Over the past 6 months, the RD2 team has been bitten by the cycling bug. It all started when we hired the quiet and unassuming Mark Hurd. Mark is a fantastic coder and information architect with a mountain biking and cyclocross alter ego. Almost immediately after he started work, Mark began making the 10-mile journey from his apartment in Far north Plano to the nearest Dart station. I was intrigued and began spending my weekends getting my old bike in shape and taking it out for test rides. After a little bike maintenance and training, I began making the 16-mile trek from My house in south Richardson to our West End office. Two bikes parked in the office every day started to raise interest and last month, Blake became the 3rd member of the 2-wheeled crew. He recently moved into a house just east of downtown with a 4-mile commute. After a weekend trip to Richardson Bike Mart, he was armed with everything he needed to be a full-blown bike commuter. I’m now pleased to report that Mike is strongly considering a mix of Dart rail and bike locomotion to make his daily commute.
So as it stands, roughly a quarter of the RD2 team will be peddling their way to work in 2007! New bikes are being purchased and considered. Lunch discussions now frequently stray into bike talk. And to cap it off; this week there was an informal meeting to discuss plans for bike hangers in the storage area.
This is the first in a series of post chronicling the commutes of each rider. While we all ride to work, we’ve taken unique approaches to how we ride and what kind of bikes we’ve chosen. I hope you’ll check back for future posts that are sure to be filled with geeky bike talk and fun commuting stories.
as long as they don’t start posting “follow me” to work photos.
Just an entreprenurial thought/question: Do you believe they would be utilized if there were bike stands at various areas of a certain radius of Dallas, if they were guarded by police (as the DART police guard the rail stops), whereby users (including Fed Ex and UPS delivery people)could park their bike for a brief time and then ride on when they were ready to? If DART and the federal government are so concerned with not polluting the environment (ie; HOV lanes on the freeway) it would seem a low cost way to reduce traffic as they do in Japan.
Well Jim, We have an area in our office to store bikes so they are safe and out of the elements. The guarded stands wouldn’t help up much. A indoor protected area in the front of restaurants would be nice. If you have any DART influence, what everyone who rides to work would love is bike racks on the trains and busses. The trains are always crowded during peak commuting time so even though there is room for the bikes on the train its very inconvenient to get off and on and is a pain for everyone around you.