Hey Scott, I'm having difficulty logging into the carfreecalculator. Are we supposed to use our current forum username and password?
2011-05-17 21:03:18
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Friday, May 20th: National Bike to Work Day!
Get amped people!
We all love riding bikes, right?
Chorus: RIGHT!
We love to work, right?
Chorus: RIGHT!
Then what could possibly be better than riding bikes to work!?
Chorus: NOTHING!
Don't even try to come up with anything that beats it because nothing does.
Ok, on a serious note, Lou and Jane have put in A LOT of time and effort on Bike to Work Day this year (which is also the launch of our Car Free Fridays initiative for 2011). So what do we need from you? Only to commit to riding to work that day. Most of you are our die-hards so we're not that worried, but if you could do a handful of things for us it would be AWESOME.
1. Sign up for our car free calculator at http://www.carfreecalculator.com and start tracking your miles. You can even do it retroactively if you remember all those days you've ridden back to December 2010
2. Tell your friends that you're riding to work and that you'd be excited if they gave it a try too. Tweet em if you got em (does that make sense?) #B2WD is the hashtag @bikepgh is our handle, or post it to facebook. Just help us promote, promote, promote!
3. Go on a bike pool and bring your friends (and even invite your boss). Or just tell your friends about the bike pools going on. I'm leading one from Friendship to Downtown at 8am. Be there if you want some quality time with me. Here are the rest of the bike pools: http://bike-pgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Bikepool-Schedules-20111.jpg
4. Visit a hydration/breakfast station.
Breakfast/Hydration Stations:
MARKET SQUARE, 7:30 to 9:30
CARNEGIE MELLON, Merson Courtyard 7:30 to 10:00
CHATHAM U., Pond @ Mellon Center 7:30 to 10:00
WHOLE FOODS MARKET, Shadyside 7:30 to 10:30 REI, South Side Works, 8:00 to 10:00
PITT'S BIKE TO CAMPUS EVENT Posvar Hall South Bouquet Street, 8:00 to 10:00
5. Take advantage of some of our Bike to Work Day discounts/incentives http://bike-pgh.org/bike-to-work-day-discounts/ (Newest one as of today - PNC YMCA is offering one week of free Y (starting May 20th) to anyone who rides on Bike to Work Day AND for all up-to-date Bike Pittsburgh members.
2011-05-17 20:41:05
Unfortunately the designers couldn't do that. You have to create a new login.
2011-05-17 22:17:42
Just a suggestion for next year- starting earlier than 7:30. Very excited though. I am hoping to be able to stop briefly before getting to work on Friday.
2011-05-17 22:34:11
The car free calculator is pretty neat! Since last sunday, I've ridden/walked 42.6 miles. Equivalent of:
2,486.98 Calories Burned
$21.30 Dollars Saved
50.78 lbs CO2e Reduce
Also, The Big Idea in bloomfield will have a BTWD discount of 10%, and I'll have to check with my work to see if we're giving the discount (I'm pretty sure we are)
2011-05-17 23:49:15
The East End Food Coop has been displaying Car Free Friday graphics on their cash register screens all week.
2011-05-18 00:04:25
is there an easy way to enter miles for a lot of days at once or is click/paste/click/click about as good as you can do?
2011-05-18 04:07:44
Salty, it is what it is right now, but we're hoping to make it better over time (funding dependent). That's one of the things we identified that would make it easier to use.
2011-05-18 04:25:18
ok, just wanted to make sure i wasn't missing anything 
2011-05-18 04:42:03
i just added in my miles since december in large chunks spread out enough to not upset the maximum allowed for a day. i started doing it by hand and quickly realized i didn't have the patience for that.
2011-05-18 11:57:13
There's no pressure to retroactively do it either. Folks should feel free to just start with that day. Laziness is ok when it comes to putting in car-free miles.
2011-05-19 04:00:17
2011-05-19 16:15:51
is colker company that place in the strip that sells cleaning stuff or am i missing something??
2011-05-19 18:26:52
Yep. Lou's homeboys with the owner.
2011-05-19 18:30:44
haha! what a funny place to get a discount
2011-05-19 18:47:10
I missed the official bike pool list but would like to lead/join one. I'll be at REI at 8 and leave for Squirrel Hill at 8:15, arriving around 9. Get in touch or just see me there.
2011-05-19 18:53:05
to anyone heading into market square: I confirmed that Mancini's will be offering 10% off all day tomorrow! Unfortunately, the discounts won't carry over through the week though. See yinz there!
