It's National Bike Month. I got off on the wrong foot wheel by driving to work on Tuesday (Ihad errands to run! a doctor's appointment to make!), but I evened things out yesterday and today with nice quick rides to and from work. And I might even get myself a new bike - something more road-friendly than my 14-year old mountain bike - to celebrate give myself the gift that keeps on giving: good road tires and gears that are actually useful on flats.
It's fitting that, later in National Bike Month, the Northfield City Council will consider - and hopefully authorize - the formation of a citizens' task force on nonmotorized transportation. My friend Bill Ostrem, who blogs at the Northern Letter, is spearheading this effort, which should help focus the city's and citizenry's attention on the need to make our fair city - which is pretty compact, fairly flat, and eminently bikable town (even in January) - more friendly to bikers, walkers, rollerbladers, etc.
Also fitting is that Matthew Baldwin, the proprietor of Defective Yeti, used the last day before National Bike Month to make this post, entitled "Trifecta":
I like riding my bicycle to work. By the time I arrive at the office, my body is flooded with my three favorite substances: adrenaline, endorphins, and self-righteousness.