Removing Excuses

I grew up in Savannah without air-conditioning. When we moved into our current house, we didn't have air-conditioning. My sweat glands have had lots of training.

When I ride my bike to the office, it doesn't matter how slow I go, or how cool it is, I sweat. There's less sweat during the winter, but even on the day it was 11 degrees, I still managed to break a sweat. Sweat is what my sweat glands have been trained to do and they do it very well.

Many people won't ride a bike to work for this reason. (Well, because of their own sweat, not mine.) Not having a shower at the office is the reason I frequently hear for not commuting by bike. Since AT&T doesn't have showers, I've had a hard time convincing co-workers they should ride a bike to the office.

I haven't had a good answer for sweat control until the Shower Pass became available.



For $15/month, the Plaza Executive Health Club (PEHC) offers a showers-only membership. This is a good price and I plan to try it out starting next month. I'll be posting my experience -- complete with photos <wink> -- after I give it a try.

The folks over at Midtown Transportation Solutions were kind enough to make arrangements with the PEHC. These are the same guys who put together the Commuter Rewards program that has put a bunch of cash in my pocket.


There's one personal excuse that may go away. By way of introduction, I have a confession to make: I don't ride my bike to the office every day of the week.

I've got the option to work at home, and on mornings I miss my time slot to get in the shower, I often stay at home and shower later in the day. If at all. This was good during Atlanta's water restriction period, but it's been bad for my commuting miles. Why miss out on a commute to the office just because I couldn't get into the shower on time?

The Shower Pass has removed that excuse.

How to Commute when there isn't a Shower

 

OK, this is a picture of a bike rack that doesn't appear to go with the title of this post, but it really does. It only requires a modest amount of imagination which I'll promptly explain.

This is a picture of three bikes on the rack from Friday, and although there were also three bikes on the rack today, it wasn't the same three bikes. Today's bike that is not shown in the picture above was walked up rather than ridden. I met the owner as he was walking up and he admitted he cheats.

Admitting you cheat isn't how most conversations start out, but it was effective at getting things rolling.

The gentleman was dressed in business casual while I was dressed in moist salt. I suspected something was up before he admitted he cheats, but he quickly explained that he rides the bus with his bike on the way in, and then rides his bike home in the afternoon.

Nice. I'm glad our public transit has bike racks installed on the buses.

I've always taken it a little easier coming into the office to avoid too much sweat and then let it all out on the way home. This guy had a pretty good plan worked out.

If AT&T had showers, we'd miss much of the richness of experience that cycling to work provides. We'd ride the same way all the time and make boring commutes. Well, not as boring as the people we see inside the steel cages with really wide tires, but close.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 17.3
Number of Cyclists seen: 32 (11 in the AM, 21 in the PM)
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Warm but not as hot as last week (80s)