With the national average price for gasoline breaking $3.50 per gallon last month, Bay State Bike Week is an auspicious time to answer the question "Wanna bike to work?" with a resounding "Yes." Or, at least, "OK, I'll try it."
May is National Bike Month. Here in Massachusetts, the coalition behind Bay State Bike Week (May 12-18) is doing its part to get folks to reconsider their daily transportation choices.
"There was a guy at work who encouraged me to bike to work," recalled Susan Brady, 41, who works for a Cambridge pharmaceutical company. "I thought it was too far. I live in Roslindale."
But Brady discovered she could bike the 8.2-mile commute in 50 minutes, the same time it takes via bus, subway and on foot.
For six years now, she's been biking to work along the Jamaicaway and Muddy River paths, on average four times a week.
"I aspire to five days a week," she said.
It's people like Brady that Bike Week hopes to reach.
"We're asking people to change their habits and leave their cars behind," said Jim Gascoigne, volunteer chairman of the event's organizing committee. "Almost everyone rode a bike once as a kid. Everyone can ride again."
The movement has a long way to go: Only 1.5 percent of Boston workers commute by bike. Still, with the mayor's office behind Bike Week for the first time, Gascoigne says he's hoping to double last year's 1,500 participants.
Principal sponsors include The Boston Globe, boston.com, MassCommute, and the city of Boston.
Part consciousness-raising effort, part strength-in-numbers showing, Bike Week's events include the 50,000-Mile Commuter Challenge, which is a campaign to get cyclists statewide to collectively log more than 50,000 miles in a week.
On May 16, Bike-to-Work day, "Safe-Rider Convoys" led by experienced cyclists depart from various locations in Boston, Cambridge, and Arlington.
Breakfast "pit stops" in Cambridge (Monday through Thursday) and Boston's Government Center (Friday), plus "goodie zones" (Friday) give riders a refreshment break and a way to connect with other bikers.
Through the Bike Buddy program, veteran cyclists are asked to be a personal cycling guide and mentor for a day.
"People have assumptions that they're unaware of that keep them from doing it," said Gascoigne, who bikes from Arlington to Kendall Square most work days.
Upcoming events include the Redbones Bike Party & Benefit (Somerville, Monday); and Brookline Bikes Beacon Bicycle Parade and the Newton Bicycle Rally and Family Ride (both May 18).
For more information, see baystatebikeweek.org.
More on the lanes debate
My last column, about bike lanes (April 20), spawned a deluge of letters, and a heated debate on the MassBike Google groups discussion list.
Some readers wrote to support the view put forth by leaders of most biking and transportation groups I talked to - including MassBike and LivableStreets Alliance and Boston and Cambridge officials - that well-designed bike lanes can help create a safer environment for cyclists.
Detractors called the column, and me, everything from naive to misinformed. Ouch. But hey, I appreciate the passion.
Opponents think bike lanes might encourage careless riding, and fear the hazards of improperly maintained or designed paths.
In particular, proponents of "vehicular bicycling" believe a well-educated cyclist who follows the rules of the road is safer in traffic than on a segregated lane.
"I think bike lanes can be harmless in some places [e.g. suburban arterials with no driveways or on-street parking]," wrote Paul Schimek, a transportation planner and former bicycle program manager for Boston.
He argued that most threats to bicyclists come from urban drivers turning and pulling out, and opening doors on parked cars. "Bicycle lanes are not intended to address these threats, and can make them worse, to the extent that they encourage motorists and bicyclists to disobey the rules of the road." Schimek and several others also wrote to suggest that cyclists taking a bike skills class is another path to increasing safety.
Clearly, bike lanes do not offer magical protection. But a compelling argument in favor of street-side lanes is they make drivers more aware of bicyclists - and remind drivers that cyclists are legitimate users of the road.
Moreover, a bike lane can encourage that untapped majority of potential cyclists who would otherwise not be comfortable riding on a street.
Massachusetts law does not require cyclists to use bike lanes, and gives bikes the same rights and responsibilities as motorized vehicles. Any cyclist uncomfortable in bike lanes can ignore them.
Send comments and suggestions to shiftinggears@globe.com.
