Bike to Work Day is May 18th, and I am thinking about giving it a shot.

There are a few obstacles that keep me from biking to work. One is that I wear nice clothes at work, except casual Fridays, so I would probably try this only on Fridays. Two is that there are no available showers at my office building, but I am leveraging the NoZoner campaign to try to change that (NoZoner's goal is to encourage alternative methods of transportation to improve air quality in the area). And last, my lack of awareness of a safe route to ride from my house to my office downtown. The last obstacle can be eliminated if I participate in the local Bike to Work organized ride, because my fear will be mitigated if my hand can be held this first time.

Since I drive a small car about 5 miles to work, I doubt that the impact of my riding a bike to work one day a week is anything other than miniscule. (However, I get to exercise, and I like that benefit.) Birmingham has a real problem with air quality because people who live here commute, on average, a large distance to get to work. City and regional planners have gone to great measures to improve this problem. What confounds me is why nobody has ever passed an emissions testing law as part of the solution to the issue. There are a lot of passenger cars and small commercial trucks in this town that spew out clouds of noxious, black smoke. Surely taking just one of those vehicles off the road would have a significantly larger impact than one person riding a bike to work one day a week. Georgia does this. Georgia is ten years ahead of Alabama when it comes to improving quality of life.

THIS JUST IN: Birmingham city trucks are going to start using biodiesel. (What about the buses?) Also, Birmingham ranks #4 on the worst polluted U.S. cities list.