The weather really cooperated for Bike to Work Day today, and people came out in large numbers. It's the largest group I've seen at Freedom Plaza for BTWD. The time may be coming, if it's not already here, when Freedom Plaza is too small to handle the crowd. There were lines for everything and hardly room to move around. Several of the freebies ran out - including power bars given out by the new downtown transportation site goDCgo. Not to complain about free stuff - but I couldn't find anything (cream cheese or peanut butter) to put on my bagel. That made me sad. I did get coffee before it ran out.
Many groups set up tables there. The Park Service was giving out trail maps for area national parks. WABA was encouraging people to sign postcards to push DC to finish the Met Branch Trail - part of their "Where's Our Trail" campaign. Bike the sites had the 7 person funcycle there. ZipCar, Rails to Trails, the DC BAC and City Bikes were also there.
I didn't catch all the speakers but the local politicians I saw were mayoral candidates Marie Johns and Linda Cropp. If you saw other candidates please mention it in the comments. Marie Johns needed a bicycling consultant to tell her not to mention that she enjoys "spinning." You could sense a collective eye roll. The crowd was so large you couldn't hear most speakers, but Linda Cropp - that woman knows how to project.
If someone (like me) told you that you could get a T-shirt even if you didn't register in time, they were wrong. Sorry.
All in all it was a success, even if I didn't get a free bike.
I could tell on an after-work bike ride down the Crescent Trail that a lot of newbies (just judging by the clothes) had participated in BTWD, which is great.
There was a crazy old coot down at the Georgetown end blocking one half of the trail with a sign saying "Stop the GU land grab" and thrusting flyers at wary cyclists as they rode by. I don't think he warmed any bikers to his cause by almost knocking them off their bikes. I saw several discarded flyers further along the trail, too.
It's nice having a Bike to Work Day, but a shame it comes only once a year. I think it would be nice to turn it into a "Don't Drive to Work Alone" event, to encourage all sorts of "alternative" commuting, including carpooling and teleworking. If we could only get people to ditch their SOVs [single-occupancy vehicles of the motorized variety] just once a week every week of the year, wouldn't that be cool?
During WWII there was a propaganda poster saying something like "When you drive alone, you drive with Hitler." Maybe it's time we revived that poster, with the villain o' the day [Osama bin Laden, for example] in the passenger's seat.
Posted by: Nancy | May 20, 2006 at 08:34 AM
Marie Johns made have said the wrong thing about spinning. BUT I believe she is a strong supporter for the Met Branch Trail, and Cropp doesn't seem to have done much to help with that.
Posted by: GK | May 20, 2006 at 03:09 PM
I think Marie Johns' heart is in the right place - and she made it to an event that many other candidates didn't bother to go to, I was just making light of one (very small) slip up she made. Please don't read this as a statement of support, for or against any candidate on my part.
Posted by: washcycle | May 21, 2006 at 03:05 PM