May 14, from noon to 1 p.m., in honor of Bike to Work and School Day. Everyone is invited along on this gentle ride where we can both thank our elected officials for their good work and urge them to continue to improve conditions for bicycling and walking.
Where Are the Celebration Stations?
Celebration Stations will be located all around Bellingham and at some schools in Ferndale. The map of Celebration Stations is available at the Mt. Baker Bicycle Club Web site: http://www.bikefoothills.org/club. Bike to Work and School Day t-shirts will be available for purchase at the Community Food Co-op, Kulshan Cycles and REI, among other locations. Need help getting your bike ready? Visit the Pump-U-Up Booth at the Bellingham Farmers’ Market on May 7 and 14 where we’ll have experts to look your bike over and give minor adjustments. Low-cost helmets will be available for special order from the Brain Injury Association.
What Is the Bike Week Challenge?
New this year is the Bike Week Challenge, a chance for individuals and teams to increase their chances to win prizes by bicycling everyday the week of May 15-21. Teams of four to six can accumulate points to win special team prizes including a catered gourmet lunch for the whole team from deluxe Ciao Thyme catering. The high scoring team will be the recipient of the coveted Traveling Bike Week Trophy, a work of art that can be proudly displayed at the team’s worksite until next year’s contest. The first 20 team captains to register their teams will win the yellow jersey—that is, a free yellow Bike to Work and School Day t-shirt. Registration forms are available at the Mt. Baker Bicycle Club Web site, http://www.bikefoothills.org/club and on posters around town.
For more information, call 734-8540 or e-mail raleigh3speed@hotmail. com. Happy Pedaling! §
