Home > Fit City > Archives > 2011 > May > 16 > Entry
Bike to Work on Friday!
Holy breakfast burritos, Batman. Friday is Bike to Work Day. You know what that means: Free food for commuter bicyclists!
You can be sure I’ll be rising early so I can hit several of the free breakfast stations. This year, some of the stations will be open and offering fuel for evening commuters, too.
The morning stations — all 34 of them — will be open from 7-9 a.m. The 13 afternoon stations will be open from 4-7 p.m. Stations are spread out from north Parmer Lane to south of Ben White Boulevard.
This year marks the 55th anniversary of Bike to Work Day, started by the League of American Bicyclists. All of May is National Bike Month. Austin Bike Month is a joint collaboration with the City of Austin, the Austin Cycling Association, the Yellow Bike Project, BikeTexas and the League of Bicycling Voters.
It’s the perfect time to leave your car at home and pedal to work. You’ll get a little exercise, save gas money and keep another car off the street.
You might even get hooked, like I did.
I rode my bicycle to work once a week for years. Last May, I went full-time. Now I ride my bike to work almost every day. Last year I logged about 3,000 miles pedaling to work. I went from filling up the gas tank of my car once a week to filling it up once every two months.
The following places are participating in Bike to Work Day this year. For a map showing all morning and evening commuting stations, go here.
- Freewheeling Cycles, 2401 San Gabriel Street (am/pm)
- Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, 400 Nueces Street (am/pm)
- Plaza Saltillo, 408 Comal Street (am/pm)
- Thunderbird Coffee/Mi Madre’s, 2200 Manor Road (am)
- The Peddler Bike Shop, 5015 Duval Street (am/pm)
- Austin Pets Alive, 2807 Manchaca Road (am)
- Faith United Methodist Church, 2701 S. Lamar Boulevard (am)
- Dolce Vita, 4222 Duval Street (am)
- Blue Dahlia Bistro, 1115 E. 11th Street (am)
- Austin Police Department, 812 Springdale Road (am)
- Bird’s S. Lamar, 2110 S. Lamar Boulevard (am)
- Bird’s S. Congress, 1902 S. Congress Avenue (am)
- Bird’s Burnet Road, 6800 Burnet Road (am)
- Bird’s/Fast Folk’s Cyclery, 1107 E. Sixth Street (pm)
- City Hall, 301 W. Second Street (am)
- Luke’s Locker, 115 Sandra Muraida Way (am/pm)
- Yellow Bike Project mobile (at random downtown locations) (am)
- Shoal Creek at Far West, 6904 Shoal Creek Boulevard (am)
- League of Bicycling Voters, 4322 Banister Lane (am)
- Halcyon, 218 W. Fourth Street (pm)
- MetroRail Downtown, 408 E. Fourth Street (am)
- Jack and Adam’s Bicycles, 1210 Barton Springs Road (am)
- Tsunami Cycles, 2114 S. Congress Avenue (am)
- Bouldin Creek Cafe, 1900 S. First Street (am)
- AJ’s Cyclery, 10019 W. Palmer Drive (am/pm)
- Bicycle Sport Shop North, 9900 W. Parmer Lane (am)
- Bicycle Sport Shop South, 517 S. Lamar Boulevard (pm)
- Castle Hill Fitness, 1112 N. Lamar Boulevard (am)
- Clown Dog Bikes, 2821 San Jacinto Boulevard (pm)
- Ozone Bike Department, 3202 Guadalupe Street (pm)
- Wheatsville Food Co-op, 3101 Guadalupe Street (am)
- It’s a Grind Coffee, 4005 W. Parmer Lane (am)
- Whole Foods Central, 525 N. Lamar Boulevard (am)
- Whole Foods North, 9607 Research Boulevard (am)
- BikeTexas, 1902 E. Sixth Street (am)
- Recycled Reads, 5335 Burnet Road (pm)
- Kramer Lane Metrorail Station, 2427 1/2 Kramer Lane (am)
- E. Riverside Lakeshore Drive and E. Riverside Drive (am)
- Mueller Development: Mueller Boulevard and Aldrich Street (am)
Comments
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By CO2creator
May 16, 2011 4:32 PM | Link to this
I don’t know Pam you live about 7 miles from home to work. Round trip per day is 15 miles, with AC running and lots of stop and go traffic lets call that 1 gallon of gas per day. So at 15miles per gallon in 5 days of work you would use 5 gallons. Either there is something wrong with your car, you get lost on the way to and from work or you have car with a 5 gallon tank :-)
It would be interesting to compare the caloric needs for your cycling commute to the energy expenditure by your car.
By Stanton
May 17, 2011 11:43 AM | Link to this
Nice article, Pam!
National statistics show that only about 40% of commmuter miles are to work and back; the rest are shopping, going to a movie, and just driving around. When you start taking the bike to work every day instead of the car, it is an easier step to using the bike for other errands as well. That 5 gallons saved per week soon becomes 8 or 10. Most importantly, the bike takes most of the short trips off of the car, and short trips are what a car does worst. (My Subaru averages 22 mpg around town, but in the first mile after a cold start, the onboard computer shows 5, then 8, then 10 mpg.) The more of those short trips I do on my bike, the easier it is on the car - and the more fun I have!