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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Record number of Iowans are biking to work

Image of bike commuter Terry Mitchell of Des Moines, IowaFrom the Des Moines Register, 05.12.07:

Biking to work isn't just for tight-shorts cycling zealots anymore. Gas prices have risen to more than $3 a gallon in some places.

For all those reasons, Terry Mitchell of Des Moines bought a bicycle and rode for the first time in 20 years. He began riding it to work a couple of weeks ago, 8miles each way.

Mitchell will be joined by record numbers of Iowans this week, both longtime bicycle commuters and hundreds of new pedalers, in Bike to Work Week activities that kick off today in Des Moines.

Many others are coming around to the idea. The number of riders who registered for Bike to Work through www.bikeiowa.com hovered around 500 for several years but has exploded to 1,154 as of Friday night.

More than a quarter are first-time bicycle commuters. In Iowa City, organizers expect last year's record of 600 participants to be eclipsed. Concern over the environment and gas prices are the main reasons, said Angela Dalton, program director of Bike to Work in Des Moines. (Read more.)
This is a standard Bike to Work day article--complete with "lycra-clad" cliche, but avoiding the "10-speed" one--detailing local activities and offering encouragement by active bike commuters.

Image: Des Moines Register. Bike commuter Terry Mitchell.
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips

1 comment:

Yokota Fritz said...

In the USA outside of the Bay Area, if you're not in roadie kit while on a bike you're poor, an immigrant, a college student, or DUI-lost-license. If you don't fit in any of those categories you're weird -- like on the level of a child molester weird.

Before I returned to California last year, I was always the only person I knew who wore pants to bike to work. I was often always the only person I knew who biked to work, period. It's good to see this activity on the increase in the nation's midsection.