Alameda

From the hills of Concord to the flats of Oakland, Alameda County's 2010 Bike Commuter of the Year totes electric grinders, saws, braces, scissors and the occasional prosthetic limb to work via her purple Rockhopper mountain bike, rain or shine. After 10 years of driving from her Oakland home to work sites as far-flung as Lafayette, Antioch and Oakley, sometimes all in one day, T.D. Fisher was fed up. "I felt like I lived in my car. I would make panicky calls to friends saying, 'I am desperate for a hike, can I see you after work?' " said the orthotist, who designs prosthetic devices for children.

Alameda’s celebrating Bike to Work Day this coming Thursday, May 13 – eight days earlier than the national Bike to Work Day on May 21, but the early bird catches the half-price mojito, eh? (I’ll explain.)

“Bike to Work Day is a grand celebration that promotes bicycling as a healthy, fun, economical and viable form of transportation,” say the folks at BikeAlameda. And they’re putting their money where their mouth is by setting up “energizer stations” from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. at Peet’s Coffee & Tea, corner of Park and Central; on the wooden walkway on the Harbor Bay Isle side of the Bay Farm Bridge; and at Hawthorn Suites hotel, which is on Webster Street at Pacific.

May is Bike Month, and the Oakland Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Program is pleased to roll out the first-ever free map of Oakland bikeways. With an initial print run numbering over 10,000, we’ll be distributing the map at bike shops throughout Oakland and in grab bags on Bike to Work Day, this Thursday, May 13th. Come see us Thursday morning at Oakland City Hall Plaza, grab a stack of pancakes, and pick up your own copy of the map. Learn more about this year’s Bike to Work Day festivities here and download a pdf version of the map from this page.

On Bike To Work Day, cyclists will have the opportunity to ride in a special designated bike lane over the Fruitvale Bridge. At the request of BikeAlameda, the city of Alameda working with the city of Oakland and the county of Alameda will close the far right traffic lane of the Fruitvale Bridge in both directions from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. to allow cyclists to use these lanes as bike lanes.