Finally got to ride to work today!

[sfa]

I couldn't have asked for a nicer day for my first commute--sunny and remarkably cool for this time of year. Actually I *did* ask for a nicer day--I was supposed to bike in yesterday but woke up to pouring rain. I'm not that hard core yet.

Turns out the route is 13.44 miles--about a mile more than I calculated, but I forgot to add in the ring road around campus to get to the fitness center to change. Took a bit over an hour, and I don't like to think of how much of that time was spent at traffic lights (including one where I was the only one waiting for the light to change and my bike couldn't trigger the change, so I waited through three cycles then crossed at the crosswalk). My employer, bless their liberal save-the-earth hearts, is starting to encourage people to ride to work and has put in bike racks around the main quad to make it easier. But they didn't put any by the fitness center! So I locked up to a bench, changed quickly, then rode across campus in my little summer skirt, looking even more like a dork than I did in my spandex-and-yellow getup.

There are two spots on the route where I have to turn left and go straight uphill, starting from a dead stop. I didn't make it the whole way either time--on the longer one I had to stop and rest and on the steeper one I had to stop and walk a bit. Except for those hills, the commute was fun. Now if only I could figure out a way to add in coffee and NPR--my two indulgences that make my commute by car enjoyable.

Oh, one more thing--last night I put in a new battery in my old Ciclomaster II computer. It was stuck in bottom of my panniers for the last 17 years and I figured there was no way it would still work. Miraculously, it still does! I love old technology.

Sarah

[NoNo]

Good for you! Once you learn all the nuances I'm sure your ride will be a breeze. Keep at it!

[Melalvai]

A lot of people are going to rant about how terrible it is to wear headphones or listen to the radio on the bike but if listening to NPR makes you happy, go for it. There are lots more dangerous activities you could engage in.

About the traffic signal that didn't detect you...look at the pavement for cuts. They might be rectangular, or diamond shaped. Whichever shape, there's probably a center cut, with either a T-cut across that or an M-cut. Position yourself at the top of the center cut, lean your wheel over it slightly. That should set off the actuator pretty well. Some streets are paved over and you can't see the cuts. Then, you might get lucky if you aim for the center of the lane, right where the center of your car would be if you were in a car.

About the hills...try shifting into your lowest gear before you are completely stopped.

One thing that helps me is to have the attitude that while commuting, my goal is to get from one place to another. I'm not training or racing or performing. So I don't worry about if I have a better or worse time one day, or if it takes me forever to get up a hill. I have more fun that way.

Cyclists generally look like dorks. You should see me in my safety goggles, reflective orange road vest, yellow fenders on a maroon bike (the rust spots are a particularly classy touch)... I'm sure you are much cuter biking in a skirt than I am in that get-up!

[GLC1968]

Congrats and welcome to the commuting 'club'!

For a light that won't trigger (I had one on my commute in NC - nothing I could do would trigger it and there were rarely any cars on my morning leg to trigger it for me), it's totally ok to hit the crosswalk button and then get back into the road to wait for the signal. I used to do that all the time. I'd ride up to the intersection, onto the sidewalk right there and hit the button. Then I'd scoot my bike back out onto the road before it changed. (Before anyone freaks about the riding up onto the sidewalk - there were no cars AND no pedestrians at this time of morning!). You do what you have to do! I figure it was better than running a red light (my only other option!).

[Melalvai]

Some states have Dead Red exceptions, which allow a motorcyclist or a bicyclist to run a red light when the actuator doesn't detect it. Most folks will do that anyway, I mean you wait there for the requisite 3 min or whatever, and eventually when there's a break in traffic you just go, but this exception allows you to do that legally.

That particular exception passed in the Missouri Senate but the House never got around to voting on it this year.

[BBsw]

Good for you! I am a newbie too! Did my second ride to work yesterday. Working out the logistics of parking, cleaning up and changing is going to take a few rides.

[Blueberry]

NC has a law like that for motorcycles, but NOT bikes. Go figure

[Melalvai]

NC has a law like that for motorcycles, but NOT bikes. Go figure

In Missouri, it was the motorcyclists who were pushing for that particular law. The Mo Bike Fed folks contacted the motorcycle organization and asked if they could include "bicycles" in the language. Of course they said yes, and welcomed a new ally.

It would be a good move for the NC bicyclists to find a friend in the state legislature and add "bicycle" to the existing law. It wouldn't meet with much of any opposition, and would be good publicity for that organization.

[sfa]

I don't think there's a law like that in Maryland; I'll have to look into it. As it is, at that particular intersection I don't think I could have used that approach without ending up a dead red(head) myself. There was a lot of traffic in the cross street! I'll have to try triggering the light the next time--I'm pretty sure there were cuts in the pavement. Thanks for that advice!

And now there's not going to be a next time for the next three weeks--I have to drag my daughter to and from camp the next two weeks, then we're on vacation for a week. That'll give me plenty of time to look read all the threads about saddles--I don't know if I just need to get re-used to my old saddle or if 18 years, ten pounds and two HUGE babies have changed my anatomy enough that I need something different. I was fine at work all day, but hurting by the time I got home.

Sarah

[Blueberry]

It would be a good move for the NC bicyclists to find a friend in the state legislature and add "bicycle" to the existing law. It wouldn't meet with much of any opposition, and would be good publicity for that organization.

*sigh*

In a very shortsighted move, most NC cyclists opposed the law adding bicycles. They were afraid that "special treatment" would erode bikes otherwise being treated as vehicles. Logic, sadly, did not prevail.

CA