Bike to Work Day 2009

So here's what I did on my day off: I celebrated Bike to Work Day with all the slobs that had to go into the office. I just went for the coffee. ;-)



It was definitely fun. Brian from LMRA Bike Club and I got to City Cyclist



in time to scarf down some of their breakfast spread.



We left at about 7 and rode Westcreek to Trail Lake,



jogged over at Foster Park to Ranier (which turns into Overton Park East just before the big downhill)



and cruised through Tanglewood and past Colonial Country Club before picking up the trail between Rogers and University.

As we approached the trail head there, we saw a knot of cyclists. I asked if they were going down to ride with Betsy Price & company and one of them responded, "I am Betsy Price!" It turns out that Tarrant County Transportation Authority President Dick Ruddell, Tarrant County Tax Assessor Betsy Price, and Fort Worth City Manager Dale Fisseler had met up with some friends at the trail head and were riding to the downtown rallying point at Heritage Park.





So we joined the crowd.







When we got to Heritage Park, there were even more cyclists.



And just after we arrived, a contingent of Fort Worth's finest showed up on bicycles.





We all climbed up the 12% grade of the Taylor Street hill and made our way to the Intermodal Transportation Center (the train station).





The police stopped traffic at all the lights and we just rolled through. I could get used to that.



It was a quick ride over to the ITC. Lots and lots of bikes; it was pretty cool. Once we got there they had water and coffee, donuts, cereal bars, etc., and a lot of fellowship with other riders and the bicycle-mounted police.







All together there were five of us from the bike club, including these guys (me on the left)



and Nancy who got there a little late.



As penance for eating donuts (or what someone called Cyclist Power Rings)



we had to listen to some brief remarks by the civic leaders who showed up, including Tarrant County Transportation Authority President Dick Ruddell,



Tarrant County Tax Assessor Betsy Price,



and Fort Worth City Manager Dale Fisseler.



Fort Worth's finest, who escorted us through downtown



and their bikes.



This is me hamming it up with Dale and Betsy. You can see this shot in the Fort Worth Star Telegram video coverage of this event here. This shot is at 1:50 in. You can also see me cycling by at 1:18.



They had a T Bus there for anyone who was interested to try out loading their bike onto the rack on the front. It's really pretty easy, as Nancy demonstrates.





Dick Ruddell said that last year there were only 4 cyclists that showed up for this event. I think we had twenty times that today.

For even more pictures, click here.