Life cycles
Teacher Richard Redman rides 6,000 miles a year for better health and a cleaner environment.
By Christopher Nyerges 07/10/2008
Altadena resident Richard Redman is glad that riding his bicycle to work is good for the environment. But he really does it because he enjoys it and it makes him feel good.
“Yes, it’s wonderful to do something that’s good for the environment. I like that. But I also feel good, and I sleep well, and I have lots of energy,” Redman said.
Since the summer of 2000, Redman has been bicycling 11 miles to work and back, a total of about 22 miles a day. He cycles five days a week when he is teaching at Franklin High School in nearby Highland Park, and he does that 34 weeks a year. Besides going to school and coming home, he also rides about 20 to 30 extra miles each week.
Environmental activist and actor Ed Begley Jr. states that one of the single best things you can do to help the environment is to get out of the car at least one day a week and either walk, bicycle or take the bus. Clearly, Richard Redman — who turned 70 earlier this year — is doing his share and more.
Previous to 2000, Redman had been teaching at Los Angeles High School, which is located about four miles west of downtown LA on Olympic Boulevard — about 20 miles from his home. But Redman explains that “the traffic got worse each year, and it really upset my psyche. A colleague
told me about an opening for a biology teacher at a high school closer to home, so I applied for that position.”
Eager to be working closer to home, Redman was also open to possibilities that would enable him to live a life more conducive to his health-awareness.
He began riding his Cannondale road bike to school and back, never using a bike rack, but carrying whatever gear he needed in his backpack.
“I never cared much for a bike rack,” he explained, “and if I ever needed to carry a heavy load to school, I simply drove my car.”
Fortunately, he has a locker at his school where he keeps a change of clothes for his teaching day.
Also, his route to school is largely downhill, so he doesn’t get sweaty on the way. It takes him about 40 minutes to arrive at Franklin, through a route he planned along the west side of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and south to busy York Boulevard. He takes the reverse route home, which, with a slight uphill grade, takes about 60 minutes.
He has not experienced any serious problems with dogs, since he can outride them. Perhaps the biggest challenge is heavy rain, and during those periods Redman drives his car to work.
Redman estimates that there are only five to 10 students who cycle to school. While they nearly all live nearby, Redman believes that part of the reason more students don’t bicycle is fear of vandalism or bike theft, even though the school has a special enclosure for bicycles.
What do the students think of Redman’s bicycling?
“Sometimes they ask me if I have a car, and I tell them yes,” said Redman. “So next the student will ask me why I don’t drive the car, and I tell them that it’s more fun to ride a bike. They don’t laugh at me, and I think some of them just think I’m stupid — in other words, in the mind of a high school student, why would you ride a bike when you could drive a car? Some students do say that I’m weird or crazy.”
Redman emphasizes safety in bicycling, both in the color of his outfit and in the route he has carefully chosen for his daily trip.
Chris Nyerges is the author of “How to Survive Anywhere” and other books. He has led wilderness field trips since 1974. He can be reached at Box 41834, Eagle Rock, Ca., 90041, or www.ChristopherNyerges.com.
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