Who We Are - An Interview by Liz Bernstein Regan & Alison: A Bike-Love Story
Other benefits of biking – you just might meet someone special! Meet Regan & Alison and read about their Bike-love story!
As a kid, did you ever wonder where you might meet a partner? Regan did. Since Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us, we thought we’d share a bike-love story.
As a new staffer, I’ve been spending time getting to know our members, volunteers and donors. I recently met Regan and thanked him for his end of the year gift and his 20 year dedication to MCBC. I learned that he met his wife commuting to work, hence the inspiration for this bike-love story.
Regan has always been a cyclist. He’s ridden, raced, advocated for bikes. And bike commuting from Marin to San Francisco is where he met his future wife (while sporting his Stanford cycling kit).
Both Alison and Regan were doctors at Kaiser in San Francisco in 2004, and though Alison grew up as a gymnast and not a cyclist, soon they were sharing the 37 minute commute from Sausalito to the Kaiser offices on Geary, she on an old hand-me-down mountain bike, he on a beautiful Bianchi. Brisk and chatty commutes led to talk of racing–how to draft, how to avoid the wind blasts around the towers on the Golden Gate Bridge (sometimes a hoot! Sometimes harrowing!) Since they both had very busy schedules as doctors, their “commute time” was also their “dating time” so Alison eventually upgraded to a new bike for their date-commutes.
Regan and Alison started the first Bike to Work Day energizer station sponsored by Kaiser in 2005, and their enthusiasm soon spread among their fellow employees. “We even got a cycling jersey made for Kaiser staff and members,” Regan told me.
They took their advocacy work further and secured bike lockers, showers, badge-access bike cages, and video cameras at Kaiser for those who bike-commute to work. Regan’s service to the cycling community continues to this day, as a volunteer on the Sausalito Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC).
This bikey pair is now married with two children. The entire family rides bikes for pleasure, for commuting, for errands, exercise, and the planet.
Regan and Alison are the perfect example of what it’s like to live and breathe cycling. When I ask Regan about writing their story for Valentine’s day he said, “I knew I would marry someone who cycled.” You too could star in a bike-love story!
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