The Adventures of Bikepooling!

Adam Durand is a bike commuter, filmmaker, and animal rights activist. Caitlin Holcombe is a bike commuter, craftmaker, and human rights activist. Together they form a bike commuting duo! They collaborated on this essay about their adventures in bikepooling. [Special thanks to Adam, Caitlin, and RocBike.com (“The single greatest achievement on the inner tubes!”) for allowing us to publish this piece. Ed.]

A few weeks ago, we were working together on a gender awareness workshop for Beyond the Binary. We both mentioned that we commute to work by bike, and realized that we live in the same neighborhood and work in the same direction. We also, unfortunately, had both faced motorist aggression on roads designed with cars, trucks, and buses in mind instead of bicycles. And so began our experiment in bikepooling — we meet up just about every morning for 25 minutes of commuting, conversation, and adventure.

Our experience has been fantastic. This morning we ate a small breakfast together in the convenience store parking lot where we meet. We said “Hi” to people as they walked by, and shared a smug conversation about automobile repair costs. We headed out on our bikes, riding side by side down a double lane road, while the conversation continued. A couple cars honked at us at an intersection without a shoulder, but shortly after that we were turning off the busy street onto a side street and through the Public Market. From then on, it was mostly easy riding, through the north side of downtown.

We’ve intentionally worked out a pleasant route that sticks mostly to side streets, which is new to Caitlin, who has been commuting for a year. Caitlin’s path took her straight down Main Street from west to east, during rush hour, with the ongoing dilemma of which lane to be in, the left lane or bus lane, and the increasingly isolating mentality of not even us vs. them, but me vs. them.

Caitlin has more bike commuting experience than Adam, and riding with her has given him more confidence on the road. Now he’s much less hesitant to take up the whole lane when cars cannot safely pass, and the reduced number of near misses has made his solo commutes more enjoyable. Likewise, Caitlin looks forward to her morning commute much more with a bike buddy and is able to take the ride at a more casual pace. She also appreciates the chance to feel more socially connected through conversation with Adam, as opposed to the usual social dynamic of a biker isolated amongst drivers.

We still come across angry motorists from time to time, but find that cars are slightly more respectful and patient when two of us are riding instead of just one. We both ride in a T-shirt and shorts for comfort and change once we get to work, but we’d like to find a way to send a message to motorists that we’re commuting to work just like they are, not simply riding around for recreation. Time to make some “Bike Commuter” T-shirts, perhaps.

It is unclear what it would really take to be respected as equally entitled to being on the road. The real dangers facing bikers, whether commuting or otherwise, are much more serious than hurt feelings from angry, screaming drivers. While the fears of being hit or “doored” by a car are alleviated during our bikepool, it will take more than increased visibility to change the attitudes of motorists.

So far, we’ve stuck exclusively to morning commutes — it’s a little easier for us to sync up the start of our workdays than the end of our workdays. But it might be fun to try an evening commute at some point. And we’d be more than happy to have other bike commuters join us in the morning.

Carpooling attempts to mitigate the problems inherent with using automobiles — fuel costs, environmental impact, traffic congestion, and parking space; to name a few. Commuting by bike eliminates these problems altogether instead of merely reducing them, so at first glance bikepooling may seem unnecessary. But bikepooling shares carpooling’s benefit of social interaction and brings a whole other set of benefits to the table — increased visibility on the road, improved respect from other road users, and cooperative adventuring. If driving a car is a passive, rote task; and riding a bike is about actually living your life; then bikepooling is a way to share the daily adventure of bike commuting with someone, to learn how to be safe and fun together, to try new routes and get into the groove of familiar ones, to laugh and play together while being ambassadors for a safer, cleaner, happier city.