Riding thru Road Construction

[bikerHen]

My home is soon to be surrounded by major road construction that will last well into the fall/winter. !!!! It's my only way in and out. I could drive through the whole mess, and park at the local middle school, but then I would miss my own personal hell hill - hate it, but gotta ride it everyday! Any ideas? Construction includes the rerouting of the state highway I usually ride on and overpasses for a new freeway. So driver are not only going to be pissed they're going to be driving fast. To try or not to try that is my question. bikerHen

[newfsmith]

There are many hills in the world. If safer hills aren't long enough for you, you can ride back down & come up again. Do that enough times and molehills become mountains. Construction is very difficult riding. No one knows where they are supposed to be, construction vehicles come out of no where, and the surface is less than standard. I changed my route last year to accomadate road widening in front of the clinic. It hurt giving up my favorite part of the ride, but it was a necessary evil. I did do a few trips on the week-end when there was no construction to ease the pain. But I make a point of riding on low traffic areas. Additionally, I broke a spoke on the uneven surface, so do it for your bike if you can't do it for yourself.

[Deanna]

How much is the road going to be torn up? I've had to ride through some contruction zones and always found the flag men (I know there are women too, but 98% of the time it's still men) to be very accomodating to cyclists (we have our own hard hats after all) they usually waved me through a little earlier than the rest of the cars because a bike doesn't need the full lane. You just have to take it a little slower to keep your eyes on all the equipment. If you go this route during commute hours, there's also a good chance they'll have not yet started or be shut down for the day.

[CorsairMac]

I'm with Deanna on this one - how bad will it be torn up? They just did some construction on the bike path I ride and it got to the point the guys would Look for me every day and stop all the big machines And cars to let me thru! (plus once in awhile I even got a whistle! gotta love those construction boys at my age! ) They even tried to keep a line open on the sidewalk so I could have a passthru! (ok...they probably didn't do that Just for me - but I can play pretend no?) hmmmmm.........might be a good time to practice some MTB'ng skills!!! Maybe get them to mound some dirt up for ya, make trails thru their work, etc etc!

[spazzdog]

Cookies to the contruction guys sometimes equals daily bike access.

spazz

[poison tumac]

There is almost always a way for a bike to get through a construction site. It just might involve a bit of off-roading, construction workers yelling at you, and a whole lot of caution.

[AutumnBreez]

Cookies to the contruction guys sometimes equals daily bike access.

spazz

This is worth a try for sure! Love it!

[DeniseGoldberg]

I'm in the minority with newfsmith on this one - I'd avoid the construction if at all possible. In my experience, the cars don't pay as much attention as they should given a torn up road surface; they are bad enough on fully paved roads as far as giving a cyclist their place on the road goes. To me, the risk is just to great. I'd drive to the school you mentioned and ride from there.

--- Denise

[newfsmith]

Maybe the road widening I was dealing with was a little more extreme than what you are experiencing, but when they take out the curbs, the sidewalks and all pavement, leaving nothing but bare dirt with protruding manholes and utility poles stuck in the middle of the "road", and the traffic both directions comes to a dead halt for 30 minutes at a time, and the horns start blaring and drivers get out of the cars to argue with the police directing traffic, and twice started shoving matches with other drivers; then I say it no place to be riding a bike if there is any alternate route. You can't even attempt to ride in a vehicular manner. Sure bribes are nice, we told the crew they could come into the office for fresh water or to use the restroom, and passed out Krispy Kremes one day, but do you want to bet your life on a Krispy Kreme?

[bikerHen]

[QUOTE=CorsairMac]I'm with Deanna on this one - how bad will it be torn up? They just did some construction on the bike path I ride and it got to the point the guys would Look for me every day and stop all the big machines And cars to let me thru! (plus once in awhile I even got a whistle! gotta love those construction boys at my age! )

OK let me tell my construction story. Last summer, when they were starting all this construction, I road through it daily and was on friendly terms with the road flaggers. One morning the afore mention hell hill was reduced down to one lane of traffic. I came up to the hill just as they were letting my lane through. The flagger told me they would hold all the traffic till I made it up the hill. No pressure there! While I did manage a cheerful "Hey, Thanks", I was screaming on the inside To make a long, painful story shorter, I made it up the hill, and suffered the rest of the day with burning lung! I did appreicate their concern though and while talking was not an option when I made it to the top, I did manage to wave my thanks. Every time I ride that hill I think about that day!

Back to this years construction, it's very major construction. We haven't even figured how they are going to get cars out our road. I guess it's just a wait and see how bad it gets situation. Thanks for your input. BikerHen, Lisa

[KSH]

Well, other than ALL the other reasons people have stated to not ride through the construction... I would also be fearful of ruining tires riding through it.