It’s something to think about. Commuting on a bike connects one to one’s surrounding far more effectively than driving a car.

I noticed this first-hand last June:

Yesterday I parked at a central location (near a coffee shop) and rode to a morning appointment. On the way back, I saw a client/friend and their kids – the older riding his bike with training wheels – and talked to them for a few minutes.

Had I not been on my bike, I likely would have been relegated to waving – the 5 minute connection was valuable.

This year I am going to continue to ride my bike whenever it’s possible and feasible, and will ask clients if they want to do the same. For many properties in the City of Charlottesville and immediate urban ring, this is a very doable thing.

Thanks to Daniel Nairn for pointing this out.

This Friday, Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation (ACCT) is hosting their 1st annual Bike Extravaganza at Cityspace on the downtown mall between 6 -9 PM. Expect bicycles, expect extravagance, expect lots of fun people.

I’d love there to be a map online of the Charlottesville area that showed bike lanes and ratings by other bikers/commuters describing and rating bike lanes and bikeability.

That being said, it’s liable to be a bit cold on Friday.