The Guilt Cycle

I found some irony in starting this entry, as I looked for some outward confirmation that today was, in fact, National Bike to Work Day. The Bay Area and most of California seems to be squarely behind the notion that May eighteenth is the day, while other locales such as Houston and Minneapolis assert that Friday is the day to pedal to the office (or the factory, construction site or coffee bar).
Regardless of the date, most of the items posted are quick to cite the high price of gas as the best reason to leave your car at home. I would agree with that - for a start. Then you can start making a list: reduction of greenhouse gases, the comparative expense of maintaining a bike versus a car, bike insurance is not a requirement, aerobic exercise, stress release, and a magnified sense of well-being. Riding your bike to work can be a real self-esteem bonanza.
I started riding my bike to work when I became a teacher back in 1997. I've been riding the same two and a half mile route for nine years, five days a week, with the very occasional switch to a car when I have a flat or there's a plague of frogs falling from the sky. Mostly I just put on the rain pants and gut it out. It is, after all, only a ten minute ride.
For me, Bike to Work Day is every day. There were an estimated one hundred thousand commuters expected to take part in today's Bay Area pedal-palooza. And I know that I am not alone. 73-year-old Colin Beard of Palo Alto took the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's prize as Santa Clara County's bicycle commuter of the year. Beard's co-workers at Roche Laboratories nominated him for cycling to his job at Stanford Business Park every day for the past 40 years, rain or shine. Colin's got a little jump on me, but I'm hoping to catch up.