Every year at this time, I post a chart on my refrigerator with a square for each month from March through November. Little by little, I’ll fill in those squares with my bicycle mileage.

My method may be old-fashioned, but it spurs me on to see the miles add up week after week. There are lots of 12-mile workout rides around Portland’s Back Cove and along the Eastern Trail, 7-mile trips downtown and 2-mile hops to the post office or the library. There are longer trips on weekends, and a few adventures each summer to more distant destinations.

By the time my biking season ended last fall, I had logged 1,800 miles. Using the federal government’s mileage reimbursement rate of 56 cents, I figure that I saved about $1,000 making those trips by bicycle instead of by car, and I left the planet a little less polluted, too.

But the main reason I cycle is because I love it.

Bicycling gives me the chance to experience the city with all of my senses, in a way that isn’t possible when I’m driving. I catch the yeasty aroma of bread as I pass my neighborhood bakery at 6 a.m. I watch the marsh grass at Back Cove slowly change from brown to green to gold.

All summer long, I keep tabs on two osprey nests – one in the Fore River by Veterans Bridge and another atop the old railroad bridge near Portland’s sewage treatment plant. When I see the nesting pair for the first time in early spring, it feels like old friends have returned. Come July, I’ll keep a lookout for chicks flapping their wings.

After a morning of errands in the car, I feel cranky. Doing the same route on a bicycle leaves me refreshed. I like the challenge of seeing whether I can cram a whole week of groceries into my bike bags.

And then there are the yard sales. I can’t bike by them without checking out the merchandise. I’ve made some great finds over the years – everything from vintage Broadway sheet music to a coffee mug with a whale handle. I even bought a piano on a bike trip, though I did have to return with a truck to haul it home.

I’m not alone in being happier when I get around by my own power, according to a 2014 study published in the journal Transportation. Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, researchers found that bicyclists were in better moods during their trips than people who traveled other ways, such as driving a car or using public transit.

Bicycling and walking in Maine have improved a great deal in the past 30 years. Thanks to the hard work of local activists, hundreds of miles of off-road trails have been built from Calais to Kittery, in the Carrabassett Valley and beyond. More than 50 committees throughout Maine are working to improve bicycling and walking in their communities.

Maine law now requires motorists to pass bicyclists with at least three feet of clearance, and to look for cyclists before opening car doors so the cyclists don’t get hit. Businesses with drive-up windows are protected from liability if they serve cyclists as well as motorists.

More than 13,000 children and adults learn about safe bicycling and walking each year through programs run by the Maine Department of Transportation, in partnership with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine.

But there is much more we could do to improve bicycling and walking – and that’s the subject of this new column. I’ll delve into proposals to plan neighborhoods that make walking and biking easier, strengthen Maine bicycle and pedestrian laws and address safety concerns. I’ll profile some of the people leading those efforts. And I’ll also pass along creative ideas from elsewhere that could be adopted in Maine.

I’d love to hear about your experiences walking and bicycling in Maine. Please write to me at the email address below this article. I hope we’ll get to know each other in this column on Sundays, and I hope to see you out and about on your bike or on your own two feet this spring.

One more thing: If you are looking for a new bicycle this year, be sure to mark your calendar for the Great Maine Bike Swap in Orono on April 12 and in Portland on April 26. It’s a great place to find bargains on used bicycles of all kinds. You can sell new bicycles, too. Get details at bikemaine.org.

ABOUT THE WRITER

SHOSHANA HOOSE, a former Portland Press Herald reporter and a former staffer at the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, keeps a slow but steady pace as she bicycles in greater Portland and beyond. Contact her at shoshanahoose@gmail.com.

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