This morning I went for a bike ride with members of the City Council, Tacoma Pierce Chamber of Commerce, City of Tacoma Public Works Department and the Tacoma Wheelman’s Bicycle Club (including “recovering journalist” Dave Seago).

Small groups of a half dozen people started out in one of three locations from around the city: McKinley Ave. and S. 56th streets, Top Foods and the Metropolitan Market.

I left my house to meet my group at 7:35 a.m. with a sense of dread and a flat tire.

My group consisted of council member Julie Anderson, whose mountain bike also had a flat tire, Seago, David Boe, Rob McNair-Huff, a community liaison for the city, Jessica Holden, who works at the Chamber and brought me a helmet, and a handful of other wheel -men and -women.

What was the point? For the people making the decisions to get firsthand understanding of what it's like to be a cyclist. The group commute was followed by a meeting in City Hall, where the group of about 30 talked about surprises, problems, questions and possible next steps.

The commute was lovely: The sun was shining, I'm sure birds were chirping, the views on our trip were gorgeous and, except for a brush with an elementary school at drop-off time, the traffic wasn't so bad.

The problem: When we got to City Hall, there was no place to put our bikes. City buildings don't have bike racks out front, so we stowed the bikes inside the building.

=> Read more!