Bike To Work Day is coming!
It’s one of our favorite days and it’s a wonderful excuse to give biking to work a try. Here we try and tackle the dirty side of biking to work: Sweat, dirt, and grease.
Challenge:
“I don’t want to show up to work sweaty”
Solution:
- Bring a change of clothes, dry shampoo, cleansing wipes, a comb, and other personal grooming items to make you feel your best!
- Get a membership to the local YMCA, recreation center or gym & use the showers there after your ride.
- Take the bus in to work, and bike home on a Healthy Ride bike so you won’t break a sweat until work is over
- Ask your employer about becoming more Bicycle Friendly, by working with BikePGH to install bicycle racks, bring a #LunchLoop to your office, or sponsor our work.
Challenge:
“I’m afraid of the commute”
Solution:
- Map out your ride ahead of time, practice the route on a day when you don’t have to go to work. (Watch our video for tips)
- Give yourself extra time than you need to get to work by bike.
- Perform an ABC Quick Check. (Learn how with this video)
Challenge:
“I live too far to ride”
Solutions:
- Consider a multimodal commute. Put your bike on the bus and instead of transferring, take your bike the second half of the way.
- If you are driving, consider only driving part of the way and biking the rest. Many people park and then use the car-free Three Rivers Heritage Trail or the Eliza Furnace Trail to access Downtown, Southside, Oakland and the Northside safely.
- Don’t have a bike? Take the bus or a car part of the way and then grab a Healthy Ride bike to finish out the rest of your commute.
- And remember, every trip begins and ends as a pedestrian.
Challenge:
“I have too much stuff to carry”
Solution:
- Think about how you can use your 2-wheeler to haul the load for you. Backpacks, Side pannier bags, front and rear baskets can carry a lot and many bags are designed to be 100% waterproof. We can attest that they really do work!
- Have more to carry? Kids? Equipment? Learn about child-carrying and other general cargo carrying solutions from our friends at San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
- Need to know how to carry the supplies? Check out this blog post & video which goes into more detail about it.