June 16, 2011
Distracted by the view
Headed out the other day to ride for exercise but got distracted by the sunshine and views along the way.
June 08, 2011
Commuting to work
I work at my kids school at lunch which is 2.5km from home or 5km round trip. It takes the same amount of time to drive as it does to ride my bike and with today’s gas prices the bike is a smarter choice.
One issue I have with that commute is that I have to ride over a major highway that spans 6 lanes . The road I use is 6 lanes wide and includes a northbound on-ramp for that highway, a southbound on-ramp for that highway and a southbound exit for that highway. This makes for a lot of vehicular traffic.
Needless to say that I do not feel safe riding that route on the road. I use the sidewalk until I am safely on the other side and can ride within the neighbourhood again. I am supposed to ride on the road…I like to ride on the road. The sidewalk is too bumpy! I brake and roll past any pedestrians that may also be using the sidewalk because I know I am supposed to be on the road.
BUT I don’t feel safe on the road! Not all the time. When I am climbing up and over the highway my speed is about 9-10km/h. The speed limit on the road is 70km/h. I am sure many vehicles are going faster than that. It sure seems like it.
As I wait to cross over the on-ramps I usually count how many vehicles actually signal their lane change onto the on-ramp. Most days only 2 of 10 vehicles signal. 8 of those vehicles should have gone straight and I should have been able to safely cross to the other side…Had I attempted to exercise my right to cross I would have been hit.
And don’t even get me started about the cars that move to the center lane to get around trucks and then pull in front of the trucks into the right lane again before exiting onto the highway.
These (predictably) unpredictable drivers are dangerous. They take away my right to safely share the road as a vehicle.
So I ride on the sidewalk and wait until there are no cars coming before I cross just to be safe… 4 times on my round trip commute.
Because my helmet doesn’t protect against everything.
One issue I have with that commute is that I have to ride over a major highway that spans 6 lanes . The road I use is 6 lanes wide and includes a northbound on-ramp for that highway, a southbound on-ramp for that highway and a southbound exit for that highway. This makes for a lot of vehicular traffic.
Needless to say that I do not feel safe riding that route on the road. I use the sidewalk until I am safely on the other side and can ride within the neighbourhood again. I am supposed to ride on the road…I like to ride on the road. The sidewalk is too bumpy! I brake and roll past any pedestrians that may also be using the sidewalk because I know I am supposed to be on the road.
BUT I don’t feel safe on the road! Not all the time. When I am climbing up and over the highway my speed is about 9-10km/h. The speed limit on the road is 70km/h. I am sure many vehicles are going faster than that. It sure seems like it.
As I wait to cross over the on-ramps I usually count how many vehicles actually signal their lane change onto the on-ramp. Most days only 2 of 10 vehicles signal. 8 of those vehicles should have gone straight and I should have been able to safely cross to the other side…Had I attempted to exercise my right to cross I would have been hit.
And don’t even get me started about the cars that move to the center lane to get around trucks and then pull in front of the trucks into the right lane again before exiting onto the highway.
These (predictably) unpredictable drivers are dangerous. They take away my right to safely share the road as a vehicle.
So I ride on the sidewalk and wait until there are no cars coming before I cross just to be safe… 4 times on my round trip commute.
Because my helmet doesn’t protect against everything.
June 01, 2011
This Old Bike
I bought my bike in 1987 when I was in college. I lived downtown and riding a bike is a great way to get to summer jobs. Then in ‘93 I bought a car and the bike was relegated to storage.
Fast-forward more than 15 years and I get it out, tune it up, and start riding it again. I live in the suburb of a major Canadian city now and I like to ride my bike for exercise and for transportation. My kids are proficient riders themselves now so we ride around our neighbourhood as a family. We ride to the park, on nearby trails, and sometimes just to get ice cream!
I installed a computer on my bike to track how far and how fast I ride. It tells me my avg. speed, max speed, trip time and it estimates calories burned. It even tells me the temperature. I can't say how many km 's I have ridden since I forgot to write down the odometer reading when I had to change the battery on the computer last week but it was a lot...
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