The Wind Was A Blowin’ And The Bikers Were A Bikin’

This morning I rode to work with a whole big group of other people. I had not planned on riding with so many. I got up, looked out the window, put on my hat, put on my helmet, zipped up my sweater, pulled up my wool socks, put on my jacket, put on my shoes, wrapped a scarf around my head, put on my gloves, and was out the door (a scant ten minutes after starting). In short it wasn’t the kind of day I was expecting to run into a critical mass of cyclists. But boy was I happy to find tens of other cyclists out there braving the driving snow and in general having a grand old time.

This more than anything else screams to me that we have pedaled past some critical point. 2 years ago on a day like this you would be hard pressed to find a single cyclist out on the streets, and more than likely it would be a grizzled super commuter that had been braving this kind of weather for 25+ years. Today however, on almost any given day you will find a whole host of cyclists plying the streets of Boston/Cambridge/Somerville.

So the real question is, “what happened?” What was it that suddenly opened the flood gates to cycling. Was it gas hitting 4 dollars a gallon? The threat of global warming? The cities baby steps towards cycling infrastructure? The obesity epidemic? The horrible pain of driving in this city? The rise in popularity of fixed gears? The creation of this website (ha ha)?

My opinion is that it was a bit of each. I think we have reached the point where the snowball is rolling down the hill getting bigger and bigger. The more people that cycle, the more people see cyclists. The more they see them, the more they feel comfortable giving it a try (everyone else is doing it right?). More cyclist will drive demand for more cycling infrastructure, which in turn will draw out more people (“New bike lane! I will try riding to work.”). More cyclists on the road will condition drivers to look for cyclists leading to less accidents, plus removing people from cars means there is less cars on the road which could also lead to less accidents (data from Cambridge and others seems to show this). There are many positive feedback loops in play here, all of which are pushing more and more people to try cycling for the first time as a mode of transportation.

My prediction is that 2010 is going to be the year that cycling took a HUGE leap forward in terms of popularity in Boston. The last remaining mental barrier is this weather, when spring rolls around expect the streets to be packed with two wheeled citizens. Get your friends, get your bikes, and come be part of the fun! Till then, a big tip of my helmet to all of you pushing through this weather. While us snow riders know that winter isn’t that bad, I think we are all hoping spring gets here fast.

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More Signs Bikes Have Hit Prime Time

It’s nice to see bikes being covered in main stream media. Right now most people are using them as the whole “gas prices got you down try a bike” angle, but hopefully that will soon shift to “so you already commute now try all these other fun things you can do on a bike” and “here are tips for how to get the most out of your commuter bike” or even “next up bike fashion sweeps the nation.” A boy can dream right?

From the today show.

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Welcome To The Revolution

Just so you know, the bicycle revolution is now in full swing…do your part and get out there and ride!

Drivers clear a lane, bicyclists are taking to the road in record numbers in Massachusetts.

In Cambridge ridership has soared 70 percent in five years, the MBTA is launching a “Bike Coach” to let riders bring their bicycles to beaches this summer and across the state bicycle shops are struggling to keep up with demand.

With gas prices hovering near $4 a gallon, the surge shows no signs of slowing.

During a recent bike-to-work week, activists hoped to get Massachusetts riders to pledge 50,000 commuter biking miles. Instead they got 125,000 pledged miles — more than half the distance to the moon.

For bicycling enthusiasts — once a subculture of bike messengers, car haters, cash-poor students and eco-activists — it’s beginning to feel like a tipping point.

“People are coming back to the cycle in a big way,” said Shane Jordan of the nonprofit Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. “There’s a whole lot more people out on the street around this time than there were last year.”

Read the rest here.

We of course are at the perfect apex of a variety of events that make bicycling more fun/smart/worth it than ever. Global warming, obesity, congestion, smog, asthma, high price of gas. You name it, it all points to one thing, get on your bike people!

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