I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride My Bike...

"...but I don't want to get killed doing it".

That from a Montgomery County employee who said he would love to have taken part in the Bike To Work day, but couldn't figure out what he felt would be a safe route from his home near NIH up to Rockville.

Someone's biking to work...

..and they're not alone. Here outside the Montgomery County Council Office Building it's not unusual to find one or two bikes parked for the workday. Will there be more in the future? Or are these hardy cyclists on their own? I left a note for our mystery riders, so we'll see...

Bike to Eat

Before I gave up my car, I wondered about how my choice might affect my pocketbook. Could going carless (full disclosure: WTOP still provides me with a station vehicle)  save me money? Would that make an impression in my bottom line?

Here's a perhaps-unexpected way that biking to shop has saved me from impulse buying. When  you have to shop by bike, you think hard about just how much you want to haul back home. If you really want to lower the boom on your spending tendencies, pick a small bike bag. You learn pretty fast just how much fits in that thing.

I come back from a trip and I need groceries. I get on my Gazelle Medeo, a heavy (by American standards) Dutch-made bike. It's got shocks on the fork and the seat for a super comfy ride. (Take that, you potholes!)  And it features a nice built-in bike rack that lets me snap a pannier-style bike bag into place. One that can get my basics back home in fine shape.

So off I go after two weeks away, looking to fill the pantry back home. The fascinating thing is how this instantly changes what I pick up in the grocery store. Nothing like having a single bag to carry home to help you separate the "have to haves" from the "nice to haves".

It gets pretty simple:  you don't buy what you don't need when you have to fit it all in a bike bag and pedal back home.

DC Bike Lanes: WTOP reports

My colleague at WTOP, Adam Tuss reports on the continued "tweaking" of DC's newest bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue. Get the story here:

http://wtopnews.com/?nid=30&sid=1964855