In a recent homework assignment, I analyzed the reasons why we choose to go by car, by bike, by foot, or by bus. Of course, most people go the quickest way, which is usually by car, but people who bicycled also cited enjoyment, exercise, and cost, while some people who drove needed to haul cargo or small people.

Guess what, you can haul cargo and kids with your bicycle, thereby allowing you to reap the enjoyment, exercise, and low cost of bicycling as well as get your errands done.

Small children love riding in bicycle trailers. There are also child seats that go on your bicycle, either in front of you or behind you. (I haven’t seen any bicycle sidecars.) As kids get too big for the trailer or the child seat, they can ride a Trail-a-Bike which attaches to your bicycle. It gets a little harder when they outgrow the Trail-a-Bike. There are some products that attach two bikes together, or you can get a tandem (expensive!), or you can bike a lot slower so they can keep up with you. If you have multiple kids of different sizes, you might need a triple tandem and a trailer to get them all in.

Unless you are in a bicycle race with a support vehicle and domestiques, your bike has to carry at least a little bit, like a water bottle and a seat pack with your flat kit. To carry a purse or a few items as well, you can use a backpack or a basket on your handlebar. But a rear rack expands the cargo possibilities: panniers, rack trunk, a rear basket, or strapping stuff directly on the rack. A front rack opens up even more storage space.

If you have large loads, like when you stock up on groceries and bring home a giant package of toilet paper, a flatbed trailer is your friend. I converted a kid trailer into a flatbed trailer by removing the plastic seats and attaching the axle & hitch to a piece of plywood. In addition to the usual groceries, I’ve hauled a Rug Doctor, Christmas trees, and cats on that trailer. I’ve even strapped a lawn chair to it and hauled people!

The bakfiet, or Dutch cargo bike, is growing in popularity. Several children can fit inside the box that is the front of the bakfiet. You can haul anything in a bakfiet that you could haul in a car.

With a 12-foot-long Bikes At Work trailer, my bike exceeds the hauling capabilities of a car. I’ve borrowed one of those for lumber a couple times, and a bed once. I made several trips with it to help a friend move a few block away. Her furniture wouldn’t fit in her car, but it fit on the trailer!

Hauling stuff by bike is satisfying work!

“You can go by Zike-Bike, if you like” (Dr. Seuss– Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now)

I’ve had a couple fun homework assignments in this semester’s class, Transportation & Health, for my Sustainable Transportation Master’s Degree. Every student in my class entered data into a spreadsheet about a trip we make regularly. How long would the trip take by car? by bus? by bike? by foot? We calculated our exposure to pollution via each of these modes, and indicated which mode we primarily use and why. Our data joined 2 other years’ worth of data, for a total of 35 students.

For the next step, we each asked a question that could be answered, possibly, by analyzing the data. Assuming that most people choose the mode of transportation that gets them there the quickest, I asked, “What other reasons play into our choice of transportation?”

For everyone, the car was the fastest mode. But 1/3 of the students (including me) chose something other than the car: biking, walking, or transit. These students must have had compelling reasons to outweigh the time commitment.

Oddly, students who chose to bike, walk, or bus sometimes listed “Time” as the reason. That was because their mode, while not as fast as taking the car, was faster than one of the other modes. Walking was usually the slowest mode.

Many students who did take the car, 2/3 of the class, mentioned “Time” as well as other reasons. Since we all chose different trips, such as going to work, going to the gym, or going to the grocery store, we had different needs for each trip. Students listed the need to haul groceries or other passengers as a reason to use the car.

I’ve found myself using the car more often than I like lately, and the reason is “Time”. Each errand, I consider biking. If I’m making a big grocery trip, I would hook up my trailer to my bicycle. If it’s dark, my colorful bicycle lights would blink like a police car. If it’s cold, I would bundle up in my winter gear. But then I think of my homework, grading papers, cooking supper, and attending meetings, and I sigh and get in the car, saving myself 30 minutes of travel but losing an opportunity for 50 minutes of biking.

To be fair, I bike somewhere almost every day, to the gym and to meetings. But I enjoy biking my errands, and that hasn’t been happening much. Another day, when all these other very fun things that I do like Bike/Ped Commission and Public Transportation Advisory Commission and the Mayor’s Task Force on Pedestrian Safety wind down, I’ll bike some of these errands that I’m driving today.

Why do you go the way you go?

