Getting Around

Stories on the Move

by Erica Stratton

Cars aren’t the fun they used to be. With gridlock, gas gouging, road rage and premium-price parking, who wants to drive to work — let alone take the car out for a Sunday spin?

Bicycle

John Olin came to Annapolis from Baltimore by bicycle. Not once but twice. The next time he pedals down the Baltimore-Annapolis bike trail, he hopes to get his wife to come along.

He comes, he says, for the milkshakes at Chick-n-Ruth’s Delly.

Biking is “more fun” than driving a car, he says, as well as “a little more dangerous.” People are much more likely to miss a bike than a car in their rear-view mirror.

Olin learned to ride at 10 years old; long distances came later. He bought his Novara racing bike to prepare for his first triathlon. He cycles two miles to work every day and is contemplating a second triathlon. Swimming and running as well as biking for the last six months, he has lost about 20 pounds and says he “feels a lot better.”

Despite the effort, Olin describes riding a bike as more peaceful than driving. Leaving the bike trail for his car, he says he feels “more tense.”

Biking is also cheaper than driving. His Novara cost $650. Even with extras — shorts, helmet, gloves and backpack with bike pump, an extra inner tube, tire, cell phone and bike lock — that’s cheaper than driving.

Cheaper still, borrow a bike for free at the Annapolis Harbormaster’s at City Dock. Come early; boaters venturing into the city for the day rise early to claim their free rentals.

See last weeks 'Getting Around'