How Was Your Commute Today?

[ZenBiker]

Cycled over to a meeting. Simple, peaceful. Met a bunch of employees stationed temporarily at a undamaged work site. They wondered how I got there by bike. It's only a 25 min. ride.

Funny how many people think biking somewhere is a major endeavor. They don't realize how much fun we're having (most of the time).

We just got a small grant to buy 2 bikes to use as "pool vehicles" at the office. Employees can check them out to ride across town to a meeting, or just to get some exercise on their lunch break. Hope they get used!

[Melalvai]

We just got a small grant to buy 2 bikes to use as "pool vehicles" at the office. Employees can check them out to ride across town to a meeting, or just to get some exercise on their lunch break. Hope they get used!

That's so cool! I recently heard of a similar employee bike share program that has done really well.

The university is adding a dental school and the new building has such nice bike racks...I was jealous until I saw the new bike racks by the med school library. Then I noticed the old wheelbender racks are overcrowded and I wondered "Does no one know about the new ones by the library?" I checked it out and--they are crowded too! I guess the new bike racks encouraged more people to bicycle! I usually leave my bike at my office and walk when I need to go to that building, but even more so now since the bike racks are so crowded! I passed the vice prez and complimented the new bike racks and he said "There will be more."

[7rider]

I hit a bird this morning!
Or rather, it hit me.
A young robin, still sporting it's baby feathers flew up from the grass beside me and straight into my left ankle/crank/pedal.
It flopped back off to the side of the trail and stayed there, still. I worried that it broke something, but after I watched it for a bit, I made a move to get closer to it, and it flew up and into a nearby tree.
So glad it appeared to be unscathed for it's encounter.
Never hit a bird before with my bike!

[ZenBiker]

Glad that both you and the robin are fine! I haven't hit/been hit by a bird yet, but had to brake for a family of quail on today's morning commute.

[carlotta]

Must be the season for wildlife- I almost had a little bird (sparrow?) fly in my face this morning, it was sitting on the ground next to the trail and decided to take off right as I rode by, I saw it come between my hands on the hoods and but closed my eyes after that.... I also clipped a little grass snake yesterday (thought it was a small stick until it moved right before I hit its tail) and saw a deer on the way home last Thursday. And of course the ****** geese.

Decent ride today, legs are tired but holding myself to my no-train-tickets until September 15th challenge for the new bike, so took it easy with the hope they'll be semi-happy tomorrow. Thought about taking the train, but I have an after work dinner next week which will require use of 1 of my 2.5 train trips, and it doesn't seem like wise planning to leave myself with 0.5 trips for the 8/15-9/15 timespan.... so slow commute it is

[carlotta]

Somehow I went on vacation for a week and the days got WAY shorter.... the trail at 6:15am is questionably dark (wildlife/people) and it'll probably be a week or so before I'm back to the winter road option for the first bit of the commute (not a big deal, light traffic that early, plus a fairly wide street and a big downhill so easy to stay with traffic). Worked later than anticipated last night and probably should've had my big headlight for the last bit of the commute as well.

Classes are starting again as well which means a whole new cohort of trail users to train (and crew teams/ROTC/etc), you'd think "keep right" is a fairly easy concept, but apparently not (as we all know). Plus K-12 starts in a week or two which means school busses and (more) harried parents....

Also, not directly commute-related, but bike parking at work has gone from awesome to serviceable to crappy. I used to bring my bike into the building and tuck it into an unused corner of the lab, not in the hallway, stairway, or anywhere else the fire marshal would have an issue with it..... unfortunately plenty of other people left bikes in hallways and now security has decided no-bikes-in-the-building is the way to go. Ok, fine, I used to park outside in front of one of the other buildings with a covered bike rack so I've been doing that for a few months. Now the school has decided to concentrate bike parking in large corrals of ~100 racks and remove all other freestanding racks. This MIGHT work, except they didn't bother to ask commuters for input and none of the new parking is covered (they installed cameras, and the security guy I spoke with said the budget allowed for one or the other..... if they'd polled commuters I'm pretty sure we'd rather have a roof than cameras. Both would be great, but pick one and it's a roof every time for me). There is one garage with a rack, but it's the useless old style where you have to either get one of the end spots or put your front wheel over the rack, and that doesn't work with fenders. They're also threatening to start charging for access to that sub-par rack. Ugh. /RANT

[Melalvai]

carlotta, that's ridiculous! Write a letter to the editor or something. Be the squeaky wheel. (But don't expect anything to change!)
I was the squeaky wheel and got my wheel repaired because of it.
I'm bringing my bike into the building now. That's not allowed for the same reason your building doesn't allow it. So far I've managed to sneak it in. But I have short-timer's syndrome so I don't care if I get caught. If I cared, I think I'd just walk at this point.