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” – Alfred Wainwright

The autumn rains bring back memories of my early days of bicycling. The first time I got caught in the rain, I got soaked. That’s not a big deal if it’s warm, until I have to spend the day in an air conditioned building. Next time it rained, I was prepared. I brought a change of clothes with me.

Then I learned that my change of clothes should include a towel, socks, and underwear. A steady rain gets through all layers pretty quickly!

Then I learned that my change of clothes had better be in a plastic bag, like a grocery sack.

Then I learned that my change of clothes had better be wrapped in TWO plastic bags. Thin plastic grocery sacks get holes in them, and leak.

While summer rains are pleasant, autumn rains are cold. A $10 rain suit from Walmart fell apart after two bike rides. It wasn’t designed for bicyclists. I purchased a Gore-Tex rain coat and Gore-Tex rain pants made for women bicyclists for–cough–$400! “It’s cheaper than car payments,” I reminded myself. 8 years later, I’m still using both the rain coat and the rain pants (although somehow the rain pants have gotten snug), so this investment has paid off. That’s $50/year, and keeps going down every year I continue to use them. I wear my Gore-Tex more often as extra protection from the cold than from the rain, so this has been a good investment.

I wore the rain coat and rain pants during a steady, cold rain this week. I was warm and comfortable while biking, and only slightly damp at the end of my trip, except for my hands and feet.

My hands and feet were soaked and cold. I’m still experimenting with rain gear for my hands and feet.

While the right clothing can make any weather just fine, it can take a while to find the right clothing for the right weather!

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” –Abraham Maslow

My bicycle is my “hammer”. It solves many problems:

Bicycling saves money.

Bicycling makes me healthy.

Bicycling doesn’t pollute or cause congestion.

Bicycling makes friends.

Bicycling makes me strong.

Bicycling in all weather makes me tough.

And bicycling helps me sleep.

Well, that might not be entirely fair. I’ve always been a good sleeper. It’s my superpower. I know I’m a good sleeper because most people I know struggle with sleep. They can’t fall asleep, or they wake up and can’t get back to sleep. They sleep restlessly and are tired when they wake up.

I fall asleep early and wake up early. I struggle to stay awake late, when I have a reason to stay up. I think my sleep quality might be better since I started bicycling, but it’s not something I’ve ever struggled with, so it’s hard to say.

The effect of bicycling on sleep is more obvious in people who do struggle with sleep.

A single bike ride doesn’t guarantee them a good night’s rest. They might even be a bit restless the night after a long ride. Three of my friends have independently observed that regular biking or walking does improve their sleep. When they stop biking or walking, their sleep deteriorates. And when they start biking or walking again, their sleep improves again. It takes a few days to a couple weeks to notice, either direction.

That’s not real evidence; it’s anecdotal. What is evidence is the plethora of studies on the topic. A recently published study links cardiorespiratory fitness to sleep complaints in 8000 people across 35 years (Dishman 2015, Med Sci Sports Exerc). That’s just one of hundreds of studies of exercise and sleep. The effect isn’t one-way: better sleep improves your life in many ways, including your fitness. Exercise to sleep, and sleep to exercise! Sleep is the new vitamin!

I can solve just about any problem with my bicycle. What problems do you have? Try biking or walking, and see if that solves your problem! If it doesn’t directly solve a problem, it’ll make you feel better.

My apologies for the Long Silence. In less than a month, I attended 2 conferences in different cities while teaching one online class and taking another. That advantage of an online class is that it can be done anywhere; the disadvantage is– it can be done anywhere! Couple that with my usual activities of commissions, boards, and task forces, and a minor family crisis (Nell’s ok– though it’s been a challenging semester), and things start falling off my plate.

What has not fallen off my plate is bicycling and family. It’s time like this that I can see my priorities clearly! I haven’t taken any long, recreational, just-for-fun bicycle rides, but I haven’t even considered canceling or trading shifts for a GetAbout ride. Our riders count on the ride leaders like me to show up, and that bit of accountability is what I need to spend some precious time on something that could be considered frivolous.

It’s not frivolous. Not in the least. Bicycling is my self-care. It’s what gives me the energy and health to do so much, to attend 2 conferences in a month, to teach, to learn, and to take care of my daughter.

If you need a little motivation to make self-care a priority in your life, start a Couch-2-5K, volunteer as a Walking School Bus leader, or lead a class at the gym. That extra accountability will allow you do something selfish– taking care of yourself– under the guise of serving others.