Hardy bicycle commuters see pedal power as a viable alternative
to filling up the tank, even on Maine’s tough roads.
Two or three times a week, Mitch Wacksman of Standish tackles his 17.5-mile commute on two wheels rather than four, taking his bicycle from his home in the Whites Bridge Road area to his job at a Portland-based environmental consulting firm.
And according to Wacksman, it’s the traffic, not the distance, that is the biggest obstacle.
“Once you hit Morrill’s Corner in Portland, the traffic is horrible,” he said. “The roads are a little scary, especially when you get into Portland proper. It’s scary not because it’s hostile to bikers; it’s just because there’s a lot of traffic.”
Wacksman is a hardcore bicycle commuter, but in these days of $4 a gallon gas, vehicle taxes and fees, automobile insurance and repair bills, he’s finding more company on the roads. It seems Maine’s upcoming Commute Another Way Week couldn’t have come at a better time.
Sponsored by GoMaine, a lobbying group funded by the Maine Turnpike Authority and Maine Department of Transportation, the week’s mission since its founding in 1995 has been to educate Mainers of the benefits of carpooling and alternate modes of commuting. The Commute Another Way Week, May 16-20, is a yearly opportunity to remind people there is a better way of transit, with bicycle commuting topping the list of viable alternatives.
Last year, GoMaine added a new feature to its website known as BikePool, which is an expansion of GoMaine’s popular CarPool and VanPool programs. BikePool offers an online meeting place for people wanting to bike to and from work with others who either work at the same location or in the same vicinity.
“We help people get together,” explained Erik West, business outreach coordinator for GoMaine. “You have to indicate your start and end locations and time schedule and how much flexibility you have, and once we find a match you take it from there. That’s when we step out.”
West said the average greater Portland bike commuter lives within 5 to 10 miles of work.
“We find 15 miles is the outer limits,” said West.
Support network
Greater Portland’s network of mostly two-lane secondary roads can be a boon to two-wheeled travelers, who brave the conditions and reap financial and health benefits in the trade-off. And bicycle commuters in the area have multiple resources.
John Brooking, who bicycles the five miles from his Westbrook home on Arlington Avenue to his IT job at Sappi Fine Paper’s office in South Portland year-round, launched Portland Maine Bicycle Commuting Meetup, a web-based group, in 2006.
Brooking’s Portland Bicycle Commuting Meetup has 350 members from all over the southern Maine area.
“Bike commuting is usually a solitary endeavor, and the purpose of the group is to support each other and share information pertinent to bike commuting,” said Brooking, who began commuting by bike in 2002. “But we also have fun. We meet up once in a while and hold events.”
Brooking estimates he only misses a half-dozen days a year due to weather.
“It’s really not so bad commuting in the winter,” said Brooking, who “Exercising keeps your core warm, but you do have to worry about your extremities. But if you take care of those, you’re all set.”
Another year-round bicycle commuter, Randy Wetzel, who lives in the Pleasant Hill area of Scarborough and commutes six miles to Fairchild Semiconductor’s office near the Maine Mall in South Portland, said he is known by his colleagues as “a little crazy” because he rides to work year-round no matter the weather. He has bike commuted since the early 1980s, and while some of those years were spent in sunny California, Wetzel braves Maine weather, saying it’s a great way to start and end his day.
“The ice storm was a huge challenge. It was really bad,” he remembers. “But I am just very careful in that type of weather.”
Wetzel travels through the busy Maine Mall area, but said motorists are “very courteous, especially in bad weather.” He describes his biggest challenge as being Maine’s roads, with their narrow breakdown lanes, potholes, ruts and cracks. “The roads are not really made for a bicycle, there’s no doubt about that,” he says.
Wetzel is heading up Fairchild’s Commute Another Way Week events. He said the company is offering a $100 prize raffle for services at a local bike shop as well as $3 breakfast coupons to the company’s cafeteria for anyone who rides to work during the week.
One of his fellow Fairchild employees, Ron Adolf, who lives in Gorham on Alexander Drive, doesn’t need the coupons or raffle to motivate him to seek a non-motorized way to get to work. Like Wetzel, Adolf has been bicycle commuting since the 1980s when he lived in San Jose, Calif., where he rode 18 miles one way to work. He later moved to Eugene, Oregon, and bicycled 10 miles to work. Here, he rides 13 miles one-way, which takes him about 45 minutes.
