Every morning this week, I’ve woken up certain that it’s Friday. Except on Friday morning, when I woke up thinking it was Saturday. What the hell?
But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about Bike Month — what worked and what didn’t — and to talk about what should have been a successful launch of Bike Month 2.0, and why it wasn’t, and how I feel about that.
I fell down on the blog-posting part of the project, but I did track my mileage; by month’s end I’d commuted nearly 275 miles under my own steam (272.7 miles, to be precise). In a nutshell, Bike Month went very well, was very informative, and was indeed an improvement on the way I’d been commuting. I can say this with greater confidence because I’ve been riding the bus this past week since Bike Month ended — and I could tell you that was a planned exercise in contrast, but I’d be lying. I bussed this week partly because I got sick (boo hoo), partly because I was feeling a little lazy, and partly because I really do like to read & sip coffee on the bus in the morning. The stark bike/bus contrast week has pointed out some good things I had anticipated, and some other good things I didn’t even appreciate in the midst of things.
The timing. I fully support King County’s Metro bus system, and believe they do a great job with the roadways and budget they’ve been given. But the route we live on is unpredictable; I’m usually either waiting for it for a long time or running after it because I took to long to leave the apartment. As a mode of reliable transport, well, my bike is never running late (or later than I am). On a bike, I’m on my own schedule. It’s all the independence of a car minus the fuel, parking, and environmental costs. I hadn’t realized what a big difference that scheduling made in feeling control over my life, and in reducing stress. This was the biggest unexpected bonus of Bike Month.
The body/mind. Bike = commute + exercise. And, occasionally, therapy. What other mode of transport tackles so many otherwise-expensive needs all at once? Driving a car never made my calves look this good.
The world. I’m more aware, and less afraid, of the weather. I had spent much of the winter avoiding cold rain, and if you know much about Seattle you know that such an endeavor leaves one indoors and alone. A lot. So now that I haven’t melted after roughly 31 days of rainy, functional fun, I’m less of a weenie about getting rained on, and I’ve figured out the ideal combination of outwear (very important). Plus, I watched Spring arrive — the robins returned, the cherry trees changed from bald twigs to audacious cotton-candy pom-poms of floral sex, the days warmed and lengthened. I’ve never understood or appreciated Daylight Savings Time so much as when I’m biking home at 7:45pm in daylight.
The happy. I’ve had a distinct attitude turn-around in the last two weeks. For the past six months, I’d been consistently angry. A lot of it was work-related. I was devoted to being angry. Recently — on a sunny bike ride to work — coincidence?? — I pretty much gave that up. Looking at the pink sunrise glow on the snow of the Olympic Mountains, it occurred to me that no one could fix my emotional upset but me. A therapist won’t do it; my boss won’t do it; and if I’ve learned anything from past relationships it’s that Chris won’t do it, and shouldn’t be expected to. So the only way to get my goddamn act together and cheer up is to pull myself up by the bootstraps. Bootstraps? Bootstraps. One could argue that suddenly getting over six months of fury while on a bike is pure a matter of coincidental timing… but I contest that biking created for me the ideal conditions for such a satori to occur. Since that morning I’ve been on a more even keel than I’ve felt in the past year. I would say that’s a pretty substantial payoff for a just few miles on the Flying Pencil.
There were other aspects of life in which I expected to see changes, which I wrote about before the project even started. Our consumption patterns didn’t change as much as I expected them to, but I did get MUCH better at planning my movements & getting to places on time. Mostly.
One of the biggest motivations for this project was examining the real need for a car in our lives. I wrote a lot of smug little “my bike is better than your car” posts, but really, can I pick up my 59-year old mother in law from the airport, with her suitcase, on a bicycle? Not so much. It was useful to have a car when friends and family visit, but truthfully, it wasn’t necessary. We could have taken the bus to any of our destinations, and if we really want our own set of four wheels, there’s buy-ins like ZipCar. Between a loan payment, gas, parking, maintenance, and deargodthe insurance, Chris & I spend an inordinate amount of our monthly budget money on our car. We talk more and more about selling it & being car-free for a while. We’ll see. But this experiment was a helpful assessment of what we really need it for, as able-bodied adults in an area with readily available amenities and public transit.
I realize that I tried to trumpet the benefits of Bike Month, but I didn’t ever really write about the costs. There’s the obvious stuff — the morning tasks of changing clothing upon arrival at work (What can I say? Girls sweat.), taking extra socks on wet days, keeping my work shoes at the lab, the added layers of rain gear and gloves and ear-warmers, extra laundry to do. I had to change some little habits. The other tangible cost was the loss of my typical morning phone calls to my East Coast parents; the daily 15-minute walk from bus stop to office building is perfect, but vanished for a month. I just had to make a window at another time. Again, that’s just a shift of habit.
I had to change some habits, yes — changing my habits was, after all, the point of the whole exercise — but otherwise I didn’t really feel that I’d lost anything, or really sacrificed, to be biking. My life has lately held a dearth of purpose, I suppose. So maybe that’s the single biggest thing Bike Month has done for me: it’s given me at least some sense of purpose, twice a day, every day. It’s helped me to feel more in control of my choices, and more proactive.
Do I have a grand conclusion? Nope. If that’s what you’re hoping for… sorry to disappoint. But I had fun. I had a lot more thinking time, a lot more physical activity, a lot more engagement with my self and environs and actions. This Lovely Bicycle! blog post touches on some of this past month’s themes. For now, it’s bed time.
But do you know what I’m going to do tomorrow? I’m going to ride my bike to work.
