UPS Delivering Holiday Packages Via Bicycle

This should please those commenters whose knee-jerk response to any and all posts regarding transit woes is "Get a bike.": UPS, who lately has been bombarding us with those ads with the white-board guy in a lady wig, is going inadvertently green this holiday season. Due to the unsustainable costs of renting extra trucks to accommodate delivery of holiday packages, UPS is employing bicycles with little trailers towed behind them in select neighborhoods around the Bay Area.

The Mercury News caught up with Justin Hurst, one of a dozen or so bike-deliverers working this season in the flatter neighborhoods of Silicon Valley. UPS has actually been using bikes in certain areas of California for several years now, but this is the first year we're seeing them pop up locally. The company is using bikes on 45 routes in Northern CA, and it's saving them about $50K in fuel and maintenance expenses. Unfortunately, this plan only works in places where it isn't all snowy and icy in December. Guess that rules out parts of the East Bay now.