“If I drove, it’d take about 20-25 minutes depending on traffic. So I’m not really losing much time when you think about it,” Adolf said.
Adolf said bike commuting, while being good exercise, also lowers his carbon footprint and helps him avoid high gas prices.
“Gas prices are definitely a motivating factor. When I’m riding, I don’t even know what gas costs,” he said.
Adolf doesn’t ride in the winter. He rides busy Route 25 nearly out to the Standish line and doesn’t want to be fighting the ice and sand at the side of the road. He also believes his presence puts “too much stress on drivers,” who are having enough trouble navigating the slippery winter roadways, he said.
But like all bike commuters, especially those who ride at night, Adolf takes precautions so those motorists can see him. He wears bright lime green clothing and has reflectors on his pedals and wheels, four taillights and a headlight. “I’m pretty lit up,” he said.
Precautions
Riding with traffic has its perils, especially here in Maine, but according to Jim Tasse, director of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Education program at the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, pedaling to work is possible by almost everyone if proper precaution is taken and a new outlook is adopted.
“The biggest perceived hindrance is weather. Traffic is another perceived hindrance, but these are things that can be overcome. American culture is not one that’s always willing to embrace non-motorized forms of transit, and I think that’s the biggest hindrance,” Tasse said.
Tasse, who lives off Cottage Road in Cape Elizabeth and rides his sticker-clad mountain bike across the Casco Bay Bridge to work at the Bicycle Coalition of Maine’s office in Portland and attend meetings around the city, says the short commute from the suburbs “is completely viable.”
While he feels bicycle commuting would take off if Mainers adopted the mentality that the bicycle is not only a piece of exercise equipment, but also a “utility vehicle,” he, like West at GoMaine, said a commute of more than 10 miles is usually something “that feels more like a bike ride.”
But, “getting that little bit of exercise on the way to work makes you a more productive employee, makes you a happier employee,” Tasse said.
Just do it
Tasse said becoming a bike commuter is easy. First, make sure you have a job where you have a predictable schedule.
“People who have office jobs and know they’re going to the same place everyday, bike commuting works great for,” Tasse said.
Second, get good equipment. The bike, which should have fenders so the rider doesn’t get soaked, doesn’t have to be light or expensive or a certain style. Something that fits the rider and will hold up under sometimes rough road conditions is important, Tasse said. Plus, to carry items, consider a rack and saddlebags. He said companies even make bags that can carry laptop computers.
The third requirement is a helmet that fits. Any bike store can help with this, Tasse said.
After that, tire-fixing equipment is next, and Tasse says a spare tube, pump and knowledge of changing a tire will save time and hassle if a flat happens.
Then riders must find the right clothing. But, Tasse said, that doesn’t necessarily mean fancy space-age textiles, although he recommends a bright jacket or shirt for visibility reasons. Tasse emphasizes that bike commuters don’t have to look like the road racers you see riding in packs with skin-tight clothing. Tasse usually opts for wearing regular work clothes for his commutes.
After these basics, a little bit of foresight is needed. Tasse recommends keeping a spare change of clothing at work on hot days or wet wipes at your desk “so you can freshen up,” he said. “But it depends on your workplace. If you work in construction, riding to work may not be an issue. But if you’re riding to an office environment, sometimes people have concerns about how they’re going to look.”
Overall, said Tasse, who regularly presents to Maine companies on the benefits and how-to’s of bike commuting, bike commuters should think of the ride “less as a workout and more like a commute, so you pedal at a lower threshold. You’re not trying to break a sweat if you can help it. You’re just moving along,” he said.
Yet Tasse also touts the overall mental and emotional benefits of bike commuting.
“There are a lot of pluses to it,” he said. “It’s fun and it’s a little adventure on the way to work, which I think is good for the soul.”
Randy Wetzel, who lives in the Pleasant Hill section of Scarborough, commutes by bike the six miles to work at Fairchild Semiconductor’s office near the Maine Mall. Nothing stops Wetzel on his daily ride, including the Maine weather. “The ice storm was a huge challenge. It was really bad,” he remembers. “But I am just very careful in that type of weather.” (Photo by Rich Obrey)
Riding his heavier “bad weather” bike because of expected rain, Westbrook resident John Brooking heads into Portland for a day of computer training related to his job at Sappi Fine Paper. Brooking said he likes to ride deep into the travel lane because of small or debris-filled bike lanes, and to enlarge the protected space around him as he deals with rush hour traffic and construction. (Photo by Rich Obrey)
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