101 Reasons to Ride Your Bike in Spokane
February 22, 2009 
10 Comments
Spovangelist is not a bike blog for the simple reason that there are so many other outstanding local bloggers covering the topic. For some reason biking and blogging seem to go hand-in-hand. Four out of twelve of the blogs featured in the Spokane Blog Bible could be considered bike blogs, or at least strongly bike sympathetic. Here is an alphabetical list, please mention any I have left out: 100 KM, 26InchSlicks, Bicycles, Brewing and Bitches, BiketoWork Barb, Cycling Spokane, FBC Spokane, Fixed the Race, Fresh – Fresher – Freshness!, Joe Blogger, Out There Monthly, Shallow Cogitations and Spokanarama.
Awhile back I wrote 101 Things to do With a Surface Parking Lot. The list was a challenge and took a couple of attempts to complete. Coming up with 101 reasons to ride bikes in Spokane, however, was a breeze. I sat down and whipped these out almost without pause. In no particular order:
- your engine is in your butt
- people in bike shops don’t try and swindle you for repair costs
- cleaning your windshield is as easy as blinking
- people think you’ve “got guts”
- wearing bike accessories makes your fashion distinctive
- insurance doesn’t cost an arm and a leg
- changing a tire can be done in less than fifteen minutes
- biking daily adds spring to your step
- you are more likely to wear comfortable shoes
- pulling up to lock your bike is a great conversation starter with pedestrians
- people admire your dedication
- skip the lines, buses and craziness on your way to Bloomsday
- you remind traffic to pay attention
- takes a huge chunk out of your carbon footprint
- you don’t have to buy gas – this should be reason enough!
- no license required
- great compliment to regular exercise
- people think you’re sporty even if you aren’t
- bikes come in more colors than cars
- you never have to worry about parking availability again!!!
- you can’t lock your keys inside of a bike
- good for your heart
- way more likely to stop and smell the roses
- pot holes are easily avoided
- you set a good example for kids
- arrive at work refreshed and ready to contribute
- cold temperatures locally make biking more comfortable, not less
- make new friends, volunteer with Pedals2People
- about 70,000 people die from air pollution annually (this equals the number of deaths from breast and prostate cancer combined)
- Spokefest will feel like a vindicating joy ride
- you learn the art of layering your clothes
- breaks aren’t mysterious and are easy to repair
- reconnect with the day-night cycle
- stop fueling the war machine
- improve your flexibility
- be prepared for spinning at the gym
- encourage your friends to ride bikes with authority
- burn more calories every day to earn that fattening dessert
- win free prizes on MyCommute.org
- don’t leave a stinky trail of carcinogens wherever you go
- squeeze through narrow openings when necessary
- harness the power of evolution in making your transportation energy efficient
- you can carry your transit up the steps
- better your balance
- help people cost share when you carpool to an event
- you’ll never be caught off guard by the weather in inappropriate clothing
- hit up three times as many galleries during Art Walk
- make the Centennial Trail your freeway
- free yourself from guilt about hastening peak oil
- tread lightly on Spokane’s battered roads
- be invested in watching the local bike culture grow
- donate your old bikes to the Village Bicycle Project
- become thankful for red lights instead of being angry at them
- remove the temptation to answer and talk on your phone
- get discounts on drinks at Coffee Social
- improve your coordination by breaking while hand-signaling
- what a great excuse to get to wear neon!
- walk the talk when you pull up for a meeting at City Hall
- you only have to have two functional tires instead of four
- enjoy carpooling across town with friends you otherwise wouldn’t get to see
- get some mileage out of that backpack in your closet
- feel the elation of coasting down a long hill
- support your local bike materials economy
- create green collar jobs with your bike service purchases
- more easily reuse your bike parts across different brands and models
- flashing lights, light ropes and accessories are legal and encouraged
- whoever spent years paying off their bike payments?
- think of biking as a non-dietary “cholesterol cleanse”
- you are less liable to accidentally kill a warm and furry friend
- take advantage of existing bike infrastructure
- create the demand for more bike infrastructure
- bump total transit costs down from #2 on your household budget
- invent fun biking rituals
- pour aggression into powering up a hill
- vintage rigs are just as fuel efficient as new ones
- earn a rad “bike muscle” above your kneecaps
- stave off the risk of diabetes
- improve your posture
- beat the bus to your destination
- increase neighborhood property values
- slip through the traffic jam and be on time for dinner
- cycling promotes mobility for seniors
- cut your noise pollution down to “Near Nothing, Near Perfect”
- get rid of the need for the volume and overhead on that 2-3 car garage
- British Medical Assosiation says health benefits outweigh accident risks 20:1
- reduce the depreciation on your transit investment
- give your bones a daily workout
- a non-pharmaceutical/barbituate way to reduce anxiety and depression
- boost your LDL and HDL readings
- reduce your mortality by 40% – commute 3 hours a week for 15 years
- let speed function as your AC system
- bicycling is a physical meditation – a must for anyone living with ADD
- smell the pine, orange blossom, and lilac in the air
- become a crusader against America’s obesity pandemic
- merging your commuting and exercise time frees up hours for other pursuits
- ditch the concrete jungle and take the scenic route
- bicycling contributes to economic justice and equal opportunity for all
- contribute to Spokane’s urban/enlightened image
- protect your global neighbor – air pollution exceeds traffic fatalities 3:1
- foil the meter maids and parking Nazis
- cars pollute our lakes and groundwater; bicycles don’t
About the Author
What a fun list! I love “your engine is in your butt” (and legs). My personal slogan is “Calculate your commute in calories per mile, not miles per gallon.”
Thanks for including me on the list of local bike bloggers. I write about cycling in the mix with a lot of other stuff–as it happens, today’s post IS about bike commuting.
Add to the list: Bike to Work Spokane, http://www.biketoworkspokane.org. While it’s not entirely a blog, it has a forum/discussion section (which will grow as we move to a new site organization in the next few weeks). On Twitter, we’re @Bike2WrkSpokane.
@BarbChamberlain
Item #101: It’s a GREAT way to enjoy the Spokane River!
Great list! I have one more for the list of blogs.
Lazyeye – http://heylucy.typepad.com/lazyeye/
I’ve used the bike corral at Bloomsday several times and it’s the only way to go. You get right in and when it’s time to leave you’re using a different set of muscles to go home.
Thanks for promoting the movement to a green collar economy. At http://www.greencollareconomy.com we are looking to advance the cause and bikers are a visual and real sign that change is happening.
#12 all the way! usually takes me about 7minutes to get to work, on Bloomsday it took me 2minutes, no exaggeration.
Good reasons !! Though very few points are not valid many points here are good and can be put in to practice.Enjoy guys!!
Great list! Outstanding really. #1 really made me laugh.
totally made me smile, thanks for the list – 101 more reasons to keep me peddling
Wondering if you had heard this great news. Google maps on biking.
http://awesomespokane.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-bike-maps.html