Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.

dan.casey
@roanoke.com
981-4423

Dan Casey

Recent columns

• Southerners scoff at shoveling sidewalks
• Hey, winter, quit it already
• Honest numbers could spur real donations

• Column archive

Read Dan's blog

• Let's talk about Court Rosen's idea on the meals tax
• Virginia GOP: We have proof the Earth isn't warming
• Tuesday's column: Southerners scoff at shoveling sidewalks

Editor's note: Northwest Roanoke bikers should meet at the north end of the Lick Run Greenway. This online version has been updated from the print version to fix that error.

If the response I've received to Sunday's "Clean Commute" column is any indication, this Friday may be the biggest "Clean Commute Day" Roanoke has ever seen.

Additional ride leaders have volunteered (see below). We've added ride leaders from Northeast Roanoke, Northwest Roanoke and Salem.

And if things get really big, we have a chance to sentence the irrepressible "Car Less Brit" to another six months of two-wheeled transport.

You may have heard of that crazy Englishman, River Laker, who is kind of like a cross between Pee-Wee Herman and Lance Armstrong.

The Roanoke Library employee sold his aging Volvo in November and vowed to live without a car for six months.

As the Monty Python-esque experiment has evolved, Laker has documented it online and has been the subject of a huge party and stories in this newspaper as well as on local television stations.

Later this month he will open a downtown Roanoke Car Less Brit Museum.

Laker also has made a little bet with the folks at Ride Solutions, the agency sponsoring Friday's Clean Commute Day events.

The upshot is this: If 1,000 riders register in advance and pledge a "clean commute" this Friday, Laker will extend his carless odyssey by another six months.

"I am up for the gamble," he told me Sunday.

By the end of last week, about 20 people had pledged a Clean Commute for this Friday. That number had jumped to 94 by Tuesday morning.

There are many ways to pull this off. Riding your bike is just one -- you can also "clean commute" via carpool, by foot or by public transportation.

And if you do it, you're invited to a healthy breakfast Friday morning outside the Virginia Museum of Transportation, from 7:30 to 9 a.m.

Below is the latest on Friday morning's rides, ride leaders, and the times and locations to meet them.

If you plan to ride, make sure you bring a helmet and that your brakes work well. Show up to the locations below on a bike, not in your car (we can't guarantee that parking is available.)

• From East Roanoke County: Meet Kyle Inman outside the Bonsack Kroger on U.S. 460 at 7 a.m.

• From South Roanoke: Meet Jay Turner on Stanley Avenue behind South Roanoke United Methodist Church at 7 a.m.

• From Cave Spring: Meet Mike Morris outside Cave Spring Middle School on Brambleton Avenue at 6:45 a.m., or at the Cave Spring Corners shopping center at 7 a.m.

• From Raleigh Court: Meet Dan Casey in the parking lot of Unitarian Universalist Church at the intersection of Grandin Road and Brandon Avenue Southwest at 7:15 a.m.

• From Southeast Roanoke: Meet James Rosar behind Belmont Christian Church at the intersection of Bullitt Avenue and Ninth Street Southeast at 7 a.m.

• From Northeast Roanoke: Meet Mac McCorkle at Summerdean Church of the Brethren, 6604 Plantation Road N.E. at 7 a.m.

• From Northwest Roanoke: Meet River Laker near at the north end of the Lick Run Greenway -- the parking lot at Target on Valley View Boulevard.

• From Salem: Meet Stephanie Pratola outside the Salem Civic Center; the ride leaves at 7:15 a.m.