EDI Rolls Through Bike to Work Week

by Angelique Boyd, EDI Marketing Intern
Friday, June 17, 2011

Jillyn O'Shea, PE, Senior Civil Project Manager, spearheaded EDI's staff involvement in "Bike to Work Week" (BTWW) which kicked off this past weekend. Many EDI staff put their CTA cards away or left the cars parked at home and hopped on their bikes as part of the Bike Commuter Challenge.

EDI employees participating in addition to O'Shea are Patricia Feeley, PG, Melanie Moore, Angela Timmons, Erica Baker, Carrie Westhoff, PE, Kelsey Taylor, PE, LEED AP, Craig Chambers, PE, and Sanjay Joshi.

Westhoff had her first commute on Tuesday and had nothing but nice things to say about her experience.

"Today was my first time ever biking to work," said Westhoff. "I had considered trying it in the past but didn't really have the motivation and was a little intimidated by the thought of riding on the streets in the Loop. I'm glad Jillyn signed EDI up for the bike to work week challenge because otherwise I may not have ever attempted this type of commute."

If you are wondering what BTWW is, it's a week-long event sponsored by the Active Transportation Alliance and is created to promote sustainability. It encourages Chicagoans to ride their bikes to work at least once a week. This does not mean that you have to ride your bike to work the whole way, just get enough riding time on your bike.  And like Westhoff, you might just surprise yourself at how easy and fun it is.

"I did enjoy my ride down the lakefront trail this morning and didn't have any problems with the downtown traffic as I was worried about. I definitely plan to incorporate biking into more of my commutes as I can save CTA fare and add 15 round-trip miles of biking to my day."

This year, BTWW runs through June 17th, culminating with a rally in Daley Plaza. 

Read more about EDI's sustainability projects here.