This Commuter Challenge Success Story comes from Bill over at Thomson Reuters in Ann Arbor.  Thomson Reuters won the Commuter Challenge in their size category last year.  After you read Bill’s post, I think you can see why:

I started occasionally biking to work from Belleville several years ago.  When we moved to Ann Arbor close to 2 years ago, I decided to quit routinely driving to work, and instead bike, walk, and/or take the bus.  Since then I’ve driven a car to work twice (when I had an engagement during the day that I couldn’t get to on the bike).

Last summer was great for me.  Not only did I get to enjoy biking to work, but my employer, Thomson Reuters, participated in the Commuter Challenge.  Suddenly I was meeting people at the bike rack that I’d never talked to before.  I saw fellow employees biking to work.  This turned from an individual activity into a social thing.

Last summer changed the way that a lot of people around here look at bikers.  Before last summer, bikers were perceived as kind of weird.  With the high gas prices of last summer, and the large number of bikers, I think that biking gained a lot more respect.

I really look forward to seeing bigger and bigger crowds of bikers as the spring and summer progress.  I miss my biker buddies…

Want to try biking to work  Give the Commuter Challenge a try!  Sign up here

Want to add all of the awesome getDowntown events (including Commuter Challenge events) to your Google Calendar?

Now you can!

getDowntown now has a spiffy Google Calendar.  You can check it out here.

Thanks to Inner Circle Media for setting this up for us.

This Commuter Challenge Ambassador Post comes from Kevin Bush.  Kevin is a grad student in Urban Planning at UM.  He discusses the many benefits of commuting without your car.

The benefits of not commuting in your car are too many to count but I will try to tell you some of mine. I live in Depot Town in Ypsilanti and have to commute to the University of Michigan practically every day.

Since I am a student of Urban Planning I cannot let ten miles force me to commute in a car.As a result I ride my bike to school or when it is really cold I ride the bus. Riding the bus to work frees you from having to concentrate. Instead of waking up and getting angry over traffic I can sleep some more (on the bus) or get some reading done. I have been able to read a lot more books for pleasure than I normally would just because I don’t have to focus on driving for the thirty minutes I’m going to work.

That is just what I do when it is cold, though.  The best part of not taking my car to school is the ability to ride a bike there. Now I start and end my day with a workout and am constantly amazing people with my chipper mood during my 8:00am class. My secret, I take the Border to Border Trail to get to school. The closest thing I have to grid lock is when geese clog up my trail. I may not have rest areas like US-23 but I’ll take a bench over looking the Huron River at 7:00 am any day over some dirty highway bathrooms.

You can drive you car to work everyday and waste seven hours a week or more getting angry at fellow drivers. I choose to make something out of mine. If you ask me about my commute I’ll probably smile. Would you?

My Commute

The Off-Ramp

As the weather warms up, it’s time for construction!  MDOT has a webpage where you can search for Lane Closures by region and County.

Check it out here.

The local online Magazine Concentrate is running a series of blog-posts this week from Commuter Challenge Ambassadors.  You can check out the blog posts here.