How Was Your Commute Today?

[redrhodie]

That's a justifiable pet peeve. I haven't had that done to me, but I bet I wouldn't like it, either.

[carlotta]

I hate getting cut off-- especially by people aiming to run the light, and by guys (agree, almost all male) who think they're super fast and I can't possibly be faster than they are...then I pass them, then they cut me off at the next light, etc, etc. I've mostly decided that I'll take it easy for the couple miles between the end of the MUP to work and avoid any of it.

I will stop alongside/slightly ahead of another rider--with the intention of passing them when the light changes, especially when:

a) they're too far right/not far enough forward to block people trying to take an illegal right-on-red at a particular intersection. The green for straight travel (including a nice big wide bike lane) occurs when the right turn lane has a red arrow, so I'll park myself in front of the right turn lane if their arrow has already turned red-- I commute through there in both directions everyday and know the light cycles.

b) I'm also guilty of doing this when the stopped bike has a half-flat back tire, rusty chain, or any of the other common indicators of a student bike....I won't cut them off, but use the bike lane as if it has two lanes and I'm in the left lane waiting to start out. 99.9% of the time I start/travel faster than they do, and I feel like it's safer to pass them when they're not weaving all over the bike lane as they tend to do...

On that note, it's time to ride home

[Tri Girl]

I'm off work this week, and I'm really going to miss commuting. I've already planned an epic ride for later in the week to make up for missed saddle time. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

[Melalvai]

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today I did something unusual for transportation. I didn't bike. For the most part, I didn't walk either. Yes, I drove a car.

If I'd had a great experience with it I wouldn't write about it on this thread. But I'm going to tell about because it was such a NOT great experience. Once in a while, I try to turn to the car, I'm not sure why. It seems like cheating and sometimes I want to indulge in cheating, eating crappy food and using crappy transportation. Why does it feel like indulging when it's really not?

My daughter was in the school play, and performed this weekend. The last week of rehearsals have gone at least 6 hours a night. Several times we picked up her and her bike. Toward the end of the week, after her bike was tampered with late at night while she was at rehearsal, she left the bike home and either walked to school or we drove her.

This morning, the play is over, no more rehearsals, but she was exhausted. Her backpack is ridiculously heavy so she doesn't like to walk. (It's less than a mile.) So I drove her to school.

Then I was supposed to meet some people at the state park (10 miles) and I hadn't gotten around to arranging for a ride. It's ridiculous that all 6 of us drove separate vehicles out there. But...we did. Usually at least some of us carpool. I thought we were walking through the 0.5 mile section of the future trail, which is not exactly a path but we have at least been through it and tied ribbons on the trees and cleared away the brush so it really doesn't take too long to hike it out and back. But it turned out we were walking the other part, which is 4 miles, and the purpose of today's walk is to get information so we can decide on a route.

It was a LOT of fun, but it took 5 hours. And I wasn't back in time to pick her up from school. I had no cell phone signal most of the time. Eventually I got a little and sent a text to her dad asking him to meet her there and help her carry her books.

We all survived, but driving back I wished that I hadn't encouraged her to ride in the car this morning, and that I had carpooled (which would have involved biking to meet someone), instead of driving. Then the car would be at home and neither of us would have been depending on it.

So it's not a huge big deal but just enough of an inconvenience to push me back to wanting to bike instead of drive.

[7rider]

Saw a bumper sticker on a car in my office's parking garage:
"Hate driving in traffic? You ARE traffic!"
Funny, I think that line would work better on the back of a bike jersey than the back of a car.

[Sky King]

Two humorous incidents on Monday. I dropped our car off for servicing, as I walked in the man behind the counter says "you made it" I have never been to this shop before as the DH usually takes it in, so I said, oh, did you recognize the car? He says "no I saw you get your bike out of the car and knew immediately which appointment you were" then he shared with me the best way to get to the MUP
2nd humorous? moment - after leaving the mup, I have a fairly busy street with a major intersection that I ride through. prior to the light a right hand turn lane appears necessitating that I change lanes in order to continue going straight. I look over my left shoulder, see traffic but it is far enough back that I signal and move to the left. I hear a horn honk??? so I just waved and decided to take the high road that they were approving of my signal and my bright green jacket as there weren't any cars close enough for them to be concerned that I was "cutting" them off. In fact the light turned green just as I approached so I kept on pedaling and was through the intersection before any of the cars that had been behind me when I changed lanes even caught up to me.

[redrhodie]

Wow, was it warm today! I got sweaty. Weird November.

[rubysoho]

First commute of the year today and I left my work keys at home.... ten or twelve (not exactly sure...) miles away!

I think I have hit my salt quota for the week. The roads were still dusty with salt from the storm that never came a few days ago. I road on my new Tricross and those hills are definitely more difficult on the tricross than the ruby but it wasn't terrible either! I'm still using a backpack. I hope to have a rack and fenders by the spring.

Only one person was mad and honked at me today. We were on a very narrow road with no sidewalk or shoulder. I consider it one of the more dangerous areas of my commute (aside from some poor viz street crossings and places where traffic is merging on to a road). But with the tricross I can minimize my time on that narrow stretch because I can cut across a public property to get to work instead of needing to stay on the road.

It was cold. (currently 34 degrees) I wore my ski pants over my long cycling pants. I am IN LOVE with my gortex gloves that have two fingers for shifting/breaking and then bundle up the other three of my fingers for warmth in a single compartment. Best ever!

Ok, time to focus and get to work!