Bike to Work Day (2011)

I know this post is a bit late, but better late than never!

I had a great Bike to Work Day. I started off by heading to the Freedom Plaza pitstop at 8:30, even though I didn't need to be at work until noon, and I work in the opposite direction ;-) What can I say? I'm a sucker for bike events.

There were so many cyclists & bikes out and about! I took a ride down the 15th St. cycletrack and the Penn Ave bike lanes to get to Freedom Plaza. They were full of cyclists of all kinds.

At Freedom Plaza were plenty of booths with cool free swag. My favorite was the DC Water booth--they were giving out free NICE water bottles (not the cheap, crappy, tastes-like-you-licked-a-shower curtain-liner bottles), and had demonstrations of their refillable water stations. Apparently they are going to place these stations all over DC, which would be awesome. I always carry a water bottle around with me, but that doesn't help if you don't have somewhere to refill it.

There were many great speakers & speeches. Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention to most of them because I was looking at all the great bikes. I did happen to hear Mayor Gray state that he wanted to make DC a "platinum" class city for cyclists.....wooot! I think we can do it.

After all of the morning's festivities, I rode the Kleinway back homeward and got ready for work. Guess how I got to work? That's right, I biked (as usual). But I like to think I cycled with a bit more dignity for Bike to Work Day, instead of my usual slap-dash attitude.

While at work, I was also lucky enough to stop by the Bike *from* Work pitstop at Tivoli Plaza in Columbia Heights. It would figure that those that biked to work, would also bike from work--and therefore would probably appreciate a little something for that trip too.  Once again, lots of free swag & prizes, not to mention an appearance by WABA's Bike Ambassador. I met a lot of folks and enjoyed the beautiful evening. It was a great day all around.

Some photos...

Maybe not the best place to put the stage...

We got silver! Next stop, platinum!

Even Honest Abe stopped by!

The Bike Ambassador!

Look at all the bikes!