Taking the Drive Out of Running Errands

Most people wouldn't associate grocery shopping with exercise and two-wheel transportation. But  showed that running daily errands can be healthy for the body and earth, and perhaps a little more fun than usual.

About a dozen bikers and shop employees traveled a 10-mile loop together, one with a camera strapped to his bike, from College Park to Greenbelt and back again, hitting up area shopping hotspots.

"The goal is for customers and friends to experience errand/shopping riding with other riders on a low-traffic time of the week (Sunday morning)," wrote one of the organizers and Greenbelt Patch blogger .

About 12 bikers showed up, pedaling to spots in north College Park, like  and , and in Greenbelt, like the . Advanced and beginner riders alike were encouraged to attend.

"It was mostly pretty experienced riders," Lemieux said in an e-mail, "but we were more accustomed to bike commuting or sports riding than utility riding."

The 10-mile route was a little too short for at least one rider.

"One guy (Pete Beers) rode all the way from Virginia on his cargo bike. He showed us how it's done!" Lemieux wrote.

Check out the video and photos with this post to see how the ride went. It might inspire you to attend the next Proteus cargo ride on Saturday, Dec. 10, when bikers will travel to Eastern Market and the downtown holiday craft market in Washington, D.C. for holiday shopping.

That's a 30-mile round trip on trails and side roads out of traffic, but it's mostly flat, Lemieux said. Details are still in the works.