Day after day, I am reminded of the fact that our community is designed with the car in mind. Today I was reminded that employers, even if they do not require a car of their employees explicitly in a job description, still require cars of their employees. For example, I had an off-site management meeting for work today from 7:30am-11:30am. Managers from about 10 sites all over San Diego came together for a quarterly meeting…each in their own car. Going without a car posed a few unique challenges to me today, needless to say.
I felt a little self conscious pulling up to our meeting site on my bike with all my nice clothes gently wadded into my orange (and increasingly dirty) backpack. Years of surfing and towel changes made my transformation from biker to manager in the resort bathroom a snap, and I was able to easily stow my helmet and other commuting “accessories” under a table. The big issue of the day arose for me when the meeting ended, and the other 158 attendees spilled out of the meeting, into their cars, and were on the road back to their places of work. My time was not as efficiently spent as I changed back into my bike clothes, rode 12 minutes to the nearest bus stop, waited for 6, rode for 35, biked for 8, then arrived at work to change back into my work clothes (increasing exponentially in wrinklyness).
Did I mind this delay in getting back to work? Hell no! I loved the fact that I could spend a bit of time to myself, get a bit of exercise, and avoid the driving commute and lack of parking that I am loving not missing. Did my employer mind? Had he noticed he may have…
Here are my suggestions for the necessary (on occasion) group meetings required by most employers:
1) Promote carpooling…does each person really need to drive their OWN car to every meeting? I mean, really…
2) Plan meetings in central locations near public transportation. If we are going to actually make changes in our driving habits, we need to support those habits every day.
3) Create extra time in a day for commuting after off site meetings. Today, our meeting was adjourned at 11:30, and it took me a little over an hour to get back to my office with my changing, riding, bussing, biking athon. I had another scheduled meeting at 2 which was fine, but I know many others were rushing back to other meetings within the ½ hour which would have made the carless commute impossible.
Any thoughts or suggestions?!
3 comments:
Hey Lis!
I just got caught up on your blog. I love it, especially the videos. I didn't realize you were doing this whole thing on a cruiser bike-I'm very glad that SD is so flat. Imagine commuting with that bike in SF!
You are an inspiration to me! (Paying 60$/tank also inspires me to drive less, by the way.)
Love,
KT
Dang, this is really something for employers AND employees to think about. Carpooling is so easy I just think there are a lot of stigma around it. Be the one who asks, "ok, who is going with who..we are not bring 6 cars to one meeting!!" Great job Lisa keep it up!
So cavalier my fine wife..."did I mind being late to work? HELL NO!!" I can't believe it has already been three weeks...seems like just yesterday you were stealing my car in the early morning; leaving me with the ghetto sled...
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