Reb MacKenzie
Claremont
To the editor,
A few days ago I attended the Vital Communities’ Energy Roundtable and discovered a national event that is coming up on Friday, May 17, National Bike to Work Day. However, Vital Communities is promoting our 2nd Annual Curb the Car Day on that same day to raise it up a notch!
Claremont residents have the opportunity to join with others in our area to celebrate this national, and now local, event that takes bike riding to work to another level. The next level encourages “walking, taking the bus, vanpooling, carpooling, skateboarding, and kayaking” to work. It’s late notice to join the Vital Communities event officially; however, perhaps some of us could jump on the band wagon next Friday. We can unofficially join the effort to increase our wellness by exercising and connecting with the beauty and beautiful people around us that we miss when driving our cars to work. We can experiment with changing up our dependence on drive-alone car trips. This, in turn, produces less greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, a global crisis we all have a part to play in addressing. Also, we don’t have to worry about getting a parking ticket or finding that sometimes elusive parking spot.
As a person of faith concerned about climate change, I’ve made a personal choice to try to ride my bike to work as often as I can. I’ve been able to do that three days this week. One didn’t count because when I got to work, I realized I had left my office keys at home and I had a client arriving in a few minutes. I was able to call my husband, who drove alone, to deliver my office keys to me. This is to say; I have now created a list of items I need to bring with me when I leave home on my bike for work. Creating a list of items may help you avoid this embarrassing mistake. Additionally, please use a helmet as needed or other tools to preserve health and happiness, like a bike lock.
I hope as many of us as possible are able to exercise (no pun intended) our alternative options to drive to work on May 17. Perhaps this experiment could be extended beyond Friday to improve our health and connection to each other and our environment!
To see the Vital Communities website for the Curb the Car Day, visit: vitalcommunities.org/ transportation/biketowork-2/
Reb MacKenzie
Claremont
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