Hi. My name is Amy McFadden. You may have seen me, or read about me, in some of Elliott’s other posts, such as the one about taking our son to kindergarten on my bike. Over the past few years I have become a pretty regular bike-rider; being married to Elliott, it would be hard not to. ;-) But I still take the car a lot… more than I’d like to admit, actually. So when Elliott wrote about this 30 days of biking challenge, I decided to step up. Over the month of April, I will take my bike out for at least a short ride every day. I also hope to reduce my car use, and perhaps even shed a pound or two. I will be sharing my experiences — good, bad, and ugly — about biking every day in Austin, Texas. You might also want to read second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth installments.
Day 1: April 1st falls on a Thursday. Easy day to get in a bike ride, since it’s a school day. I work at our neighborhood school, where my son is also a student. Here’s what a regular school day looks like for me: I ride the one mile to school on my Xtracycle with my son on the back, then ride home at the end of my work day alone. (He stays at school in after-school care.) At home between about 4:00 – 5:00, I might be cleaning, cooking dinner, or just relaxing for an hour by myself (if you’re a mom, you know how precious an hour to yourself can be.) But here’s the dirty little secret about me, a so-called bike commuter; at the end of the day, I usually – no, let’s be honest – I always pick the kids up (one at school, one at daycare) in the car. One of my goals for this month is to get into the habit of using the bike to transport my kids in the morning AND the afternoon.
Day 2: April 2nd, school holiday. My son is going to spend the day with his sister at his old day care, so my mother-in-law Andrea and I can enjoy a day of shopping. I will admit, the ONLY thing that got me on my bike today was the 30 day bike challenge. Otherwise, I would have totally taken the car. Instead, I loaded up both kids on the back of my Xtracycle, Elliott got Andrea set up on a dutch bike, and away we went. One of the great things about biking with two cute kids on the back is how everyone — neighbors, joggers, and drivers alike — are so friendly towards you. (Elliott has commented on this, too; drivers treat him very differently if he has the kids on the Xtracycle or the box bike as opposed to when he is dressed all in spandex and out for a long workout on his road bike.) After stopping at the daycare (which is about 2 miles from out house) we headed to a shopping center about a mile further on. The shopping center didn’t have a good place to lock up our bikes; I suggested to one store manager that they ask their landlord to put in a bike rack. The shopping fairies smiled on us, and I was able to bring home our loot on my Xtracycle. We rode home, and, I’ll admit, traded in our bikes for the car. We went to lunch at a downtown restaurant, followed by more shopping (and nasty traffic) in Sunset Valley. I enjoyed our morning on bikes more than our afternoon in the car. I realized that, with a few modifications to our plan, we could have spent the entire day out on our bikes.
Day 3: April 3rd, Saturday. Realized early this morning (the day before Easter) that we bought the dye yesterday, but forgot the eggs. Grabbed my car keys to head to the nearest drugstore, then remembered the 30 days challenge. Even though this drugstore is only 0.6 miles from my house, I have NEVER ridden my bike there. Part of the problem is that I, like most people in our country, use the car as my “default” means of transportation. The other problem is South 1st; it is a narrow, curvy, hilly stretch near our house, where speeding is commonplace. Debated about the shorter, scarier route versus the longer, slightly safer route. Laziness won out, so I rode along South 1st on the sidewalk, which I know many cyclist (including my husband) frown upon. But here’s the ironic good news; this drugstore, that is pretty tricky to get to on a bike, has a bike rack! The whole trip took maybe 5 or 10 minutes longer than it would have in the car, but I like the fact that my kids saw me taking the bike, not the car, to the corner drugstore.
Related posts:
on Apr 3rd, 2010 at 11:02 am
Hi Amy….so cool that you’re able to be a part of the blog today. Congratulations on taking the #30daysofbiking pledge. It’s going to be an awesome month. Come back and blog some more in the future.
Darryl
on Apr 3rd, 2010 at 4:12 pm
So glad the weather is nice. You can do it!
on Apr 5th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Looking forward to reading your experience this month! Congrats on what you have already accomplished.
on May 18th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Amy, you inspired me, as you can see here (http://marysreallife.blogspot.com/2010/04/30-days-of-biking.html). Thanks to you, I feel I’m “vehicular cycling,” biking over to REI for an evening film, to Volunteer Park for a lecture at the art museum, to my Tuesday short story classes. Tonight I plan to bike to Seattle Center and Intiman Theater to see a play, and then back home. I’m loving figuring out what clothes will work, and I love being a hero wherever I arrive, to people who haven’t tried out how easy and intrinsically rewarding it is to bike places.
Thank you!