Car Optional Lifestyle Status and Google Bike Maps

Walking about town a few days ago I was jostled from my random thoughts by the sound of someone bellowing my name down the street. I turned and ran into an old colleague from days past who wanted to catch up with me to ask how my bike life was going. For those of you who are reading this post for the first time I made a decision earlier this summer to walk away from my car.. literally. My girlfriend’s lease was up and I had this old 2000 Durango taking up space in my parking spot. Long story short… she has my car and I rented out my parking space to someone else in my building. That leaves me with a number of transportation option. My favorite is my urban pake bike. I just dig it. It’s lighter than my cruiser was. It turns corners and maneuvers quickly. It has tougher tires than my road bike so I don’t worry as much about random Denver road conditions. With just one speed about the only thing I got to do was pick out my own colors for the parts (I picked blue). And let’s face it… riding a bike is a hell of a lot healthier than driving a car.

My other modes of transportation are my scooter, my feet, the occasional cab, and I’m checking out the car share systems like gocar and connect by hertz (See my previous post about the best car share).  And of course the real question about how my car optional lifestyle he was asking was if I had stuck with it.  After all, it’s not like I sold the car.   Someone who cares about me has it and I could go back to driving it if I gave up this goal.  But I haven’t given up.  In fact quite the opposite, I find that the more I live without my car and change my habits the easier it gets.  I have borrowed it on a couple specific occasions so It’s not like I refuse to drive.  The first was a situation I always planned on… the vet trip.  With a 100 lb older pup his comfort comes first.  He had a trip to the vet last week and I borrowed my old wheels for the trip.  The other instance was when I found a bookshelf on Craigslist that was in Boulder with a “first one who gets here can have it” offer that got me in my car again.  At least I had to bike to get over to where the car was so a little exercise was involved.

My answer was “so far so good”.  The real test will be when the weather changes and I’m not riding a bike or a scooter with the sun keeping me nice and warm.  I do remember riding with freezing rain/snow pelting my face.  I remember arriving at my destination cold and soaking wet.  Brrrrrrr.  But I also remember how nice it was to warm up with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and feeling the comfortable ache of a well maintained body and soul.  I’ll take exposure to the environment any day.  It gives me an excuse to buy cool winter duds and toys.

I’ll keep you posted on how I do on my car optional journey.  I’ll share the good and the bad.  The wins and the losses.  It’s not all about forcing yourself to bike across the city.  Some of it is about shopping more locally, eating within your own neighborhood, and the occasional cab ride that you probably should do after that second glass of wine anyway.

Cheers all.

Oh, and the second part of my post is from an article in the New York Times this past week announcing that Google is finally getting their bike map application off the ground.  Other sites have tried but I think that only the mighty google will have the user base to get this tool to the level it needs to be.  Soon my journey across Denver to a new destination could be made easier with the right path.  Even better, visiting other cities could become easier with this handy tool.  So give it a try and come back here and let me know how good or bad the Denver bike guide is… and then submit some help to their site to make it better.

Google Bike Maps