[carlotta]

There's definite unrest among the commuters.... I've talked to a couple other people around the racks and they're not happy either, but there's a general consensus that the powers that be on campus don't really care what we think. I've emailed the contact who was listed in the initial email spelling out all the changes, but not heard anything back and as non-faculty (important people with power) and non-student (not $$$ generating), I never expect much when I complain.....

Good news is we're probably moving to a different institution in a few months which means I get access to their underground garage with bike parking, so maybe things will be better by winter/bad weather.... until then, there's one good parking spot which was empty at 7am all week last week, so I have incentive to get to work early...

[carlotta]

This morning was an example of why you run a headlight, even on a fairly well lit MUP.....

I came around a blind corner (always an adventure, had a woman on a bike coming at me on my side of the trail this morning, but that's sort of expected) and ALL of the lights were out (street lights, trail lights, parking lot lights). This is a section of trail that's probably 1/3 mile from civilization and it's busy, even at 6am. I had my light on low, but had to crank it up to avoid joggers (lots of black, little reflectivity) for 1/4 mile or so. I almost felt like warning the assorted roadies I saw headed for the dark section after I came through it, but figured it'd be a good lesson for them, and it'd be light enough to see in 15 minutes or so anyway...

[skhill]

It rained for less than 10 minutes here yesterday. I felt the first few drops as I was hopping onto my bike for the ride home. By the time I'd gone 2 blocks, it was raining pretty hard. As I turned on to my street, it was letting up. And by the time I'd stripped out of my wet clothes, it had stopped entirely. Sigh.

And if I'd gotten away on time, I'd have been home before a single drop fell, but I got held up about 15 minutes. One of those days...

[BethG]

Students are back in town, and people are all coming back from vacation, so the traffic has been bad - BIKE traffic that is. Still faster than driving, but there's been some pretty impressive congestion. And they haven't all figured out how to be good fellow travelers, either. Someone rear-ended me the other day because wacky gal that I am I stopped at a red light. Fortunately I wasn't injured, and the guy at least had the decency to be embarrassed, and apoligize.

[carlotta]

I feel your pain, Beth.... bike/pedestrian/crew team practice (I ride past our boathouses) traffic has increased so much in the last couple weeks and it's been pretty crazy. I've seen cops out either warning or writing tickets for running lights and I always try to thank them if I end up stopped at the red (which always seems to surprise them).

Nice commute here this morning, broke out the full gloves/knee warmers for the first time (should've worn them yesterday, but I'm stubborn and didn't go back up to the apartment once I got outside and realized how cold it was). Not too crazy traffic/trail traffic.

The ongoing parking situation at work is getting worse, the rack I've been using is one of those old 'put-your-wheel-over-the-rack' jobs, and I can't park like that with fenders... so there are two usable spots (the end vertical posts) I can use. Long story short, even when I get here at 7am, one is usually occupied by the parking lot attendant, who doesn't actually lock his bike to the rack, but got very indignant the day I tried to move his so I could lock to the rack (really??? what's the difference leaning against the rack or against my bike??). The second spot has had a bike that is cable locked to the rack the past couple days (and could be cable locked anywhere along the length of the rack). I'm done trying to deal with that rack, the only WRITTEN bike policy I've seen says bikes are "discouraged" from being brought into university facilities, so I'm printing that out and bringing my bike into the building from now on, security can deal with it. (we're moving in a couple months, and I will have access real racks in a parking garage at that point, and maybe sooner... the garage/new building is 200 yards from the current building but a different institution and I'm not sure I can use it yet)

[girlsubobscura]

I had a superfun commute this morning on my new tricross. My daughter and her best friend just started middle school this year, and I convinced the other mom to let them bike commute to the school which is just under two miles away, so I have been biking with them every morning to school, and then they bike themselves home after school. So my morning commute is now 2 miles longer, but almost entirely on roads with new bike lanes, which is so much nicer than my ride home, which is shorter, but more congested. The weather is that perfect crisp fall morning, dry and not windy, and It won't get dark during our morning ride for a few more weeks it think.

[shootingstar]

That's great obscura in cycling with the kids to school. Setting a good pace for life...for kids.

[BethG]

That's great obscura in cycling with the kids to school. Setting a good pace for life...for kids.

x2! Good for you for getting the kids biking to school!