It's Ride to Work day. Do It!

Seems Wednesday, July 16th is national "Ride to Work" day. The 17th annual such event, in fact.

And no, we're not talking about Spokane's recent Bike to Work month/day, though that's very cool, too.

Nope, this one's just for scooters and motorcycles - basically a day for folks to ride en masse in order to showcase our existence, and to highlight the many benefits of commuting on two wheels instead of four.

But perhaps the nicest part of our discovery is the fact that the event is promoted and supported by a Minnesota-based non-profit group that maintains a really great resource website on the subject (at www.ridetowork.org, 'natch). A recent perusal turned up a user's forum covering everything from parking to rider safety, a newsletter, press release templates, and a cool merchandise store featuring R2W logo goodies. Plus, there's a wealth of interesting factoids on the benefits of scooter commuting, including this one:

"If every work day were Ride to Work Day, 60,000 gallons saved x 250 work days = 15,000,000 less gallons used per year."

...and that's just based on the extra 150,000 cycles estimated to take part in a typical R2W day!

But what about Spokane's less-than-progressive stance on downtown motorcycle parking, you say? Doesn't the lack of dedicated cycle parking make it tougher on two wheeled commuters?

You bet. But we hear that's changing soon. More later.

In the meantime, be sure to get the bike out of the garage and commute on July 16th!