Excellent NPR Story on Bike Commuting

This one is on bike commuting in New York City in light of their 200th mile of bike lanes and features bike blogger Bike Snob NYC (which is a very good, very funny blog). Best Part:

the entire notion that we have to build a transportation infrastructure around allowing people to show up to work clean in suits, why? Who cares?

Brilliant. The other day I was late to work so I didn't get a chance to shower until lunch, my coworker said it smelled lightly of wet dog, but it didn't bother him. People always say "not everyone can show up to work sweaty." True. But what is the number that can't? 50% maybe? I think a lot of people THINK they can't show up to work sweaty, but really they can. It's like in high school when you thought everyone noticed and was secretly making fun of how awful your hair looked, but it turned out they were all so obsessed over their own appearance that most people didn't know who you were. Same thing. If you've ever seen me ride a bike (even for 30 seconds), you know I sweat like it's my job, but after a half an hour of sitting it's over and NO ONE CARES.

Commissioner JANETTE SADIK-KHAN (Department of Transportation, New York City): If you rode on the protected bike path along 9th Avenue in Manhattan, since we've implemented it, we've had a 50 percent decrease in the number of accidents on that corridor alone. And so, you know, as we're engineering our streets differently, building in new mobility into an old network, we're also seeing a really big down payment on improved safety.

Commissioner SADIK-KHAN: The number one reason that people don't bike to work is that they're worried that they can't park their bike and have it there at the end of the day when they need it. So we're removing that artificial cap, we think, on cycling, and we think that that's going to be a great way to have more and more people bike to work.

This is just a really good story. It talks about the reasons people don't bike, how NYC is trying to fix that and how society and attitudes need to change to speed this along.

There's a lot of things to be afraid of or that you think you should be afraid of. There's getting your bike stolen. There's the motor vehicle traffic. There's people judging you, people judging your equipment, people making fun of you, like me.

And all that without any fear mongering, driver/cyclist war talk or hyperbole. I wish I'd wrote it.

Comments

[guez]

I agree that it is important to address the hesitations that people have about bike commuting, but I'm not sure that taking on workplace culture (and American hygiene standards) head-on is the solution. Sure it *shouldn't* matter that much whether an employee or two shower after cycling to work and sure, Americans are unreasonably obsessed with perspiration, but most people are simply not willing to push the limits of what's acceptable in their workplace. They're too anxious about the (albeit vague and unspecified) consequences. And that is where you're right: it's EXACTLY like high school. But no matter how much your parents told you that it didn't matter what other people thought, the message never really got through, did it? Because you DID care.

So instead of telling people not to worry about showering, we would do better to suggest solutions: cycle slower, shower at a gym, combine a light cycle commute with Metro, etc.

[Nancy]

If we could just get the afraid-to-sweat majority to lay off the stinky colognes, perfumes and body deodorizers, it would be easier to share an office. As long as you shower/bathe once a day and wear clean clothes, you should be good to go. [I find people overestimate the amount of stench a good sweat produces.]

[Washcycle]

Oh yeah, I think more showers are important, but it will be awhile before supply meets demand, so in the interim a change in attitude would help. Attitudes do change. Lately I've heard a lot of people talk about how they won't answer their phone while driving anymore - that's a good thing too.

[old guy]

Geez, it's hard to think of me as a paragon of personal hygiene, but if I couldn't shower before working, I can't imagine bike commuting. On those rare days that my shower is not working, I always start with a sponge bath in the men's room. As as manager in the Federal govt. stinky employees is an issue I have to deal with (no kidding).

[Deb]

I don't have a shower option, and it doesn't stop me from bike commuting. I sweat plenty too. (I used to try to cycle slower, and then I realized that you're going to sweat going up hills no matter what.)

I change my clothes down to the skin, and I use a "refreshing" spray that I make based on a recipe I found online. It's been over a year of this routine, and it's just a non-issue.

It bugs me that people will often say we should advocate solutions like guez suggested. Not to pick on you guez! But I work near no gym, no metro, and have hills to climb. Sweat is simply part of the equation, and a shower is not. I'm glad I listened to the people online who said to not let it stop me, rather than thinking that if I didn't have a shower I couldn't bike commute.

I think part of the problem is that people don't always understand that a shower immediately after a bike ride is not required for good hygiene. I'm not advocating to relax hygiene standards, I'm advocating educating people on how to maintain hygiene standards shower or no shower.

[Washcycle]

old guy, I guess that's my point. Hygiene is important, but you can get by fine with a good sponge bath if you have to. [But a shower is nice].