Sustaining ourselves at MCC (Comments: 1)

Yesterday, I attended the Sustainability Day at Monroe Community College’s Damon City Campus in the Sibley Building downtown. Team RocBike member Julie White works at MCC and put the event together. It was a great idea — get a bunch of folks who believe in local food, cooperative business, recycling, bicycling and neighborhood empowerment together with a group of college students from all over the spectrum.

I brought the Xtracycle, and proved several important things about the bike:

• It can be ridden up an escalator (though not without equal amounts of effort and luck)
• It can be ridden around the atrium in the Sibley Building
• It is invisible

I proved that last bit by riding the Packet Boat — indoors, mind you — past the glass wall of the library. Not one person looked up. Not one. The bike is, like, 15 feet long. Therefore, it must be invisible. Quod erat demonstrandum.

Talking with an MCC student about the magic that is RocBike.com

The Packet Boat drew a lot of curious looks and questions. One woman said she wanted one so she could go riding with her husband. “He’s always telling me to get a bike. This way I could just ride with him!”

I also put together a 40-minute DVD of RocBike photos and videos that played on a TV screen behind my table.

I had some fun conversations. Joanna from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) said she travels across the state to quite a few events like this one. “Until it snows a lot — then I don’t want to get trapped far from home.”

Bunny, the Americorps coordinator at the campus, told me about some of the many adventures she’s had during her time in public service. She’s been everywhere from California to the Mississippi Delta to upstate New York. As she was leaving, she casually dropped the tidbit that she and several friends rode their bikes across the country this summer from Oregon to Rochester. I asked her whether she’d written about the experience. “Not yet,” she said. Hmmm … if only I knew someone with a cycling site.

Pat from the Rochester Bicycling Club

I wasn’t the only cycling advocate at the event — the Rochester Bicycling Club had a good table full of commuting tips and cycling basics.

All in all, it was a cool event and I hope Team RocBike will be doing more things like it. Thanks, Julie!