So a strange thing happens to you after awhile of being car free and not driving.  Most car-dependent people assume that you must be psyched to get into a car and drive for awhile instead of “having” to bike, walk, or take transit, but Au Contraire, Mon Frere….you start to just get a bit freaked out in cars; kinda like a cat being walked through a dog show.   Cars seem so silly and inefficient and inevitably you wish you were back on your bike.  They also feel dangerous.  Really dangerous.

This feeling applies to work too, so unless you’re lucky enough to have found a job that incorporated bike riding and work, you sometimes may be forced into a car.

I’m an engineering consultant and often have to travel all around the Bay Area for meetings, site visits, and to schmooze with clients.  And amazingly enough I can do a lot of this on my bike despite a complete lack of facilities and culture at my current office.  The key comes down to this one point: WHO ELSE IS GOING?  If it’s a solo effort, then I can almost always take my bike and/transit, but throw in my boss or a few colleagues and things usually revert to an automobile.  It’s rare to find someone else as used to getting around without a car as you.  You are a still a freak and rebel, in case you forgot.  And sometimes transit is just too slow for most people.  Sure, you could refuse to drive anywhere, and that would be cool, but it takes grand cahones and a lack of ambition in my profession.  Across town in the same amount of time is fine, but you’d be seen as pretty antisocial to leave the office an hour earlier to get to a meeting in San Jose when two of you coworkers are already taking a car there. 

But people will surprise you too.  After a few meetings with a new client on the Peninsula that involved cars and my boss, I was taking over the client and decided that I’d bike to San Mateo City hall via Caltrain for our next meeting.  I’ve mastered the nice and practical cycling work clothes that don’t give a hint of my mode of transport, but was still a bit skidish at telling the 60+ year old, apparently conservative developer client that I didn’t need a ride in his BMW to Caltrain as “I’d rode my bike”…..well, so it turns out he has 3 road bikes, still rides, and has a son that is a semi-pro racer at a college in the Georgia.  People surprise you and he still thinks I’m a bit out there(”wow, you really are a cyclist”) as he only rides for recreation, but I can also sense a bit of envy and respect in his tone now. 

Plus, when you do incorporate biking, walking, or even a peaceful ride on transit into a necessary work trip, you can’t help but feel that you cheated a bit…got away with something….your health, sanity, and a better way to live.  So go for it and be proud to show up on a bike.  I promise I will too. -R

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