Five years ago, a Greenwood man made a big change in how he commutes to work, using two wheels instead of four.
Now, Eric Moody makes it a point to participate each year in the annual event that changed how he gets to work.
Moody rides his bike to work about 15 days out of the month, he said. And he’s been doing so ever since he participated in Bike to Work Day in 2011. Communities across the nation had National Bike to Work Day events this week, celebrating the bike riding community.
“I started biking to work because of Bike to Work Day,” Moody said. “Bike to Work Day showed me I can do it. It’s not a big, monumental task.”
Moody has been a group leader on Bike to Work Day for the past four years, and it’s a task he enjoys because he hopes it sparks an interest in fellow riders, Moody said. On Friday, he led fellow Greenwood resident Dave Lessaris and a few others on an 11-mile ride from downtown Greenwood to Indianapolis.
A total of fifteen cities and towns across central Indiana including, Carmel, Fishers and Plainfield, had designated meeting locations Friday morning.
Moody’s route was one of three on the southside, and it began on Madison Avenue in Old Town Greenwood, then connected to Shelby Street in Indianapolis, where the riders went through Fountain Square. Each route ended at the city market in Indianapolis, where riders could mingle and eat breakfast. Routes also left from Perry Park on the southside and off Morgantown Road, near Smith Valley Road, in the Center Grove area.
Most of the groups met back at the city market Friday evening around 5 p.m. before following their designated routes back to their communities.
Lessaris started biking about a year ago as a way to exercise. Every morning, he gets to work early to ride between 5 and 10 miles through downtown Indianapolis. On Friday, Lessaris joined Bike to Work Day to experiment with riding to and from work, Lessaris said.
“I (was) excited about doing this with other people,” Lessaris said. “I know Eric bikes to work; he’s encouraged me to do it with him. Since this was Bike to Work Day, I told him I would try it. I might try to turn riding to work into an every Friday thing if I can.”
