Bike to Work Day 2011

Bike to Work Day 2011 was a big success -- the biggest BTWD yet. Early counts say that over 10,000 people rode their bikes to work yesterday in Alameda county alone.

Bike to Work Day 2011

I volunteered at the energizer station at Lakeside and 14th, one of over 110 energizer stations around the East Bay, where we counted 386 cyclists by 9AM. A large percentage of those were obviously regular bike commuters; some even said, "I do this every day" as they rode past. Hopefully some of the newer riders will bike to work every day, or at least more than they have in the past.

From Bike to Work Day 2011

After we closed up our energizer station, I headed over to city hall to check things out there. I ran into Annalee Allen of the Oakland Walking Tours program, and saw lots of familiar faces staffing the WOBO and EBBC booths and valet bike parking.

Then I rode home, worked for the afternoon, and came back down the hill in the evening for the Bike Away From Work after-party. It was a lot of fun. I chatted with former EBBC director, now BART board member Robert Raburn. And hung around with Becks, dto510, @DanielBackman, @das88, and others, all the while smelling Tina Tamale's awesome food at the nearby stand.

More coverage:
SF Streetsblog
SF Streetsblog - after party
Oakland Local
Oakland Local - allaboutgeorge's ride
KGO ABC7
my photos
EBBC blog
Ella Baker Center

(To keep the Oakland fun going, I then headed down to Heinold's to meet up with @egratto, @adri, and @ohdottie, to meet @twitchhiker. He's traveled around the world relying on Twitter, and wrote a book on his experiences. He's traveling again, and working on another book. A quote on his site from the BBC says "Smith is one our true British eccentrics." I don't know about that, but he is a nice, interesting guy, and has even less hair than me. Safe but interesting travels, Paul! Enjoy the Greyhound to El Paso!)