Biking to better commute options

In keeping with the spirit of last Tuesday's Georgia Rides to the Capitol event in Atlanta and also as a tribute to the start of my work at the Clean Air Campaign, I wish to reprise a wonderful opinion piece by Jim Durrett that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution printed in 2009. Durrett wrote about riding his bicycle as a daily commute to his job as executive Director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District (CID.) A CID is an organization of property owners and businesses who tax themselves to pay for transportation and other area-specific improvements.
Many have assumed for far too long that the most reasonable way for people to commute to their jobs and schools is via the solitary drive in a car. Our current struggles with traffic congestion, air pollution and rising gasoline costs tell a different story.
Durrett eloquently explains the need to give Atlanta-area commuters more transportation options such as mass transit and bicycling, and how this approach benefits all commuters: That’s the thing about not driving. Regardless of how one feels about it, the folks on bikes, walking or riding in buses and trains are not driving cars, not taking up precious capacity in our road system. They’re not in your way and they’re not adding to traffic congestion. In fact, they’re helping to reduce it. We have to get past this false idea that it’s cars vs. everything else, including public transportation. It is not an either/or situation; it is a both/and situation and opportunity.
My new job affords the luxury of choosing how I commute four miles from my home to the Clean Air Campaign's offices, either by bicycle or by bus. While riding my bike, some motorists traveling in the same direction as I will have to slow down until it is safe to pass me.
Some will not like this and let me know. They feel that bikes don't belong on the road especially when it slows them down.
How can I help them understand that they are merely racing past me to reach the next traffic bottleneck a little sooner, to wait with the other cars at that gridlocked intersection, that overflowing left turn lane, that cop holding up traffic for a school's "car pool" lane?
I am not their problem, and neither are the hundreds of thousands of other clean commuters in Atlanta. We need all these transportation options, and more.
The sixth-annual Georgia Rides to the Capitol event was held to rally political support for improved conditions for cycling, including the development of regional systems of both on-road bicycling facilities and multi-use-trails. I and one thousand other cyclists loudly demanded action on a proposed three-foot safe passing law now before the Senate.
More laws that protect cyclists and provide safer routes will give commuters more opportunities to ditch their solo commutes. For now, I'll do my part as best I can.
You can join the revolution, too.

- As always, thank you for reading and stay in touch!