May is Walk Bike Month in Burbank

May is National Bike Month all across the nation, and is celebrated locally in many communities. Established in 1956, National Bike Month is an opportunity to showcase the many benefits of bicycling – and encourage more folks to try bicycling and other active transportation options in their community.

May is also being proclaimed Walk Bike Month in Burbank celebrating our own unique local array of active-transportation options – with May 14 being Bike To Work Day in all Los Angeles County.

For many people the thought of bicycling to work is a pipedream reserved for those seemingly super-fit bicycle-athletes wearing a full dress of spandex and riding elaborate bicycles.

But one ordinary Burbank resident has a completely different perspective on Bike To Work Day.

Five years ago on Bike to Work Day in Burbank, local resident Mary Dickson decided she would give her bike a try in attempt to overhaul her regular work commute. “I was tired of the daily I-5 commuter-grind to Downtown Los Angeles, the cost of parking downtown, the price of gasoline and insurance. I was tired of maintaining the whole extra expense of a car just for going to work,” Mary explains. “Then on Burbank’s Bike To Work Day five years ago, I decided I was going to try to ride my bike just to Downtown Burbank, look for a safe bike-parking spot somewhere near the Metro bus stop at Olive and San Fernando to lock my bike – then take the Metro 794 bus to Downtown Los Angeles; hoping all the while for the best.”

Unaware the City of Burbank was sponsoring an informational “Pit Stop” that day for new commuting bicyclists at Third Street and Orange Grove, Mary was further bolstered and encouraged by city staff who directed her to a nearby safe sheltered public bike parking facility available to all bus/bike commuters, located conveniently behind the city’s Administrative Services Building, and close to every major Downtown Burbank Metro bus stop.

“It turns out that the availability of safe bike parking at or near public transit is what makes a multi-modal bike/transit commute so practical for me. Burbank has several great safe, well-lit bicycle commuter parking facilities both in Downtown Burbank and at the Downtown Burbank Metrolink station,” Mary explains. “It makes me feel safe!”

Although she only intended to ride her bicycle to work occasionally, the overwhelmingly positive initial experience made it easier to continue bike commuting. Mary credits Burbank’s supportive city planning for bike lanes and convenient bike parking areas as key to her commuter transformation.

Dickson’s multi-modal bicycle commuting has had many additional positive effects. The biggest tangible benefit was elimination of the need for a second car, and all its associated expenses. She reports her bike-commuting effort alone has resulted in a monthly savings of over $300 after the purchase of a monthly Metrolink pass! “Three hundred dollars is all I initially paid for my entire bicycle eighteen years ago!” Mary laughs.

Today, her current daily bicycle commute to the Bike Stop bike parking facilities in downtown Burbank Metrolink train station is about three and a half miles round trip from her home in Burbank. She has been riding her bicycle to work every day since May 2010, rain or shine – some 4,500 local bicycle-commuting miles later.

The city’s outreach efforts to bike commuters is a small but fundamental step in encouraging people such as Mary – novice bike commuters – to give their bikes a serious try. Special events such as Walk and Bike To School Day on May 6^th, and Bike To Work Day May 14^th helps build public confidence that a combination of bicycling, public transportation, City staff support and dedicated Burbank bicycle infrastructure can realistically provide viable transportation alternatives for many otherwise car-bound commuters.

This year, Burbank will host three informational Pit Stops on the May 14^th Bike To Work Day. Various Burbank organizations will be on-hand from 7:00am till 10:00am dispensing bike commuting advice, practical tips and lots more for commuter bicyclists, and anyone else interested in utilizing their bicycles as transportation. Locations will be Third and Orange Grove; the Downtown Metrolink train station; and The Pointe at Alameda and Bob Hope Drive.