I Did It!

[TrekJeni]

Good for you. Glad you like commuting.

Have a couple of questions for you though - is it legal for you to ride on the sidewalk where you live? Here in the state of Ohio, it is illegal for anyone over the age of 16 to ride on the sidewalk.

I was recently certified as a League of American Bicyclists trainer and can help you with those confusing intersections. We too have the ability to turn right on red, and Cincinnati is not known as a bike friendly town. The way to cut your chances at a right hook encounter to to position yourself farther towards the center of that lane.

Again I want to say how proud I am that you started commuting. It's a wonderful feeling to be free of the car isn't it?!

Jeni

[carpaltunnel]

It does sound like we do it differently than your city. Cincinatti may be more advanced and bicycle friendly than you think.

Yes, we can ride on the sidewalks; in fact I think it's expected. The city trail system sometimes uses the sidewalks, but makes them double wide or more where it's designated "trail". We have buttons on the corners to trigger a crossing light, but that still allows the drivers to turn right into us. Our crossing lane and light is the same as for the people who would be on the sidewalk, if anyone walked. So someone turning right on a red would come around the corner first, then hit us in the crossing lane. It's nearly happened to me several times, on non-commute rides, but I was watching for them and saw it coming.

I couldn't get out with the cars on the major streets. Of the very few bike commuters I see, I don't see anyone else doing it either on those streets. The traffic is too fast and densely packed - they would just as soon kill me as look at me. In fact they wouldn't even see me before they did the deed.
But thanks anyway! I can see if the drivers were aware of bike safety that would be the thing to do.

[carpaltunnel]

I scanned a couple of the articles listed above, and tried to upload them here, but they exceed the max allowable file size.

So here is the link to the Nutrition Action site. Lots of articles can be read from the site. Others seem to require purchase of a subscripton. (Worth it in my opinion.)
http://www.cspinet.org/nah/index.htm

And the Tufts U. Nutrition & Health newsletter. Also worth the subscription price.
http://www.healthletter.tufts.edu/

The articles are not just about nutrition. They cover a wide range of health related topics.

Thanks to all for the encouragement. I'st been rainy and windy Tue-Wed and will be again tomorrow, so I hope by Friday I can get back to it!