E-Biking, E-BikeKC.com and Commuting to Downtown Kansas City
By David Scott, Managing Member at Avid Communications.
This year I bought both a new car and a new bike. As of last week, the bike had more miles on it.
Okay, that’s cheating–since the bike had a two month head start–but it’s no lie to say that I’ve commuted more miles on my bike than in my car since April.
I love cycling and have long considered making my seven-mile commute via bike, but there’s this 300-foot-tall bluff that has to be surmounted on the way home, and at 60 years old and at the end of a long day, I just didn’t always have the energy to do it.
Enter the new pedal assist e-bikes.
Mine is a Trek SuperCommuter 8, and it’s designed to do exactly what I need. You still have to pedal, but it’ll propel me up a major hill at 18 miles per hour. And as I come in via the Southwest Boulevard with traffic flowing at about 40 miles per hour, it’s great to easily maintain 28 miles per hour on a bike so you don’t feel like you’re in imminent danger of being flattened.
For a city with hills and few decent bike lanes, an e-bike is a game changer.
e-bikekc.com
It has inspired me enough that along with a friend Kevin Klinkenberg, I’ve been scouting out good cycling routes for e-bikes and have launched a web site to share our love of e-biking with others. To learn more, check it out here.
I do miss listening to KCUR on my way in. But on a bike, you experience a whole new city.
My route takes me along golf courses with the smell of freshly cut grass, past midnight shift workers from KU Med in scrubs walking home, by clusters of middle schoolers waiting for their bus, and through the antique district with shopkeepers watering the flower boxes out front.
And away from the main streets, it’s amazing how little traffic there is, even at rush hour! It takes me 20 minutes to drive to work, and about 24 minutes to bike. And best of all, I don’t take up a parking space in our lot at the office.
With cold weather approaching it’s inevitable that my car will catch up with my bike. But for now, I’m enjoying the freedom that e-biking provides. Have you considered e-biking? Do you already commute via e-bike in Kansas City? Let me know!
Our office is just up the hill on Washington from yours. I can look out my window and see Avid. I commute by bicycle, year around, from the Brookside area. I go a bit east out of my way to get to downtown so that I can avoid busy streets, traveling on Harrison, Cherry, Charlotte and Holmes…most of which are one way, increasing my safety.
Don’t hang your bike up this winter. As long as the streets are dry and the temperature above 25, you can still ride to work with the proper clothing.