On May 17, we have a choice – We can burn carbs, or carbon. Join
me and Morgan Hill leaders like Specialized Bicycle Components
Founder and CEO Mike Sinyard for our inaugural CEO/Celebrity
Cycle-To-Work Day Challenge.
On May 17, we have a choice – We can burn carbs, or carbon. Join me and Morgan Hill leaders like Specialized Bicycle Components Founder and CEO Mike Sinyard for our inaugural CEO/Celebrity Cycle-To-Work Day Challenge.
More than 50 CEOs and public officials will be trading in four wheels for two, to promote healthier lifestyles, curb greenhouse gases and ease traffic. Each of us has embraced a straight-forward three-part pledge: We will personally pedal to work that day; encourage our Bay Area employees to do likewise; and host a “celebration station” for those employees who participate. Think “CEOs in Spandex.” We hope you will join us.
Is this a one-day, feel-good exercise? Yes. Yet it is also a way to affect permanent change. In the Bay Area, with more than 300 sunny days each year and relatively flat riding conditions, we have learned that people who participate even once in Bike To Work Day continue to put pedal to the metal at least one day a week on an on-going basis. With four of every 10 Bay Area commutes a distance of only five miles or less, we live in an ideal place to try bike commuting.
True confessions – while I have long been a cyclist, it wasn’t until four years ago this week that I tried commuting by bike as part of a Bike-To-Work-Day event. I had no idea how to get from my home in Los Gatos to my office by San Jose International Airport 15 miles each way away. I called the wonderful people at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, www.svbcbikes.org, and they helped me map a course that was direct and safe. Before putting myself in commute traffic, I tested it one weekend to make sure I didn’t get lost, or take all day to get there. To my amazement, a drive that often takes 30 to 40 minutes in traffic only took 45 to 55 minutes by bike. Two belt sizes smaller and four years later, I continue to ride to work three days a week.
We read a lot about global warming and climate change. We seethe a lot in South County and Silicon Valley about traffic. We’re frustrated about spiraling health-care costs, childhood obesity and sedentary lifestyles. We also wonder if there is anything we can do as individuals about any of these challenges. We can. My own bike commute eliminates nearly two tons of carbon dioxide each year. It takes one more car off the road. I arrive at work invigorated rather than exhausted.
On May 17, dust off that bike – or borrow one – or take the plunge and buy one. All you have to lose is a couple of unwanted pounds. The choice is simple and it is ours. Poet Robert Frost once wrote about the road less traveled. That road is a lot more fun and fulfilling on a bike.
Carl Guardino is CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Reach him at
cg*******@sv**.net
. For more information on the “Clean and Green” Action Plan, visit www.svlg.net or call (408) 501-7864.
