Unexpected Commuting Benefits

[lph]

Absolutely. I have seen so many people get into dangerous situations by not being assertive, or by making up their minds too late. Or even put others into dangerous situations. Just the other week I was coming down a hill, and the cyclist in front of me decided for no particular reason to suddenly slow down, waive her right of way and let a car turn in from a driveway into the road in front of her. The driver was looking only at her, and not at me approaching right behind her, which meant that suddenly I too had to come to almost a full stop.

[indysteel]

Catrin,

I would caution you a bit about the Cultural Trail. It is a nice thing to have in the city (at a cost of $50 million for a 7.5 mile trail, it darn well better be ), but I do think it poses problems because it is, in actuality, a glorified sidewalk and, as a sidewalk, it poses some potential hazards for cyclists. I'll give you a for instance. If you were traveling east by bike on the Trail as it parallels North Street and approaches Delaware, you could very easily get hit by vehicle that is turning left--and that is totally oblivious to your rearward approach--onto Delaware. And you may have trouble even seeing what that eastbound traffic is doing because there are cars parked alongside the trail, as well as westbound traffic. Some of the streets that parallel the Trail only allow cars to turn left when they have a green arrow and Trail users have a red light, but not all of the intersections offer that protection. I'm afraid that some Trail users who aren't used to riding on the street at all will assume that it offers more protection from traffic than it actually does.

[Catrin]

IndySteel - good call on being cautious with it. Depending on the time of day I won't always use it, and I am trying to be especially careful downtown anyway about stopping and looking before I ride out into traffic or cross the street. Out on my empty country roads I am more likely to look "on the move" as it were, but thankfully urban riding is so new to me that I am being extra cautious.

What makes it even cooler to use it is that my agency was involved in the initial planning stages