Oakland Does Bike to Work Day in Style

May 15, 2008, Oakland, Calif.….Clear skies and warm temperatures made this year’s Bike to Work Day feel almost as good as playing hooky. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy a perfect spring morning by cruising to work on a bicycle? Especially when a pancake breakfast (for you and several hundred other riders) was awaiting you at your destination. Needless to say, the mood at Downtown Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza was jovial.

Several hundred riders handed their bikes over to tuxedoed volunteers at the free “valet parking” which safe-guarded them until evening. Robert Rayburn of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, one of the event’s organizers, said he was thrilled but not surprised by the size and diversity of turnout, which included riders of all ages, backgrounds and experience levels. “We knew it would be a great crowd, because bicyclists are everybody and everywhere. There’s no question that this is a successful program and it shows that people are ready for a shift in their mode of transportation,” he said.

In addition to the free breakfast, riders were treated to a “Ride to Work” goodie bag stuffed with treats, coupons and transportation info, a raffle that auctioned off among other things a $25 dollar gift certificate to Luka’s Taproom in Oakland, and two free tickets on AC Transit — as long as you took a moment to practice loading and unloading a bike on the front of a real bus parked in the plaza. “Add a bike to a bus and there’s nowhere in the Bay Area you can’t reach,” said AC Transit’s Aram Boyd. “People — women especially — just need to know how easy it is. The drivers are there for you! Just let them know that you’ve got a bike to load and they’re happy to wait. We want to see more people riding bikes!” (If you didn’t have a chance to visit the demo, there’s a video on the AC Transit site illustrating how easy it is to get a bike into the racks on the front of every AC Transit bus). He did have a word of advice though: “Don’t forget your bike at the other end! And be sure to let the driver know you’ll be getting it down as you exit the bus.” — Paisley Strellis, MTC

Reporters Paisley Strellis and Karin Betts interviewed a number of Bike to Work Day participants at Oakland’s City Center gathering as well as the Claremont and College Energizer Station:

Start Slow, Keep Riding

Richard and Tracee both work at Kaiser. While Richard seldom rides to work, he decided to give it a shot in the spirit of Bike to Work Day. “It was actually pretty fun and didn’t take as long as I’d expected,” he said. Tracee by contrast rides “just about everywhere — to work, to the movies — I just pedal away. My kids see me putting on my helmet and think I’ve lost my mind, but once you start riding you can’t get off your bike.” She had a few pointers for people who are a little less eager to hop on two wheels than she is: “Start slow — just try riding around the block a few times. Once you remember how fun it is, you’ll want to keep riding.” — P. Strellis

Drive Less, Ride More

Daniel A. Ruiz lives in Oakland. Daniel is especially attuned to the environmental impact of biking rather than driving: He works for the national Department of Energy and his office is in Downtown Oakland. Since part of his compensation includes a transit subsidy, he uses a variety of methods to get to work each day, riding his bike to AC Transit, then transferring to BART for the remainder of the trip. “I use transit and my bike to get everywhere,” he said. “Last year my wife and I only put 2,000 miles on our car. That’s how seldom we use it.” With gas prices inching past $4, he hopes that more people will start pedaling. “If more people started riding to work each day we would solve so many of our energy problems: oil consumption, pollution — you name it.” — P. Strellis

Good Manners Matter

Chris doesn’t own a car so unless it’s raining (in which case he takes his bike on the bus), his cycle is his primary mode of transportation. “I always follow traffic rules when cars are around,” he explained. All three are experienced riders and all three emphasized the importance of being courteous to motorists when riding in traffic. “You have to set a good example when you are out there,” explained Edward. “You don’t want to give drivers any reason to think that bicyclists don’t have the same right to the road. When my brother [who doesn’t share Edward’s passion for pedaling] sees someone on a bike runs a stop sign he gets annoyed. He asks me, ‘Why can’t I run a stop sign?’” Their tips for novice riders: Ask an experienced rider about the best routes. “Its not always about the shortest way to go, experienced riders can tell you the safest and easiest routes as well,” said Alex. — P. Strellis

Three Times as Long, Twice the Fun

Despite working in San Leandro, Steelee swung by Frank Ogawa Plaza this morning to enjoy the event (to which he and Jessie brought their own plates, forks and glasses for the pancake breakfast). “It takes me about 40 minutes to get to work on my bicycle,” which admitted Steelee, is about three times as long as it would take him to drive. “But the way I look at it, it saves me time too. When I go to the gym after cycling, I don’t have to do as much!” He and Jessie agreed that although time may be a major obstacle to getting people on bikes, spending an extra 10-15 minutes in the morning is no big deal compared to how great it makes you feel and the reduction in damage to the environment. Jessie, who works all over the Bay Area in her job with holistic landscaping company, Earthly Sites, rides when she can. “Otherwise I always carpool with a group of people,” she said. — P. Strellis

The Family That Rides Together Stays Together

All four members of the Graham family biked the five miles from their home in Berkeley to Oakland City Center for the Bike to Work Day festivities on May 15. Andrew Graham was the workhorse, pedaling for daughters Greta (age 1, snugly tucked in the tow-behind trailer) and Katharine (age 2, riding in the center mount child carrier near Andrew’s handlebars.) Mom Deborah brought up the rear, ensuring that cars kept a comfortable distance away from the trailer. “Our nanny is going to meet us here at City Center and take the girls home on the bus,” explained Deborah.

Although because of schedule constraints she is not regularly biking to work at the City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department now, Deborah biked for ten of the past 12 working years. The same goes for Andrew, who works at Kaiser in downtown Oakland. “You can always find a way to make it happen,” he said. “We live in an 800-square-foot house, but it’s worth the sacrifice to be close enough to bike to work.”

Andrew doesn’t have a complaint with urbanization and congestion, if they get more people out and on to their bicycles. “Biking is a trifecta… good for your health, good for the environment, and good for the country because we’re not supporting a dependence on oil.”

The Grahams also ride recreationally together along the Berkeley waterfront segments of the Bay Trail, and even take their dog Cassidy with them on those jaunts. “Unfortunately Cassidy couldn’t come today,” Deborah said, “Because she had no way to get home on the bus.” — K. Betts

Positive Peer Pressure Does the Trick

Shellie Weisfield of Berkeley rode to her job at the College Preparatory School in Oakland for the first time on Bike to Work Day. The biology and chemistry teacher intended to start riding at the beginning of the school year, but several things got in the way. “Suddenly it was winter, and then inertia set in,” she admitted. For Bike to Work Day, her colleagues and students poured on the positive peer pressure, encouraging Shellie and others to ride by providing bicycle route maps, organizing a raffle, and hosting food and drink for students and faculty who biked to the North Oakland school campus. “With all that going on,” Shellie said, “I didn’t want to be the one rolling up in my car!” She stopped in at the Energizer Station at College and Claremont to ask for directions and advice about bike-friendly local routes, and then she was on her way. But not before saying that she plans to bike for the rest of the semester! — K. Betts