I’ve mentioned in past messages that the topic of the month’s ITE Journal has been a little foreign to me and required some research. This month’s topic, active transportation, required none!
Active transportation has been a part of my life since I learned to ride a two-wheeler. I was four years old, and giving into my whines that I wanted to keep up with my older brother, my father took the training wheels off my hand-me-down Huffy. Straight into the middle of the street we went and after running me with for a few yards he let go ... and my lifelong journey of transporting myself with my own energy began.
It wasn’t long until I started kindergarten and walked by myself to and from school a half mile from my house. Starting in first grade, school was an all-day affair, but students were allowed to go home for lunch. I learned that riding my bike, rather than walking, allotted me a few extra minutes to enjoy a grilled cheese at home with my mom.
My family moved to Texas at the end of my second-grade year, where we weren’t allowed to leave school at lunchtime. With speed not being a consideration, I went back to walking—three-quarters of a mile each way now. Along the route I would pick up and drop off friends and classmates, turning my commutes into chances to trade stories about classes, teachers, and our social circles.
My middle school was judged as being far enough away to warrant a school bus, so my days of walking or pedaling to school ended in the sixth grade. That didn’t stop my bike riding adventures, though. In the summers, I was on a swim team that practiced twice a day. I would pedal with a teammate friend the three miles each way—twice a day! Add that to the two 90-minute swim practices, and I must have been in the best shape of my life.
We rode our bikes to practice for two simple reasons: 1) we wanted to be on the swim team and 2) walking took too long. Our city had no bus service and asking our parents to drive us wouldn’t have crossed our minds—my parents both worked, and my friend was one of nine children. Our bikes opened up the city to us. Plus, riding bikes was fun!
It was when I turned 16 and got my driver’s license that my era of active transportation was put on a long pause. As a typical suburban Texas girl in the 80s, I drove everywhere (obviously, a bike helmet would have flattened my enormous hair), and I didn’t get on a bike again for decades. It took a vacation to southern California and the rental of a beach cruiser along an ocean boardwalk to remind me of the delight of riding a bike, and in my mid-30s I once again became a bike owner.
Today my bike ride to work is about nine miles, nearly all of that on a bike trail, and when the weather is nice I try to ride to work when I can. Whenever I do, I’m reminded of that same joy I felt as a kid and I regret that I missed out on it for so many years. My hair may be a bit flatter than when I left the house, but no worries—I can just throw it into a side ponytail for the workday.