Judd Kruger Levingston is the Clean Air Commuter of 2020!
Congratulations Judd Kruger Levingston, the Clean Air Commuter of 2020! Judd is a rabbi and serves as the Director of Jewish Studies at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr, and was nominated by his daughter, Serena. Having commuted over 40,000 miles by bicycle between his Mt. Airy home and Elkins Park for five years and then Bryn Mawr for the last eleven years, Judd has spent quite a bit of time on the roads. He still finds the downhills a rewarding thrill after pushing through the uphills. Over the years, he has changed a few flat tires, waved to neighbors and his barber, acknowledged neighborhood school children and their school bus drivers, and he’s even made a couple of new friends along the way.
Judd’s current route from Mt. Airy to Bryn Mawr takes him across the Walnut Lane Bridge (watch out for the nearly invisible icy patches in January!) and through Manayunk (watch out for the lumber trucks!), where he waves to his barber. From there, his bike allows him more flexibility than cars stuck in rush hour traffic to cross the Green Lane Bridge into Bala Cynwyd. He then turns right up Jefferson Street, climbing his favorite hill of the day before arriving at work.
Judd lived in New York City from the late 1980s until 2002, where he enjoyed crossing Central Park from one side to the other on his way to and from work, meetings, or doctors’ appointments. When he began working in Philadelphia, he worried about cars and dimly lit roads until he upgraded his lights, got a yellow bicycling jacket, and learned the roads so well that he knew where to avoid the potholes and where to hug the road while the cars accelerated.
Judd has made friends with the people he sees regularly along his commute. A friend who walks to the train every morning, or someone out for their morning run. He often sees his students on their way to school. People in the communities he bikes through recognize Judd from his commute. When Judd was buying a new pair of running shoes at the Bryn Mawr Running Store, the clerk asked him if he was the guy who bikes by each morning. “That’s me!” he told her, and encouraged her, “Wave next time so I’ll know it’s you.” Judd makes being an ambassador for other cyclists a priority. “I hope you know how careful I am when I see you, Rabbi Lev,” one student told him.
Judd’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond his own commute. Once a week, Judd has lunch with the members of his school’s Environmental Action Club. The club had an especially productive year by enacting a no-idling policy on campus and a single-use plastic water bottle ban.
Through the Covid-19 pandemic, Judd is riding his bike most days to get out so that he can still feel the changes of the seasons, hear the songbirds, and see the green emerging in the ongoing rhythms of the world. He counts on his bike to keep him going each day. On the rare moments when the weather or the equipment lets him down, he sees it as a good life lesson, and while he still has the time and the balance, riding his bike is an affirmation of life itself.
Congratulations to the 2020 Clean Commuter of the Year, Judd Kruger Levingston!
