As some of you may know, yesterday was “Earth Day.” I was only reminded yesterday after seeing some ads, references to it, and other assorted BS. One thing I’m glad I didn’t see (at least on my normal route) was more bike commuters than usual. I made it downtown after work for some bike hooliganism and saw a ton of bikes, unfortunately I can’t judge if it was a normal amount of bikes (I’d hope so, as it wasn’t that many) or if it was inflated due to single-day feelings of “saving the world.” I’ll probably be back down there later to see if it’s the same (and I hope it would be, it’s so nice and warm out now). Here’s hoping everyone out there was biking because it’s how they always get around, and not just because NBC’s green peacock told them to.

It’s unfortunate that there are only a couple days a year that there’s a substantial push to get people to consider biking instead of driving. There are big pushes towards very complicated, expensive, and anti-industry “save-the-world” measures right now, when all we really need is some efficiency. For power, nuclear – nothing else is as clean and efficient. For transportation, bikes. No gasoline, 9’x19′ parking spaces, or 12′ lanes required. Less than five miles, and you’re probably faster by bike. Clean air, more efficient use of space, increased fitness, what’s not to love? That there exists an “anti-bicycle” push is absurd. As far as everyday things go, there’s little more pro-freedom than the bicycle.

It’s been a few weeks so I figured I’d check the numbers and go through another rundown on my commuting logs. Year to date, I have had 49 commutes to work. Three of those have been by car, forty-five by bike, and one on foot, for a total of 93.88% of non-car commutes. If I can manage to not drive for a couple more weeks, I’ll be at 95%.

This has been made possible by an incredibly warm, dry winter in Denver. The weather is finally turning though, with forecasts for as much as a foot of snow to hit town starting tomorrow and going into the evening. I’ll have to figure something out, and I doubt that running in the fivefingers will be an ideal option. What’s really on my mind though is skiing this weekend. First real powder in months!

Slow week on the blog front here as work has been running late and I’ve been preparing for a trip. I was looking at my bike/drive spreadsheet and plugging in some numbers to see what it would take to get to certain percentages.

As of today, I have biked in 34 times in 2009, and driven in 3 times. One drive was caused by 6″ of snow, one by having to go straight to the dentist after work, and the final was a result of dropping my bike off in the shop and not borrowing a replacement from anyone. This puts me at 92%, which is pretty darn good. I’m shooting for 95% now though, and to get to that level, I have to ride in another 23 days without a single drive day. If I drive once, I’m back into the 80s.

Accounting for estimated number of days off from work for the rest of 2009, I’ll likely have a grand total of approximately 230 work days this year, and 95% would require 219 biking days – not even one drive in per month. If I bump up to 240 work days (unlikely) I’ll be able to drive once a month. This could get tough, although thanks to recent upgrades to my bike, my ride takes less time than driving does – just a little more effort, especially in the wind. Summer will be easy, next fall could be a little more difficult. I guess I’ll just need to get some tires with a more aggressive tread (if I don’t have a mountain bike by then).

Hopefully I’ll have additional photos from skiing last weekend soon. Coming early next week: a Moab trip report.