Bike to Work Week

Did you bike to work today?

I ask this because this week (May 11-15) is Bike to Work Week.

Now many of you read those two lines and said to yourself, "I can't bike to work, it's too far." Well, if the distance to your work is greater than the amount of stamina you have, how about finding a closer place to park your car and ride that last few miles into work?

Maybe a park-and-ride or a shopping mall. Not only will the exercise be great for you (I'm sure you're like me and just sit on your butt all day at work) but it will also help to ease you're stress level. I'm sure that most of you sit in traffic for a good chunk of your ride home.

In addition to this week, May is actually Bike Month.

And perhaps the coolest news about bikes that I found today is the fact that again Washington was named the number 1 Bicycle Friendly State. Here's the complete list.

What not to do when bike riding

Today I went for a bike ride. We went down and around Issaquah. Here are the JustSON top 10 tips of what NOT to do on a bike.

10. Hit a parked car.

9. Get attacked by a blackberry bush on the overgrown trail.

8. Run over a bunch of loose nails in the bike lane.

7. Take a "short-cut" that actually adds 10 miles.

6. Crash trying to do a jump at a skatepark with your mountian bike. In front of a bunch of skater high school kids.

5. Sing DMB while riding.

4. Hit a second parked car.

3. Have blood run down your arm.

2. Run into the guy holding the "Dinner specials at local pizza place" sign on the sidewalk.

1. Stay out, thanks to the "short-cut" until it gets dark and have no flashlight.

Brake for Bikes

I'll be the first to admit, I hate bike riders on the road. Anytime I see those two-wheeled contraptions while driving in my car, nothing but venom and the occasional "Chuck Norris your a**" reference comes out.

And let me rephrase that, most of the time, bicyclists are not a nuisance, when they're on the sidewalk or not cruising down a main lane on Division St. It's the guys who think they have just as much right to buzz around like motorized vehicles. Problem is, they don't exactly move as fast as vehicles, nor do they signal as efficiently as vehicles.

In fact, my main concern is not so much that I'll be stuck behind a bike, but rather the rider's insistence to weave back and forth in traffic like they own the place and otherwise create a very dangerous situation. You know for the most part where cars are going thanks to blinkers, you don't know what bike riders are going to do.

Now fellow blogger Jake Rehm is a bloody bike rider, but he understands how traffic goes and really how bikers shouldn't be out in the middle of it.

Here's a story by the Spokesman, on how Spokane wants to make more biking trails through the city and residential areas, which i think is great, but just putting a bike lane on residential streets is only going to make limited driving space (if you live on the South Hill, you know what I'm talking about) even more a commodity.

The main focus seems to be safety on that project though, and that's a good thing as some bike riders don't seem to be so focused on safety.