Tomorrow is Bike to Work Downtown Day. Alternative forms of transportation have been on my mind lately since my car is still in the shop. Four days of being dependent on the trolley have made me yearn for any other form of transport be it bike, skateboard, Vespa, golf cart, Segway, magic carpet, whatever. Since I’ve been using the trolley’s Madison line I have managed to use it successfully for 10 one way trips in four days. That means that of the remaining 3 one way trips (one a day so far) I started out walking in the belief that a trolley would come along and I would hop on at some point. But in a mile and a half walk I never saw a trolley coming my way so I ended up hoofing it all the way home or to work on those trips. Walking is great in general. I didn’t mind the exercise and it’s lucky that the weather has been nice all week but wow, really? 30 minutes of walking down the trolley line and no trolley? It’s not as if I don’t already get plenty of exercise – running, yoga, workouts, walking Poppy four times a day, so I really wanted a trolley ride. This is to say nothing of the time wasted on a work day element of this scenario. Alas, the system is still hit or miss.
I have a bike but it’s been living in the basement of my building for years now. I haven’t even been down there to check on it. It’s a sad state of affairs to know how useful it would be now if only I had been more attentive to it rather than relegating it to a dungeon, never to see the light of day. Perhaps that needs to change. Bike to Work day is making it easier to ride your bike into and around downtown. There are three group ride routes: the Eastgate route which is about 9 miles and starts at Eastgate Shopping Center, the Brooks route which is about 3.5 miles and starts at Brooks Museum and the Otherlands route starting at Otherlands Coffee. You can join a group and ride from one of those locations or you can use an interactive map to plan a personalized route. More information can be found at: http://downtownmemphis.com/biketowork/
2 comments:
Sorry to hear of your Trolley woes. I have often thought that riding my bike to any destination is a great idea....except for a few things. What will you look like by the time you get to wherever you are going? Will you have the "puppy dog" smell? Will you be a sweaty mess? And where will you put the bike once you get there? It used to be that bike racks were common place, but where are they now?
Sparkling,
I think the bike thing may work better for small trips when it's not so very hot outside.
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