FABB Blog

 

Fantastic Bike to Work Day

Riding from Herndon to Reston

What a great day for Bike to Work Day. The weather was perfect and it was impressive to see so many cyclists out enjoying the day and celebrating biking to work.

Kerie and I started at the Reston pit stop that we've helped organize for the past 12 years. Fortunately Reston Association has taken over management of the pit stop which allowed us to check out some of the other events. Reston was the first Fairfax pit stop back in 2002. Now there are 11.

We said hi to Todd from The Bike Lane at the Reston stop. Todd's wife Anne attended the first FABB meeting in 2005. FABB volunteers Rob and Kelley were providing advice on bike routes. As we were leaving Del. Ken Plum, who may have attended almost every Reston event over the years, stopped to say hi.

After Reston we rode to Herndon to visit with Tom and Mike of FABB and take some photos. The pit stop was adjacent to the W&OD Trail and it was buzzing with activity. A-1 Cycling, another early FABB supporter, was providing free checkups.

Next we rode to Vienna which was overrun with cyclists. Liz and Susan, with the help of Jeff Palmer from Spokes, Etc, managed to sign up nearly 60 people for the FABB newsletter. Tim Fricker of bikes@vienna was also there. FABB's first meetings were held at that shop.

Next we visited the Merrifield-W&OD Trail stop that was just closing down, but the Performance mechanic was still working on bikes. From there we rode to the Merrifield-Mosaic stop that

FABB at the Vienna pit stop

was about to close. We took a photo with John, our FABB rep there. This was their first year as a pit stop and they had around 40 cyclists, which is OK for a first year event. Alex of Freshbikes was checking over people's bikes.

Final stop in Tysons

Finally we rode north past the Dunn Loring Metro station to reach the Gallows Road bike lanes north of I-66 and continued north to the Tysons pit stop in front of the LL Bean store at Tysons Corner Center mall. They had blocked off the parking lot in front of the store and they reported a decent turnout. LL Bean mechanics were checking out bikes there.

Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to get to Burke VRE Station (Alan), Fairfax Corner (Fionnuala), Fairfax City Downtown (Douglas, Charlie, and Jim), Mt. Vernon-Collingwood Park (Eric), or Springfield/Metro Park (Paul). Thanks to all the FABB volunteers for helping out today.

All in all the day was a huge success. We hope that many more cyclists discovered the joys of biking to work and that they continue to ride throughout the year. We also hope everyone has a safe ride home.

Cyclists crossing Maple Ave in Vienna

Vienna pit stop

Labels: bike to work day, herndon, merrifield, mosaic district, reston, Tysons, vienna

posted by Bruce Wright at 12:19 PM permalink