2011-05-19 21:34:59
Market square is closest for me but I dunno if I can make it. I have to start work by 815 at the latest, and that means changing into work clothes by then. But I hope rain holds off and there is a good turnout for all activities!
2011-05-20 09:10:15
I stopped at the Whole Foods stop today and I wanted to thank everyone who put this event together. I got some orange juice, a badass sticker, and met a few people. Now there is 10% off Mancini's...That's awesome. I can't wait to go to OTB with my wife tonight too. Today is a great day!!!!
2011-05-20 12:58:12
I cruised through the Southside Works real quick but didn't see much, I am generally too early. Great idea, but I think the time is gonna miss a good bit of people, especially on Friday when lots of other people head in a little earlier to leave earlier.
2011-05-20 13:06:12
Thanks everyone who made this happen! I had a great time even if I was late to work! (I cleared w/ my boss yesterday.)
Although, I've had the bicycle built for two song stuck in my head since I left... thanks to whoever was singing it.
2011-05-20 15:00:10
It was a good time indeed!
I'm sorry I didn't stay long, but was trying to get relatively-on time to work today! It was great to see everyone 
2011-05-20 15:23:24
Today's Post Gazette article sings the praises of bike commuting. natch.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11139/1147493-51-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml
2011-05-20 15:31:12
Since I planned on working from home today, I felt that it was necessary to do a tour de breakfast run first. Apparently Ian and Rick’s thoughts were the same. I ended up with a twenty mile commute door to door, not bad for working from home.
Thanks to all who put this together & volunteered at the stops.
2011-05-20 15:38:12
Had breakfast at REI Southside, networked and got invited up into someone's office. Then about 5 miles uphill. Good way to start the day.
2011-05-20 16:06:01
@myddrin, the singer was our pal Rob, whose son rows crew with our son.
2011-05-20 16:12:34
The day started inauspiciously, with two rack-less O12 McKnight Express buses, making me late to my 7 a.m. meeting.
At the meeting, some people I hadn't met were impressed that I had on a helmet, a white shirt and a necktie, and was neither sweaty nor dirty.
Following this, I had a nice chat with several people in Mkt Sq.
After that, I had a wonderful multi-modal experience: Pushing the bike, I walked with someone to their destination. Then I biked to my bus stop. Then I bused to my neighborhood. Then I biked home. Very fast, very seamless, very sociable. Never broke a sweat, no cost to park, no travel cost beyond the monthly bus pass.
2011-05-20 17:12:20
Rodin, didn't wait until Auguste (yuk, yuk).
Had a great ride in, I was super energized for work. I had to stop and rig a lost fender bolt, gave a guy directions in Crafton. It was lovely seeing lots of people in Market Square, though I had to run fairly quickly. So far, great day.
Stu, any idea how well the 29 route is fitted for racks? Seems to be pretty well covered from what I've noticed. I'll hang for Flock if I can 29 home.
2011-05-20 18:03:02
I rode in late as usual so I missed all the events unfortunately... but, I'm definitely happy that we got a lot of participation in our office from non-regulars, including a guy who rode 12+ miles up and over Mt. Oliver from Mt. Lebanon!
2011-05-20 18:10:13
@edmonds59 - There's no telling. Can you take a 24 to someplace halfway close to home, as a backup?
Just yesterday, someone told me that every Gillig at Ross Div, except one, has a rack. It figures that two older Neoplans were what got sent out on the O12 this morning. Hopefully the same will apply to Collier Div, which the 29 and 24 run out of.
OTOH, I've also seen a photo of a whole bunch of oldest-in-the-fleet Novabuses taken out of service, minus racks, soon headed for the scrapyard. The hope and expectation is that the recovered racks are appearing on newer Gilligs.
But until we get that shipment of just purchased racks, we're still going to see the occasional rack-less bus.
2011-05-20 19:27:55
Oh, yeah, meant 24, I can take that right to the top of my hill. The last 29 is at like 6:20. Thanks.
2011-05-20 19:56:48
Missed the 41 (dropping a kid off at school) so I lost a half hour waiting ... then biked from station square to work, catching the tail end of the REI snackstop halfway there. I figured I'd biked pretty far until I ran into the 12+miler, yeah.
2011-05-20 23:50:35
Definitely thank you to the folks staffing the sites. Stopped by the one @ Pitt.
2011-05-21 01:06:41
I also stopped by the Pitt one. Very appreciative of all the volunteers!
2011-05-21 02:06:51