In light of Bike to Work Day June 24, we would like to talk about how our workers get to the job every day.
Of our six employees, two ride bikes (Meghan and Tom), two walk (Jae and Julio), one takes the bus (Ben) and one drives (Holly). But, hey, it’s a Prius!…
While Bike to Work Day is a great event, it’s main effect will hopefully be to show people how easy it is to get around Denver on a bicycle (or public transit and a bicycle if you are far away). The city is flat, and the drivers are (relatively) friendly towards bikers. Sure most our employees have the advantage of living closely, but it is remarkable how far you can get with just a bike without even breaking a sweat.
This article about Robert Hurst (who’s books about bicycle commuting are nearly always out of stock and on our want list) is about the same idea. Every day should be bike-to-work day!
I prefer taking the bus to riding a bike, unless I can ride in suburban streets on on sidewalks or paths. But I guess practice makes perfect.
You know, that’s totally fair. Biking in the streets with cars can be scary (especially at rush hour, and especially with so many people on their cell phones!).
One thing that helped me a lot was getting a good Denver bike map. That way you can map out a route that takes streets with either dedicated bike lanes or streets that just have low traffic (or, if you’re lucky, an off-road dedicated bike path).
BikeDenver.org (which is an amazing group and a great web site) has links to two different bike maps. One is by the city and one is by the Denver Bike Touring Club.
http://www.bikedenver.org/maps/
I personally like the DBTC map much better. The city map just shows you the streets where they have painted those little bike guys. The DBTC shows you those and other streets that are generally low traffic. Definitely worth the $6. You can also get this map at most bike shops.