Did  you miss National Bike to Work Week? No problem.

Steve Zdroik is pinch hitting for Slow Dude and has a few thoughts on two-wheel adventures.

I spent the weekend in San Francisco, one of the most urban environs in our country.  I arrived back in my semi-suburban Glendale home, where I was forced to get in my car and drive to a doctor’s appointment on Monday morning before driving to work, which is actually only two miles from my home. While on the 101 freeway in Studio City, I saw a “Bike to Work Week” message flashing on the freeway sign that’s usually reserved for child abductions and sig alerts. How absolutely odd! Hmm, is it just me or have the out-of-control environmentally aware Northern Californians taken over our precious Southern Californian freeway signs? Don’t they realize these billboards are to alert drivers to approaching highway problems, not to coax them off the highway and onto self powered vehicles pulsing through surface streets?

A weekend in San Francisco gives one a fresh perspective on city living. San Francisco was essentially in full swing before the advent of the automobile, and then morphed to accompany the auto sometime after the 1906 earthquake and fire leveled half the city. They seem to deal with pedestrians, bicycles, busses, trolleys, cable cars, cabs, and trains better than most places. But ironically, San Francisco’s suburbs — of which there are MANY– seem to almost completely rely on the auto like every other American town.  I wonder if Bay Area suburbanites entering “The City,” suddenly view their autos as a  liability, while they try to navigate narrow streets, limited parking, and stand-still traffic at all hours of the day.

On past visits to San Francisco, I’ve had the “exciting” experience of bicycling from Union Square to Golden Gate park, up Market Street where bicycle messengers regard slow moving tourists as an obstacle, and cabbies give the minimum amount of room possible to bicyclists. I’ve had the wonderful pleasure of bicycling through the park on Sundays when the main thoroughfare is closed to traffic, and the residents of the city take over different sections of the park. They even offer free big band dance lessons in one area.

I’ve bicycled from the Embarcadero through the Marina over the Golden Gate bridge, through Saulsalito on the wonderful bike bath that skirts the bay all the way to Tiburon, and then took the ferry back to the city. There’s nothing as pleasurable to me as seeing the sights from a bicycle. One does not soak up the ambiance of a place in the same way when they view it through a car window or tour bus. They miss the smells and the nuances of the place.

I also wonder if people commuting to work every day in their cars would have a different perspective if they bicycled to work–at least those who live, say, less than five miles from their place of employment, that is.

The Los Angeles basin has one of  the world’s most perfect climates for bicycling, but some of the most hostile terrain. Whether it’s hills or horrendous traffic with no bike lanes, Angelenos like myself who venture into the fray are taking a definite risk. Even in the far-flung suburbs, I hear bicycling is no less safe. Most Southern California communities simply have put no thought into being bicycle and pedestrian friendly. We have wide roads and scary busy intersections. Ever since I purchased a home only two miles from my place of employment, though, I’ve often enjoyed the experience of taking my bicycle to work. Granted, I’m also lucky enough to have a commute that involves only one major intersection, and a series of tree-lined, fairly quiet residential streets that I’m able to bicycle down to and from my place of employment, which is, as I’ve said, a rarity in the L.A. area. But, I like others, find myself getting lazy on a day-to-day basis, and more often than not I tend to favor my four wheels over two.

Last week I promised myself I would stay on my bicycle everyday and I did it. Hopefully I set a good example for those whizzing by me. Maybe I even caused some to wonder if a middle aged chap such as myself could do it, maybe they could too!