Greg Fiske
greg fiske
The Ride, Issue 123
 EAST FALMOUTH, MA - Among the slings and arrows of the daily working life, to suffer a certain substance "hitting the fan" is usually a metaphoric experience. Few have to really worry about avoiding airborne excrement. But it's not unheard of! Greg Fiske tells a story of a bike commute to school four years ago:"Fueled by a granola bar and a yogurt, I hopped on my bike and headed out for my morning 3-mile commute to school. About the midway point of my daily journey, I saw a jogger in my course. He wasn't alone. In tow was his fine-looking dog. When the jogger saw me, he began increasing his speed in order to clear some parked cars to his right so that I might pass without having to dart into traffic. "At that same moment his dog determined that this was the point where he could hold it no longer. Squatting was the only thing on his mind as I approached at a rapid rate, and his master urged him to run faster. The runner was completely oblivious to the fact that his dog was now flinging crap in my direction." With break levers compressed, Fiske hurtled onwards, and with luck was able to skirt the path of flying and landing debris. Arriving at his destination a bit shaken, he reflected: "If I can pass through a wall of flying crap and emerge squeaky clean on the other side, what else could be 'thrown' at me today that would even compare?" Currently employed at the Woods Hole Research Center in Cape Cod, Mass., Fiske commuted on and off through college for six years in New Hampshire, then for three years at graduate school at Oregon State University. He's since racked up three more years in the saddle, riding 7.5 miles daily to work from his home in East Falmouth. Fiske, 32, rides a Cannondale F400 mountain bike equipped with road tires. He's a geographer, and calls himself "a bit of a geogeek." "I've GPS'd my daily route and record my mileage on a daily basis. My annual average is 2000 miles. "In fact," he continued, "all of the bike commuters at The Woods Hole Research Center keep track of their 'mileage avoided' - mileage commuting to and from work that do not involve burning fossil fuels - on a community spreadsheet. We will tally the miles avoided by the entire Center at the end of the year and be able to draw some conclusions as to the amount of carbon and other nasty greenhouse gases that we did not put into the atmosphere." Long a devotee of the two-wheeler, Fiske grew up in a small New England town with less than 800 people. "My first memory of bikes was riding three miles to grade school and spending countless hours riding back and fourth across the farmyard, rain, snow or shine. "It hasn't been until recently, however, that I've begun to view the bicycle as something more than just a recreational device, but a perfect replacement for the automobile." In reference to his own journey pedaling the length of New Zealand, Fiske remarked, "the bicycle is the ideal way to see the countryside." He scaled the east side of the Southern Alps on the South Island of this much-ballyhooed cycle-touring destination, then went up along the west coast and back over the Southern Alps to finish on the northeastern portion of the South Island. "It was a fantastic trip! Unfortunately, the west coast of the South Island receives more rainfall than just about any place on Earth. There was no avoiding getting wet." Living in Cape Cod, Fiske is familiar with auto gridlock caused by holiday or vacation traffic. "In our town we have a bike path that is very widely used. But there's an intense automobile traffic problem on all of the roads, especially in the summer. If more time, effort and money could be put into building additional bike paths and roads with proper bike lanes, then it would allow many motorists the option to ride their bicycle instead. "I think the bicycle has long been avoided in the design process of our roads and urban infrastructure," he stated. "Roads are built and rebuilt across our country each day with no consideration whatsoever of the bicycle traffic or how they could be used by something other than the automobile." | more supercommuters » BikeCulture Magazine and Planet Bike honor the silent hero of the Revolution: the bicycle commuter. A supercommuter rides through every season, in all types of weather, day and night. Choosing the simplicity, health and pleasure of bicycling, a supercommuter isn't necessarily against automobiles. They simply prefer to ride a bike to the grocery store, to work, to a concert or the cafe. nominate a supercommuter » For each issue BikeCulture chooses a new Supercommuter. They are posted here in addition to BikeCulture Magazine. |
