"Yo Boss! I rode my bike to work so have to leave early!"

Um....so...yeah. That was the line I gave my boss today, and it was true, I swear! I few months back, a few good people on the green page challenged me to start riding my bike more. I happen to live midway up a very significant hill, so wasn’t so quick to jump on the bike riding band wagon. My idea of biking was driving my car to a trail head...not sweating my way up a hill with my computer bag at the end of the day. And..I happen to live in the Bay Area, and am lucky to have a down right decent public transportation system. So I usually drive my car to the Bart station, hop in the casual car pool and get a ride to SF. I love this system since I save time and money (the Bart ticket, plus it’s faster), and the driver saves time and money (we ride in the commuter lane, and they don’t have pay the $4 toll fee. (Side note: there is a rumor going around that they are going to start making the car poolers pay the toll fee (sounds like someone's focused on the cent in incentive)).

But now I'm trying to leave my car at home, and ride my bike to work: so it's all Bart all of the time for me. The only problem is that the Bart bike schedule doesn’t allow people with bikes to ride during prime time hours (another interesting incentive program). So when I had to make a 6pm appointment in the East Bay, I had to dash out of work at 4pm. There are a couple of us scratching our heads and thinking: in this land of eco innovation, isn’t it possible to dedicate a car on Bart to bikers during prime time hours? When I posted that very question on Twitter: @goldenone piped up with “next you’ll be asking for chocolate milk in the water fountains.” Ouch. Is that how it is: unreasonably sweet to expect our government to incentivise green communiting activities? Well it would seem that there are plenty of buisnesses incentivising bikers, and then there is the very well known bike sharing program in Paris, Velib', a combination of the words 'velo' (bike) and 'liberte' (liberty), is an initiative pushed by Paris' mayor:

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Even though this program has had it's ups and downs and massive thievery, London just announced it's green motoring program. It would appear that I'm inspired, and even to my inner anti-geek's dismay, checked out a few bike blogs dedicated to the art of bike commuting, for instance Bike Commute Tips Blog: I'd put this under "you're a real biker Charlie Brown" and actually care about things like biker meets-ups and biker news. Then there's Bike Commuters which has more biker news, random and cool-to-me facts, but I was totally taken the gas saving calculator. And then there's Commute by Bike who won my heart with the slackers guide to bike commuting.

Need some more inspiration, and want to see some bikers who can do it in style (aka anyone but me)? Check out:

Scraper Bikes: a new fashion trend in biking straight out of Oakland:

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Or... Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park
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Pillowfight Bike Ride (need I say more?)
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And last, but certainly not least: The Wolfpack Hustle who describes themselves as, “Insurgent militia high speed bicyclists in LA"
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