Thursday, September 13, 2007

Good Fortune Smiles Upon Me

This good fortune is small on the grand scale of things, but benefits our planet the most. My commuting patterns this year have been to drive my car and bike to school on Monday mornings and then bike back and forth to and from school during the week. On Thursday evenings, I bike home, leave the bike there for the weekend and then get a ride into school on Friday mornings and drive home Friday night.

However, whenever I have something to do that doesn't take me directly home, I end up driving to a BART station in the East Bay and not riding my bike. In addition, if I leave school around 5:30 to 6:30PM, by the time BART gets into downtown San Francisco, it becomes standing room only and I often get annoyed looks from the suits who ride the BART with me as my bike and I take up a good chunk of real estate. Both of these have become deterrents to my riding my bike.

However, my problem has been solved. At my East Bay BART station, Fruitvale, Alameda Bicycle's Fruitvale Bike Station offers free bike parking for commuters. The majority of those who use the service are commuters who bike to BART in the morning and check in their bikes for the day.

I, however, do the reverse. At the end of the day, after I coast down the hill from school, I check in my bike for the evening and pick it up in the morning for my ride up to school. It works PERFECTLY. I could not have asked for a more perfect service at a more perfect location. Plus, I get to walk into the office all sweaty!