SCBC is really happy to announce the Sonoma County Bicycle Commuter of the Year, Jeffrey Reeder.  Jeffrey is a professor of Spanish and the chair of the Languages Department at Sonoma State University.  Learn more about Jeffrey in this interview conducted April 29^th by SCBC’s Sandra Lupien…

Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition (SCBC):  Jeff, where’d you grow up?
Jeffrey Reeder, Bike Commuter of the Year 2009 (BCOY):  Kind of all over.  I was born in Japan, grew up in Australia, South Dakota, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Oklahoma, Texas, and a few other places.  My father was in the military in the Vietnam era — that’s why I was born in Japan.  Then he got into gymnastics – he was a coach — and just loved moving to new places, simply because we hadn’t been there yet.

SCBC:  Did you ride a bike as a child?

BCOY:   Yeah I did.  The famous Schwinn Stingray was my first.  Blue.  It was in South Dakota — that’s where I learned to ride a bike in South Dakota.  I learned on a football field.  That’s my first memory of riding.  I hit the goalpost — what are the odds of that?  All that space!

SCBC:  Did it have training wheels?

BCOY:  No!  My dad didn’t believe in them.  My son learned with a small bike, no training wheels, either — we just took the pedals off!

SCBC:  When did you start riding your bike to work and what inspired you to do it?

BCOY:   1996.  I was teaching at Baylor University in Texas, and I just didn’t like the drive, was getting out of shape, so I put 2 and 2 together and thought I’d ride it.  I was one of probably only about a dozen bike commuters in Waco at the time, and I’ve been commuting since then.  I moved to CA in 1998 and since then I’ve been commuting to SSU from Santa Rosa, which is about 20 miles round trip.  I go in 4 days a week always, and sometimes 5.

SCBC:  What barriers (either internal or external) did you need to overcome in order to start commuting by bike?
BCOY:  Probably the 2 biggest ones were unique to Texas.  First, cultural barriers — in that part of TX it just wasn’t done, so a lot of honks and antagonism from motorists — cans, trash...  The other big obstacle was the heat — it’s hot and humid in TX most of the year.  On a late spring/early fall morning it might have been 80 and humid.  So, I’d just go into the gym and shower — one of the advantages of a private school.  At SSU the gym is student-funded so we have to pay, which is only fair.  Now, I just take a washcloth and close my windows and lock the door.

SCBC:  As a professor at Sonoma State University, do you talk to  your students about bike commuting?  If so, what do you say?

BCOY:  I encourage them to do it.  Since I teach Spanish, I try to make it part of the language class, so I ask them to do things like calculate how long it takes to commute door to door.  And then, for those who bike — a few of them do — we compare notes and we usually find out that it takes less time, or is usually about the same [as driving a car] for students who live in Cotati/Rohnert Park area.  And even those who live farther find out it’s not that much more.  We also do the carbon calculator in Spanish — because that’s something most students are concerned about and if they’re not, I want them to be.  Probably what’s most important to most of the students is the budget calculator — I have that in Spanish, too.  So, they calculate their miles -- kilometers , actually because it’s Spanish.  We use the standard 55.5 cents per mile and we find out they’d save a lot of money by biking.

SCBC:  What are the most commonly-cited barriers to bike commuting cited by your students?

BCOY:  Usually it’s safety and carrying things.  So, with safety — I haven’t found any good sites in Spanish (I’ll have to look harder), there are lots in English.  So, we talk about that.  My favorite one is a British study that found that when you calculate all the variables, such as accidents and health benefits, subtracting time for accidents and adding for longevity and health benefits — that the more you cycle, the longer you live.  They’re surprised — it’s counter-intuitive to them.  It’s the same type of counter-intutive as the idea that the more you travel by air, instead of by car, the more likely you are to arrive safely (and foul up the atmosphere, too).  The other thing is carrying things, and I often just pull out my stuff — computer, books, a lunch, change of close, a spare tube... I use panniers or a backpack most often.  I use my panniers 3 days a week, and my back pack one day because I try to ride my mountain bike one day a week.  I’ll take a detour through Annadel, or somewhere else with dirt.

SCBC:  How many of your colleagues bike to work?

BCOY:  Probably about 5% commute every day or almost every day by bike, some from Petaluma and Santa Rosa, most from Rohnert Park.  For being as small and as flat as that area is — and with such favorable weather --  not enough people are bike commuting.

SCBC:  If someone asked you how to get started as I bike commuter, how would you respond?

BCOY:  First, get set up comfortably.  Get a bike that you can trust and that’s good.  You should know your route — exactly where you’re going.  And get a comfortable way to carry your stuff.  Start out with an incremental goal — like once a week, and I think that once people get comfortable with once a week, they’ll naturally want to do it more.  It’s not like running on the treadmill, where you have to force yourself to run this many times a week or for this many minutes — once you get yourself to the point of it being comfortable and familiar with bike commuter, you want to do it — it feels natural.  And, look at the bike as a transportation investment and get a good one.  It doesn’t have to be fancy materials, but a good, solid bike that fits.  For example, my bike, I bought in 2001 for $1,000, and everyone said, “Whoa!  That’s too much, how can you spend $1,000 on a bike?”  Well, now I’ve ridden it almost everyday for 8 years, plus I use it for recreation and I’ve taken one cross country trip on it.  Cross country the short way — Mexico to Canada.  Also, get a mirror that is in your field of vision (like a helmet mirror; not a handlebar mirror).  And finally, know, and follow, the law as it relates to cycles, ride predictably, signal for turns, stop for signs and signals, and consider taking a street skills class such as the one the Bike Coalition sponsors.

SCBC:  Sonoma County is a known as a destination for sport and recreational cycling — you’ve already mentioned mountain bikeing and touring.  Tell me about your favorite spots to ride.

BCOY:  I like to ride in Annadel — that’s my favorite place lately.  I like the open remote roads in the West County.  Pine Flat Road’s probably my favorite of all — the bottom half — it’s smooth, no traffic, a lot of nature (coyotes, turkeys, deer, quail, hawks).  I mostly ride alone — for me, cycling is more solitary.  I enjoy the independence, freedom for thinking...

SCBC:  What’s your response to being named “Bike Commuter of the Year 2009?”

BCOY:  Well, it’s exciting, because I know a lot of people commute by bike here.  It’s exciting to be selected.  But, I think that an ultimate goal would be for there to no longer be a need or a point in having a Bike Commuter of the Year award.  Can you imagine a BCOY award in Amsterdam or Nagasaki or Copenhagen?  Simply the existence of the BCOY award illustrates that bike commuting is seen as something different or unique.  Maybe in 50 years we won’t have a BCOY award — we’ll have a car commuter of the year award b/c it will be so rare, “Look — one of those steel vehicles!”  Hey, wait -- my bike’s made of steel.

SCBC:  Anything you’d like to add?

BCOY:  I know some people who have thought that their situation was such that they couldn’t or shouldn’t commute by bike and they’ve tried it and liked it and switched to bike commuting all or some of the time.  So, almost anyone can have all or part of their commute done by bicycle.  The key is to make it easy and pleasant for yourself.  I don’t go buy watermelon by bike — I use the car for that.  The fact that I commute by bike brings our family closer together.  There are three of us — my wife, my son, and myself.  We share one car, so anything we plan to use the car for -- that’s not part of the work day -- we do together.  We save money, we save hassle, have a closer family, and we save space on the street so that other people can park their extra cars there...