I suppose that the title pretty much sums it up. But I found this article to be quite interesting, as fully one third of the people expected to ride to work on the 17th will be first timers. That kind of turnout is actually quite astounding.
A couple of years ago, I participated in an Australian “Ride to work day”, sort of. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll go ahead and admit that my wife and I skipped work to go for a ride to the beach. On the way, we popped in for a little snack and socializing at the community breakfast area set up just down the street from us. It was nice to see several small groups of cyclists, all having a chat and a muffin, banana, or juice, before heading off to work. We ran into another couple on a tandem that are both very involved with BikeNSW, as well as some of the members of the Harris Wheeler law firm’s winning triathlon team. Of course, there were cyclists that commute on a regular basis, as well as those that just decided to do it for the day.
In all, it was a great start to the day. Yeah, maybe it wouldn’t have been as nice if we actually went to work. But that’s really not the point. Even if it’s only that one day, it’s a start. More and more people are riding to work. And each cyclist represents one less car on the road that day, and one more person getting a bit of fresh air and exercise. Hopefully, they’ll want to do it more than one day a year. That can’t be a bad thing.