- DART’s new bike rack
ExxonMobil’s nightmare?
Not because of our coverage. If they don’t care about 40 percent of their shareholders disapproving of their employment policies, they won’t care about a few people protesting or a newspaper covering protests against them.
No, what makes me their real nightmare is my new favorite way to get to work that takes only about 15 minutes more than my old way.
And I believe in multi-tasking. This is a great way to do it.
Old way: Get in car and drive, park in underground garage.
Total average amount of gas used per day (which went to companies with LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies): $4.
New way: Drive to Hampton Station, about a mile and a half from my house in South Oak Cliff. Ride the Red Line to West End Station. Cross the tracks. Catch the Green Line to Victory Station. (Just enough time to cross tracks and catch other train every time I’ve done it this week). Ride bike from Victory Station up Katy Trail to Dallas Voice office. Ride up elevator. Ride bike down hall to desk. Park at filing cabinet behind desk.
Total daily cost for Dallas Area (Fairly) Rapid Transit ticket: $4.
By the way, DART’s new trains are very bike-friendly. Use a grade-level entrance in the new low-rider car and hang the bicycle on the bike hook. It looks like the bike will swing wildly, but it pretty much stays in place, even with a short stop.
Exxon’s nightmare?
I’ll be covering the Exxon protest at the ExxonMobil Corp. shareholders meeting next Wednesday morning. Red Line to Pearl Street. Then I’ll just ride up McKinney Avenue to Dallas Voice.
One of the signs regularly carried by counterprotesters hired by Exxon reads, “Did you fill up your SUV at an Exxon station before driving to the protest?”
Nope. My gas-guzzling SUV is parked. I rode my bike.
And multi-tasking? I read a book while coming and going to work this week. And this is the beginning of my preparing for the Lone Star Ride. I haven’t done Lone Star Ride in a few years and wasn’t on my bike at all last year. Already my speed’s pretty good, but my endurance? Not so much. Yet. Maybe in a few weeks, I’ll skip the DART part of the trip and ride from home … if I can figure out a way to avoid the hill on the way to Oak Cliff.
For more on National Bike to Work Day, go here.
— Lone Star Rider No. 3
That is very commendable but isn’t DART having some discrimination problems with a Transgendered employee? I don’t know if that has been resolved or not but last I heard they were in talks with GLBT groups about it. Please check it out . You don’t want to be taking away your $4.00 a day from one discriminating group and giving it to another. I guess if you are eventually going to bike the whole distance then it would not be much of an issue. However if you do continue to use DART for the longterm then please check into the situation. Good luck on the Lone Star Ride. I have admiration for anyone who can ride that distance on a bicycle.