Bike and Dine

Last evening, my wife and I got on our bikes and rode to a local restaurant to eat dinner.  It was lovely — warm but with a breeze so that the 10 minute ride of .87 miles (we could get there faster, but what was the hurry anyway?) was enjoyable.  We had a nice dinner outside in the evening air, and then liesurely rode back home before it got dark. A nice ride where we got some exercise and we didn’t need to use our car.

While I do use my bike quite a bit to ride to/from work every day,  I can understand why many people could find that a difficult proposition.  Using a bike for something like a commuting to work might be “biting off too much”.

But how about something simpler like what we did last night?

That’s the elegance of the “One Mile Solution”.  I first heard about this from Dr. Andrew Cline’s blog, Carbon Trace.  The concept is so simple:  Find your home, draw a 1 mile circle around it.  Now, try to replace one car trip a week to a location within that 1 mile radius.

My wife and I chose to go to a dining establishment.  But within my one mile area, I could also bike to a grocery store, a bar, different kinds of shopping stores, a hair-cuttery, a hardware store, and a branch of my Bank.

So simple.  Try it out!  Better yet, tell your friends about it!!

Check out the 1 Mile Solution post at Carbon Trace.