How much do you see?

[mimitabby]

yeah Queen we want to see the paper wads

[Voodoo Sally]

Sally, where do you go off road? Are you talking about the Starmet site near the Thoreau Club?

Nope, the former W.R. Grace site at the end of Independence Rd. in Acton. If I'm heading to Concord, I go through there, cross the Commuter Rail tracks, and follow a dirt trail east along the tracks, which becomes a narrow dirt road through woods, which comes out where Hillside Ave. becomes Old Stow Rd. in Concord. Then I get on Main St. The dirt road area contains some pretty paths going off of it, but it's not a very big area. I see people in there occasionally, walking dogs or whatever.

[Pax]

yeah Queen we want to see the paper wads

I'll definitely take pics of the "art".

[7rider]

What types of things do you see on your commute?

You know, I never really thought about it, because it's just - ho hum - my commute to (and from) work.

Fortunately, about 80% of it is residential. I see kids walking to school at this time of year. I see home decorations changing with the holidays. One neighborhood is mostly an older orthodox Jewish neighborhood, and they recently took their Sukkahs down. It's always strange to see them set up in suburban driveways and side yards! I also cut through a shopping plaza parking lot to get on a MUT for a short while. A big international chain grocery store is leaving, to be replaced with a smaller locally-owned chain (Magruders for Giant, for the local gals).

Once in the city, I pass a gym, a few banks, a few parking garages, the county courthouse, and the Metro entrance with its bus depot. The only smell there is usually diesel and urine. Blech.

And there it is. 7 miles from 'burbs to city.

[withm]

Awwww geee - I've been thinking I should take pix of my commute since much of it is really nice but now that it's dark so early I'm not riding to work anymore. Could do it tomorrow but riding 13 miles one way with 20-30 mile headwinds is not very enticing. And then there's the matter of it being hard to photograph "the wind." The forecast is 4-6' waves on the ocean but if the wind goes west, the ocean will look seemingly flat when I cross over the inlet bridge. Maybe I can commute to work on Sunday if the wind dies a bit and take some pix. The gardens on the return leg are really beautiful.... OK, I've talked myself into it - I'll try to do it on Sunday.

Martha

[onimity]

I rode part of my commute route yesterday and took some photos. They are on-the-bike photos with my point and shoot, so not the best composition/quality shots I've taken!



This sign is just a few feet from my house.



Tiny country road. It dead-ends onto a bike path so traffic is about 90% bikes, 5% runners, 5% cars. That's my sister up ahead.



Mountains to the right



The town of Marshall



Heading east. The hill to the right has MTB trails that I like to ride on the way home.





Not a bad way to get to work!

More images here (with different seasons & different parts of the route including a couple of extended detours for fun )

Anne

[northstar]

WOW, Anne, too cool! Gorgeous scenery. You must be very relaxed at work.

[caribou]

I was going to wimp out and take the light rail to work today, but now I'll have to ride in to enjoy the sights and smells. Actually, the light rail station has the more dangerous smells: it's almost directly across from one of Sacramento's best high-class bakeries, and one of Sacramento's best low-class donut stands. I swear they purposely blow the smells over to the folks waiting for the train.

What I see on the bike commute: the beautiful old school turned into a community center near my house, a great crepe shoppe (uh-oh, more food), a busy slightly run down area near the freeway, quiet tree-lined residential streets with lovely c. 1900 homes and a few run-down ones, a house that looks c. 1905-15 that's getting completely rebuilt (all outside up, jacked up--it will be interesting to see if they restore it or destroy it with modernization), lots of piles of leaves this time of year in the bike lane-waiting for the yard waste recycle pickup, trash and recycling cans in the bike lane waiting for garbage day, parked cars to watch the doors on, the same older lady almost every day walking the neighborhood looking for aluminum cans to sell, busy cross streets, a little view of a corner of the state capitol, the business buildings of downtown, the Archive Plaza light rail station, and then the big ugly green 1964 monolith that's home for the next 9 hours.

Okay, time to get dressed and go see it!

[JmcG]

I see lots of things on my commute. I live in Alexandria, VA, so my commute takes me north along the Potomac River with a view of all the monuments across the river in DC. The best is when it's either dark and all the monuments are lit up, or the sun is just rising behind the monuments.

I then cross into Georgetown and ride down one of the main streets - M street - which is usually packed with people and cars, but not at 6am! It's wonderful to have the entire street to myself (mostly). Then I hop on another trail heading towards Bethesda, MD where I see deer almost every morning, sometimes foxes, blue herons, and sometimes homeless people sleeping alongside the trail. I pass through on old railroad tunnel before getting off the trail.

Once off the trail, I'm on a pretty busy road the last 6 miles of my commute into work. I pass Glen Echo park Glen Echo Park, a gas station that seems to always have the most expensive gas in the area- which is always fun to look at, a few markets and delis where I'll stop in to buy a lottery ticket if it's a big jackpot week, and finally I ride underneath the DC beltway before entering the gates into my work.

[mimitabby]

my DH, Raleighdon was thinking of taking a bunch of pictures of his winter commute, but you wouldn't see anything, it's dark both ways!

[shootingstar]

Right now it's been too rainy and dark to make my part-bike portion commute practical.

But in fall, spring and summer, when I regularily incorporated bike commuting as part of my long, complicated work (via also commuter train, bike drop-off, then bus and walk to workplace from bus stop), on my way home from bike pickup point, my route has been deliberately plotted where 1/2 of it, is on bike paths that squiggle through some wooded parks (3 different parks), residential roads, 2 backalley laneways, past 3 different schools, 2 different skateboard park locations....and by the sea inland,..can go through a neighbourhood that is abit low...but I don't feel threatened on bike.

I am cutting through some funky artsy areas with cafes...which I do stop when we feel like it. It is getting into the downtown area which by the time I get home, traffic has died down drastically.

And throughout the trip, I see local mountains in different glimpses/directions at least half of the trip or more.

This commute is a great cure for any after-work stress. About 50 min. or less

[Geonz]

[QUOTE=Queen;255057]My commute starts in a lovely tree lined residential area, after a couple of miles of that I roll into the bike lanes at the university. I pass a farm, some horticulture greenhouses, a few college dorms (lots of dodging sleepy students), some odd art pieces that look like ten foot tall paper wads (painted neon yellow/green/orange), then I rise by the observatory and finally into the bike lot at the main library. A nice 4 mile ride.


I was just scrolling down and thought "That's just like...!" and then thought "of course it is..." and looked to see it was your post .
Of course, the art pieces would have been a *dead* giveaway

I see what she sees for a little bit... then I go four more miles west through the treelined residential stuff on the *other* end of town, past my bike shop if I go that way, and out to the college, where I'll ride around and around if I have time.
I *don't* ride on the bike path where it goes through the bus stop near that library but I like those bike lanes on the road behind it (which they promise they will resurface soon).

[lph]

I wish it were lighter on my commute these days, because the valley is soooo pretty! I live on the east side of a valley running north-east of Oslo, and on my normal commute I cross the valley to get to a bike path running fairly high up on the west side. It's cold here now, around 10F, so looking east I see trees covered in hoarfrost against a beautiful blue-black sky, that lightens to the softest bluish gray. The hoarfrost is from the fog that forms above the river at night, so while most of the valleyside is outlined in white, the trees on the horizon make this lovely contrast line in black.

Have to see if I can snap some photos today, I'm taking the day off.

[lph]

I posted a few photos over on the "shooting for 7500"-thread, of my commute in this morning. Figured since I already have a looky-me-thread I might as well fill er up