So you want to create a bike habit, heh?
That is the first step!
You've read the news articles about those new bike lanes in your city and the rapidly growing bike culture, you've seen the smiling faces rolling past you on bikes when you've been stuck in traffic, and you've glanced at the bathroom scale in horror wondering - how did this happen to me?
Well, the truth is it's not as hard as you might think to create your own bike habit but it could be as hard as you imagined to keep it up - both things are true. The most important things to do are a little bit of homework, a little bit of preparation, and a little bit of adventure seeking. Even more important then those things: do not expect too much from yourself and do not get down on yourself if you relapse into the habits yor're trying to break.
Let's not sugarcoat it - changing established habits/ways of doing things can be incredibly difficult. We've all tried, and failed, changing something in our lives with a new year's resolution. Being realistic is the most important factor. As an example: do you live an hours drive from your workplace? If so, deciding to start a regular bike commuting regime is certainly doomed to fail. However, maybe choosing to start cycling to your local grocery store to pick up a few things (instead of driving) could begin the process of setting up those small "wins" which can then be built upon.
With an eye to getting you the best information possible, from those people that are already living their own bike habit, we've crowd-sourced some thoughts and suggestions from our Twitter friends. Read on, and enjoy! (Please feel free to add your own thoughts by leaving a comment.)
That is the first step!
You've read the news articles about those new bike lanes in your city and the rapidly growing bike culture, you've seen the smiling faces rolling past you on bikes when you've been stuck in traffic, and you've glanced at the bathroom scale in horror wondering - how did this happen to me?
Well, the truth is it's not as hard as you might think to create your own bike habit but it could be as hard as you imagined to keep it up - both things are true. The most important things to do are a little bit of homework, a little bit of preparation, and a little bit of adventure seeking. Even more important then those things: do not expect too much from yourself and do not get down on yourself if you relapse into the habits yor're trying to break.
Let's not sugarcoat it - changing established habits/ways of doing things can be incredibly difficult. We've all tried, and failed, changing something in our lives with a new year's resolution. Being realistic is the most important factor. As an example: do you live an hours drive from your workplace? If so, deciding to start a regular bike commuting regime is certainly doomed to fail. However, maybe choosing to start cycling to your local grocery store to pick up a few things (instead of driving) could begin the process of setting up those small "wins" which can then be built upon.
With an eye to getting you the best information possible, from those people that are already living their own bike habit, we've crowd-sourced some thoughts and suggestions from our Twitter friends. Read on, and enjoy! (Please feel free to add your own thoughts by leaving a comment.)
