Check out this front page article on the Bike to Work Day rally in Ann Arbor!

Thanks to all who made it a success:

Wheels in Motion
Two Wheel Tango
Great Lakes Cycling and Fitness
Ann Arbor Cyclery
REI Ann Arbor
Circumference (Provided the Conference Bike)
League of Michigan Bicyclists
Washtenaw Walking Biking Coaltion
Bike Ypsi
People’s Food Co-op (donated bananas and coffee)
The City of Ann Arbor
Bike Ambassadors!

above: The elevators at the First National Building where Dunrie works.

Here’s another Curb Your Car Month post from a citizen. This one’s from Dunrie Greiling of Pure Visibility.

I curbed my (elevator) car in May

So, I’m loving Curb Your Car month. It makes me proud to live in a city where there are other folks who value walking, biking, busing, and carpooling to work enough to make a month-long-celebration of it!

I already walk to work. I’ve walked to work since I moved to Ann Arbor, in 1993. My first home here in Ann Arbor was a shared house on South Ashley, I walked from there to the Kraus Natural Science Building, where I was a graduate student in Biology. In 2000, I finished my doctorate and got a job at spatial analysis software company BioMedware on North State Street. I was living in a different apartment (this time on North First) by then, but still walking to work. Later that year, my husband and I bought a home on South First, and since then, I’ve used walkability as a criterion in my job hunts. Since BioMedware, I’ve had 3 jobs, I’m now working at the internet marketing company Pure Visibility, and I’m happy to report there are lots of great companies within walking distance of my home.

So, when it came time for Curb Your Car month, I wasn’t sure how to “up the ante”. I mean, giving up my car in May wasn’t really a commitment, as I hadn’t commuted by automobile since living in New Jersey in 1993!

Last August, Pure Visibility moved into the First National Building – into the 5th Floor, with spectacular views of Ann Arbor (come up and visit!). Since then, I’d been taking the elevator from the ground floor to our floor. I gained a few pounds, and I wanted them to come off. I also started measuring my daily footsteps with a pedometer, and tracking my walks on Ann Arbor’s WalkerTracker mini-site for pedometer enthusiasts. I began to covet those steps, and I wanted to up my daily exercise to work off the winter weight.

So, I decided to make this month curb my (elevator) car month.

Each morning, I walk past the waiting elevators and into the stairwell. I walk up the 82 steps from the first to the fifth floor, and I arrive, slightly winded and proud, at the 5th Floor to start my workday. Each evening ends going down the same way, and on a good day I get another round trip or two during the day.

What are you going to curb for curb your car month?

Dunrie Greiling
Carless posts on my blog, Scientific Ink