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Bike to Work Week |
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Bikeman News -
Latest News
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Written by M. Logrbrinck
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Monday, 22 May 2006 |
12th Annual California Bike to Work Week
May 15th-19th 2006
I remembered it was bike to work week. I have done it in years past. Now I use my vehicle at work so biking to work all week seemed kinda out of the question. Now do not get me wrong, I know all the tricks of commuting. I thought of drive in on Monday morning with enough clothes for the week of work. Then I could ride home Monday evening and then repeat till Friday afternoon. Now I am all for riding/commuting it is great when you get a 2-for, riding when you should be driving. But if I had my druthers I would rather ride the trails around my house after work than ride the mean streets of L.A. on a daily basis.
I do not know what it is like road ridin’ in Maine but here it is not fun. I have been yelled at to “get back on the sidewalk”. I had someone try to hit me with a mostly full soda can, Coke I think. Luckily for me they did not grow up in Texas, my friends and I could whack a road sign at 60 mph with…..well maybe I should not say. Some people would frown on the antics of bored country folks. All I can say is that most of the perforations in road signs have substandard groupings. That is they are bad shots. Maybe that is a good thing also. Anyway I decided to commute to work on Thursday the 18th. This is Los Angeles’ bike to work day. I thought I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t.
I got ready for the big day on Wednesday night. I got my Nite-Rider charged. I made sure the Salsa El Santo was ready; I do not have a commuter or a road bike, I am working on it. I got all my tools, food, wallet, cell phone, etc. packed in my Timbuk-2 messenger bag. When it was packed it was 15 pounds, I probably could have reduced the load but I reckoned it would be a better workout. Now I have commuted a lot before when I would ride to the rail station hop on the train and take it downtown. It was maybe 7 miles one-way. Not a bad ride. Now my ride is about 15 miles one-way. I know the ubber-commuters are saying only 15 miles, child’s play.
I woke at 5:00 am for my big day on the road. The night before on TV some cyclists went to some sort of religious authority, they were getting blessed or prayed for so they would not get run over on bike to work day. It is sad that someone feels they had to be prayed for so they would not become road kill. I hit the pavement; it is slightly downhill to work so I planned on an hour. The ride was mostly uneventful, I saw a few commuters, mostly Hispanics on Huffys. They ride to work everyday. More power to them. I always worry about bad or drunk drivers so I was glad to get to the bike path along the bus way. The only drawback is there are too many stop-lights. I got to work in precisely an hour, not shabby.
Well I worked all day until 4:30 pm and reversed the process. I spied a few more commuters, some of the preceding type and some of the biker type. I speculate we are all bikers when you boil it down. I rode enjoying the weather. If you did not hear we have been having great weather out here. I passed a few riders, one passed me. It took 1 ¼ hours to get home. I got a complimentary “you are home already” from the wife.
I am going to try to commute more. It is good for my health, and good for the environment. It also saved me about 5 bucks in gas. I wish it was easier to commute. There was a joke about LA having a couple thousand miles of bike paths. It is called the gutter. I hope for a more bike friendly city and cars to give us a little room, if not just don’t hit us.
Happy Trails and Roads,
Tex
http://www.californiabikecommute.com/ |
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