Riding my Bike

I live three miles from my work.  Except for a couple of blocks, literally the entire way is either on a designated, signed bike route or an actual, beautifully engineered and landscaped bike trail (technical term is multi-use path).  I live in a climate where rain is rare.  I have a nice-enough bike and I’m strong enough to make the ride. 

So do I ride my bike to work? 

No! 

Well, almost never.

And why might that be?

Because it’s so freaking impossible.

Given my job status, I’m expected to dress a certain way for work.  Which is fine, but I can’t exactly ride my bike in panty hose, heels and a pencil skirt.  Not to mention how sweaty I would get my nice blouse. 

I have a backpack that I wear to carry things when I ride, but I can’t exactly crunch the work clothes into it and expect them to be presentable by the time I got to work.

So I figured I would plan ahead.  Helpful hint:  I bought a clothing rack, with the intent of bringing clothes in to work and changing there when I rode my bike in!  Thirteen bucks at Home Depot. Easy assembly, and it rolls!  It even has a shelf for shoes!

But, trying to figure out what day I’m going to ride in and what outfit I’m going to wear and making sure I bring it to work ahead of time by automobile is sort of hard.

Helpful hint:  Have a special outfit you keep at work all the time just for those days you ride in! 

Well, okay, but what if I ride in more than one day in a particular week?  Or what if the outfit isn’t appropriate for the particular day/weather/event?  And the outfit does eventually need to be washed, which necessitates bringing it home and then back to work, via automobile. 

Not to mention I can only fit into two skirts right now, and having only one at home on a day I drive in or have to go to a different location than my office could prove problematic.

There is also the fact that I work at a remote location.  The municipal government is at City Hall, but as I work in an operations department, my office is in a small portable building over at the “yards” where all the operational functions are.  It’s less than a mile from City Hall, where I must frequently go to attend meetings or conduct official business, but it’s too far to reasonably walk, is not a pedestrian-friendly route, and when the weather is really hot, I’d be a sweaty, sunburned mess by the time I got to City Hall. 

Helpful hint:  get a ride to City Hall (or wherever) if you have to go to a meeting!

Well, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t, depending on who is attending and what their other commitments are, and I’m not going to ask my secretary to use her personal vehicle as a taxi service for me.  And there aren’t any facilities at City Hall where I could change from bike riding clothes to work clothes and besides, how would I get the work clothes from my remote office to City Hall? 

Despite the lip service the city pays to bike facilities and bike racks and being a Bronze level bicycle friendly community and promoting all forms of multi-modal transportation, believe me, it would not be looked upon kindly if I walked into a meeting in a t-shirt and shorts, windblown and disheveled from riding a bike.  Even if I explained that I had been riding a bike, which is what you’re supposed to be doing.

Plus, there is the matter of getting paperwork from place to place, and my briefcase.

Tomorrow is a perfect example.  Great day to ride.  It's a Friday.  I can wear jeans.  Weather will be decent, a little windy, but not a deal killer.  I do have a City Hall meeting, but its just with other staff so I can get away with being a little disheveled, and a subordinate is going to the same meeting as me, so I can catch a ride with him.  But, oops, look at that! There has appeared on my calendar a 3 pm meeting with the City Manager, other senior level staff, and the folks from the Bicycle Coalition.  Can't show up a mess to a meeting with the City Manager . . .  and the bicycle people. 

So I can't ride my bike because I have a meeting with the bicycle group.  Who want to discuss opportunities for additional bicycle facilities in town. 

The irony.

I haven’t even mentioned the hair and makeup.  Helpful hint:  keep styling products, makeup and toiletries at work and fix up once you get to the office on your bike!

I actually have done this.  But trying to style sweaty, creased bike-helmet hair and applying makeup to a dried-sweaty face isn’t really optimal.  In fact, it’s kind of gross, and I’d say I probably have more tolerance than the average person for going around in a dried-sweaty, post-workout state.

And there is the matter of food.  I have to pack a lunch and put it in the pack, because there are no places to eat within easy walking or biking distance of my office.  I I forget to pack food, I'm stuck with nothing  to eat the rest of the day.

And of course, I have to get up and leave much earlier if I ride the bike. 

It takes so much thought, thinking ahead, planning, and just plain hassle to ride the bike to work.  And we’re not talking about a major commute.  This is three miles.  Minutes.  It takes more time to plan and get ready to ride than the ride itself takes.

I have actually done it though.  Mostly on Fridays, when I can get away with wearing jeans, and I just stuff a decent shirt in the backpack to change into once I get to work.

But, until my employer truly embraces the spectacle of their executive-level employees schlepping around in exercise wear at work, I don’t think my bike rides to work are going to be very frequent.  I’m sure others are faced with a similar dilemma, and that’s why they don’t ride their bikes to work either, even though they live similarly close to their place of employment.

It’s just so, so, so much easier to drive . . .