Bike "Friendly" Businesses

I really do appreciate the efforts that some businesses make to appear bike-friendly.  Putting bike racks out front does go a long way over nothing at all and I certainly appreciate steps like that.  Especially when the racks are fairly prominently placed so you don't have to walk through a sea of car parking after locking up your bike.  But bike racks alone do not a bike-friendly business make.  There are plenty of ways that this can be messed up.  One that I've observed far too often is racks that would otherwise be useful clogged up with shopping carts and other things.  I've seen two particularly egregious examples of this at a Target and Safeway.  In each case, instead of leaving bike parking open and creating an inviting situation, the parking is blocked with shopping carts.  In the case of Safeway in El Cerrito, CA, it almost appears as though this was being done intentionally by someone working there.  Luckily in this case, there are additional racks to use.  In the case of Target, it appears to be the case of someone putting the cart there by mistake.  Hopefully an employee removed it later so the person with their bike parked there isn't crowded out and can easily access their bike.

Another way that businesses can fail in this way is to provide absolutely worthless bike parking.  Again, Safeway is an offender here.  Again, the racks are located in a decent location, near the front entrance of the store.  But if you want to actually lock your bike up securely, this type of rack is worthless.  You can use the ends, as this bike owner did, but that means the whole rack can hold two bikes.  Otherwise, you're only able to lock your front wheel which can be easily stolen with or without quick-releases.  

May the Health Be With You

There are lots of reasons to ride and I'm sure I'll cover a lot of them in due time.  But for me, one of the best reasons is to stay healthy.  There was a time in my life when I wasn't very healthy.  I wasn't fat or entirely out of shape.  I played soccer and could run just fine.  But it would hurt.  I got shin splints.  I would be sore after games.  I didn't even realize at the time that all this was a product of being out of shape.  Finally, I decided to make a change and started doing a spin class on top of the soccer.  I slowly dropped some pounds and got faster on the bike and on the soccer field.  I didn't hurt after the games.  I could hike for hours without getting tired or sore.  When I moved, I started riding my bike regularly.  Eventually, my commute consisted of about ten miles of riding.  At this point, I could ride 50-60 hilly miles at a quick pace without a problem.  I would ride to parties up in the Berkeley hills (see photo below for views) and people would be shocked and comment on how "intense" I was.  But it was just something I enjoyed.  All of this isn't to brag or anything remotely like that; as a Minnesotan, it's not in our nature.  It's more to state that just about anyone can get to this point.  Riding is easy to start and the more you do it, the more you enjoy it and the easier it gets.  To me at this point, stopping riding seems harder than starting.  If I go a few days without being on a bike, I can start to feel the difference and feel sluggish and anxious.  Your body needs regular exercise to keep in shape.  Without, you'll just start to fall apart, simple as that.
If more of us rode bikes or walked to get where we need to go, we would save billions of dollars in healthcare costs.  Ailments and conditions wouldn't magically go away, but many of them would be significantly lessened.  Even small amounts of activity count for a lot if you're currently not doing anything.  Say that instead of driving that half mile to the grocery store or your friend's house, you walk instead.  By walking there and back you've walked about 20 minutes.  The CDC recommends that you get 22 minutes of exercise each day, so by simply walking that short distance, you're done.  It's really not hard to get enough exercise each day, you just have to make the right choices.  I love riding to get that exercise and feel so much better for doing so.  I guarantee, start getting exercise and you will, too!