I pledge to reduce my greenhouse gas emissions by 450 pounds during May, which many U.S. cities, including Salt Lake City, recognize as Bike Month.
I have the farthest commute of all the SOAR team members (about 30 miles), so I’m not going to attempt to commute the entire way by bike. But I will take the bus two to three times per week, and stop asking my husband to drop me off and pick me up from my home bus stop (I learned at the Bicycle Leadership Conference that 40 percent of trips in the U.S. are just two miles and are the most polluting). If I do this during the month of May, UtahCommuter.com tells me that I can reduce my vehicle trips by 450 to 680 miles and my greenhouse gas emission by 380 to 575 pounds.
Me prepping for the Momentum bike fashion show at Interbike
I first started using mass transit because it was cheaper than buying snow tires for my 1988 California-raised Volvo. Even though the threat of snow is gone (let’s hope), I still try to commute by bus twice a week. The entire commute from point to point takes about 30-40 minutes longer than it would if I drove by myself, but I think it is worth the extra time spent. One-way bus fare cheaper than a gallon of gas and the time I have on the bus to read Newsweek and study Portuguese is priceless. Plus, I get home to my husband in a much better mood not having fought traffic for 45 minutes.
I’ll also reduce my green house gas emissions by biking around town more. I’ve been assessing every road I drive on for its bikeability and often think, “I could totally bike this. Why am I even driving a car?” I see bike trips to the gelaterie are in my not-so distant future.
You can learn how many pounds of carbon emissions your commute reduces by registering at UtahCommuter. com (hint: if you only commute by a car alone, your commute reduces NONE! Think about it.)
Woollen bloomers at their best
The first bikes were manufactured in America circa 1878. It took over 15 years of women experimenting with these new devices, breaking their bones trying to ride them with full, ankle-length skirts, before fashion began adapting to the self-propelled women. Even then society resisted the look and function of the woollen bloomers that allowed the female rider to bike safely and modestly.
This reaction born of the 19th century, Western mentality doesn’t surprise me. However, it does surprise me that only 10 years has passed since major bike companies began seriously accommodating female cyclists.
A recent Deseret News article “More attention being paid to women’s biking needs” quotes this figure. However, the article doesn’t address the huge time lapse between the bike’s inception and the establishment of the women’s cycling market.
As the DN article explains, 21st century designers are developing ways to make bike equipment and paraphernalia better fit the female anatomy and active lifestyle. Too embarrassed to go to the grocery store with your Lyrca shorts? Throw on a matching sarong! Leave your woollen bloomers at home! Even the statistics show that cycling women, who occupy 42% of the world’s cycling arena, deserve such attention from the cycling marketplace.
Still, you can’t fully appreciate this achievement without knowing at least a little bit of its arduous back story. Annie Londonberry, for example, finished riding her bike around the world a year before the first Olympic cycling event took place in 1896. Ironically, it took 98 more years for women’s cycling to become an official Olympic event.
This era is the most convenient one in cycling history to be a female cyclist, but not entirely because of progressive designers. The women who caught their dresses on their bike pedals, who competed in the first women’s Olympic cycling event and who dared to wear Lycra shorts into the grocery store deserve the bulk of the credit for this victory.
