Recent Bike Activity

Sunday, September 4, 2011

My Eight Anecdotes about Bike Commuting

I've commuted by bicycle for 11 years.  I started when we first moved to Thousand Oaks, CA in 2000.

When I commute, I have two options; a 5.0 mile ride via a 50 mph city street with no bike lane, and a 6.6 mile ride on a route that has bike lanes. Lately I've been taking the 5 mile route and riding a mountain bike on the sidewalk.

I typically commute by bike three times per week.  My current pattern is to get a ride in the morning with a coworker who has a bike rack on his car (how lucky!) and bike home, but I have spent many years commuting both ways.

I have also had lapses in my discipline, the biggest lapse being over two years when a regular Tuesday breakfast meeting convinced me that I was just too busy and too important to be messing with the bike.  Fortunately, a family member convinced me to join him in the Solvang Century in March 2008, and I returned to commuting to train for the Century.

Here are my anecdotes regarding commuting:

1) It Feels Lonely because it is Lonely:  I believe that the current percentage of Californians that commute by bicycle make up 3% of the working population (heard this at a Ventura County transportation forum recently).  Moreover, the numbers in that category mostly consist of individuals that have to bike either because of economic necessity or lack of a drivers' license.

2) Even "Enlightened" People Believe that the Road is for Cars (not Bikes):  My university colleagues quite often will look at me with concern, and tell me to "be careful" like I'm getting ready to carry a vial of nitroglycerin across the room.  The message that I receive is that they think that roads are really not for me (and my bike).

3) Driver's Right Turns are Dangerous:  I've been very fortunate over the years.  I've never been hit, and have only fallen three times (because of being clipped in on a road bike).  I've even had relatively few close calls.  My closest encounter was a woman who blew through a stop sign on a right hand turn right into my lane.  I was lucky to be on a two lane road with no one in the inside lane, and was able to swerve over and avoid what would have been a certain t-bone. So, I have been lucky over the years, but I have also been beneficially neurotic.  I carefully observe the drivers in cross traffic to see who is in the right-hand turn lane, and I make sure that I make eye contact with them.  If they do not make eye contact with me, I slow down and slowly approach them until they do.

4) Driver's Right Turns Part B:  I am not proud to say that I have exchanged un-pleasantries with a few drivers over the years.  And almost all of those exchanges resulted from me being in a street that did not have a formal right turn lane, but that had enough room for a driver to scoot around a red-light stopped car and turn right, only to be blocked by yours truly.  The drivers think that I shouldn't be there (even though there's really nowhere to go).  I will say, I have learned, and have recently been more conscience of crossing over and getting in front of the first stopped driver, thus avoiding making another new friend.

5) Road Bikes are Great for Centuries, Not so Much for Commuting:  Thousand Oaks is an affluent community that, for the most part, maintains its roads.  However, I think all cities hate the right hand portion of the streets that has been relegated to bikers, and are determined either to tear them up for utility fixes, block them off for tree-trimming, are just cone them off for no apparent reason.  Consequently, I feel far more comfortable going onto sidewalks, inner traffic lanes, or over construction on either my new mountain bike, or my old MTB hardtail.

6) Panniers vs. Backpack:  I use both, and really don't mind the backpack as it's easier to pack my stuff in the morning.  I use panniers when I'm planning to stop at the grocery store on the way home.

7)  On to the Positive, #1, Bike Commuting is Remarkably Fast:  I can make my little 5 mile commute in under 20 minutes, and can make the longer commute in under 25.  Driving the shorter route takes about 15 minutes.

8) Positive #2, a Little Self-Enlightenment:  Sometimes I sit at red lights and I watch all the drivers go past either going or coming home from work, and I can see in their faces how much they are hurrying, and how focused they are in getting to their destination, and how much just a momentary delay in their traffic pattern would upset them.  It's at those moments that I know that by taking a little extra time on a commute so that I enjoy being outside and enjoy my bicycle is really far more empowering that rushing around in a car.


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