Ride to Work

July 16th is Ride to Work day. I plan to ride to work, cause I ride to work every day. My other option is hoofing it, which only feels like an attractive option two days out of the year when there's snow on the ground.

I think everyone should ride to work. I just wonder where we'd all park.

My company likes to promote "alternative commuting". They like that buzzword and use it liberally. It must provide them with a tax break.

Our office building has an underground garage, and I've noticed more and more cycles parking as the weather improves and gas prices skyrocket. A few months ago they were restructuring the garage and I put in a request that they eliminate a single car space that is crammed awkwardly between the bicycle racks and the cement poles. Converting that sole car spot into a cycle area would allow bikes to use the whole corner, creating parking for about a dozen scooters and motorcycles, while increasing access to the bicycle racks.

Instead, they kept the single car spot, and graciously put cycle parking on either side of it, which means we can fit - at most - three scooters.

Except on days like this morning, when an SUV driver backs in at a self-important angle, blocking two scooter spots so there's only room for one of us. And that lucky scooterist now must cross their fingers that the SUV door isn't going to leave a fat dent in their legshield when the driver swings it open. Meanwhile, with all the scooter spots full, I park my very large scooter in a car spot, which instigates a flurry of nasty-grams left on my bike.

Why is my single occupancy vehicle less worthy of a parking space than someone else's single occupancy vehicle? Why should I be punished for having a smaller ride?

I'm coming up with some ideas to increase scooter awareness at work. I may call a meeting of all the two-wheeled riders. This morning on the first floor of the garage there were six scooters and three motorcycles - safety in numbers. Maybe if we banded together we could stake out that corner spot early and make room for all our friends.

Maybe more people would ride to work if they had someplace to park when they got there.

Maybe I'm on to something...