My employer once again encourages event participants, partners, employees and vendors to “Go Green” and ride a bicycle or take public transportation to the JavaOne conference this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Sun has again partnered with the San Francisco Bike Coalition to offer a free “Bike Valet” services. The “Bike Valet” service will be available Monday through Thursday from 8:00 am – 7:00 pm and Friday from 8:00 am – 1:00 pm in front of the Moscone Center South Hall. The first 100 cyclists using the bike valet service received a Sun-branded Nalgene bottle.
To use the Bike Valet service, you turn your bicycle over to the valet and receive a claimcheck in return. Keep the claimcheck to retrieve your bicycle when you’re ready to leave.
Public transportation is another reasonable option. Almost everybody I know attending JavaOne from the Peninsula and the South Bay are taking Caltrain into San Francisco. From the East Bay, BART takes you to within a couple of blocks of Moscone.
Here’s a neat story about what occurred as a result of last year’s bike valet promotion:
I realized the other night on a brisk bike ride across the city that Sun Microsystems’ Bike Valet initiative at JavaOne in May has had a lasting, positive impact on my life and health. I had a really nice hybrid mountain/street bicycle that I’d only ridden a handful of times. Like me, it was growing lazy and unaccustomed to exercise.
…Sun partnered with the San Francisco Bike Coalition to offer free valet parking for JavaOne attendees. During the event, I rode my bike frequently to and from [my] office to Moscone Center. On the actual Bike to Work Day, my colleague Ken Shuman and I rode our bikes to City Hall for Mayor Newsom’s press event in order to lure media to our Bike Valet. It was an exhilarating way to get around the city and I decided that day that I would leave my bike in the city at the office. Since then, I use it all the time for running errands, dentist’s appointments, shopping and meeting friends.