noglider 

The coop is Mechanical Gardens. It's open Mondays from 6pm-9pm. Only three hours a week. Why don't you meet me there?

I live in the West Village. Yesterday, I took Madison Ave. Forget that. Today I took First Ave, and that was fine. Second Ave coming home is very unfun. Must find better avenue. This city is crazy. And we activists are really pissed about the death of Aurilla Lawrence. She was 25 and a beloved cyclist. A tanker truck rolled over her and right on. She is the fifth cyclist killed this year. Vision Zero my ass. The driver may not know he killed her. The mayor has a lot of explaining to do. He only moves about in a motorcade of SUVs and does not understand city living.

robertorolfo

Hadn't heard about that incident, but it sounds pretty bad. Indeed, the situation in the city is atrocious.

Agreed that First avenue is actually pretty good, since the traffic isn't usually too heavy, especially the turning traffic. Second is WAY worse though, especially around the entrance to the Midtown tunnel. That's why I actually salmon (slowly!) down one block when I get off the ferry, to avoid that situation.

Anyway, I'll definitely come meet you at the coop sometime. Let me know the next time you plan to go.

mgw4jc

Cold morning again at 28F. Not as bad as they had forecast though.Sunny but a bit windy, especially when I turned west.

Sad to hear about the fatalities and the NYC cycling situation. I'm not sure if I'd be a bike commuter there or not. I have it quite easy compared to y'all. But I do get trucks and cars going by at 30mph faster than I am going. Guess it's what you get used to.

Tundra_Man 

4F this morning, but the wind was down from the last few days so the wind chill was a manageable -3F.

Had our monthly "bike commuter breakfast" at a restaurant downtown. I tried to take a different spur of the MUP that would take me directly there but discovered they hadn't plowed that spur. That was kind of surprising. So I took my normal MUP route and had to backtrack about six blocks.

Five of us showed up for the breakfast, but only two of us rode.

OhLylo

Tues PM: Mid 50s, breezy. The promised rain didn't materialize the whole way home, so that was nice.

Wed AM: Oh, there's the rain. And rain, and rain, and rain (plus thunder!). I decided to drive, and after seeing the flooding throughout town, I'm glad I did. There's an inch+ of water covering the parking lot and a lot of the bike lanes are fully flooded on my route. No thank you.

RidingMatthew

Good at riding a bike? that is a first.. I had hoped for 300 miles or more in Feb. But time constraints have hurt me this month. My wife and I have been looking for new car plus dealing with insurance has been exasperating. We bought a car yesterday evening. I rode to and from work yesterday and it felt really good to be on the bike. Bike was quiet and peaceful other than an idiot lady in my building I got to get up and get out the door earlier so i can get some good miles in.

It is going to be hard to get the mileage i got last year on a month per month basis because staring this Wednesday I have a commitment that requires me to drive. I hope the weather warms and I can get some extra m, t and th, fr and maybe even Saturday or sundays?

HardyWeinberg

Gray, 32F

robertorolfo

I'm not sure which is worse, high speed traffic flying by on a suburban or rural rode, or more congested (but slower) city streets. I don't have too much experience with the former, but considering how many distracted drivers are out there I would find it unnerving.

In the city I think it's more about reckless driving than distracted driving (although you see plenty of that from Uber drivers staring at their phones), but at least you can get to know the potential 'hot-spots' where extra caution is needed, as well as those safer areas where you can relax and concentrate a little more on your riding.

That's why riding over the bridge is usually the best part of my commute, especially later in the evening. It's bike and pedestrian only, and on the uphill portion you can really ride as hard as you can without reaching a reckless speed or having any trouble.

OhLylo

48F, surprisingly windy for a morning. I felt fresh after a day off, but then my knee started to hurt a bit so I ended up riding pretty easy. Not sure what that's all about, but I was planning to adjust my cleats this weekend anyways so maybe that will help. I encountered my typical handful of horn-layers, but at least nobody passed me danger close today.

Steely Dan

still cold AF.

18 degrees with an 8 mph headwind dropping the windchill to 9.

march can be such an aggravating month in chicago.

Tundra_Man 

10 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. Double digits! Woohoo! Haven't had a double digit morning commute in quite a while. Heck, double digit evening commutes have been few and far between for that matter. Even had a light tailwind. It was the easiest ride I've had in a while.

Snow is supposed to start this morning, so I'm guessing the ride home won't be a leisurely.

HardyWeinberg

35F snow/slush

noglider 

I should emphasize that I don't feel endangered in the city often. I felt it more in the New Jersey suburbs. It's just that the congestion here is horrific. And bad congestion leads people to use bad judgment.

Today I rode on my old commuting route plus a little, and I went right back. The ride out was with the wind, and the ride back was against the wind. I see the speed difference in ridewithgps, of course.

I applied for readmission to my old college on Tuesday. So I don't know what combination of work and school I'll have yet. But I'm super excited. I suspended my college pursuit over 30 years ago. It felt great to be back on the campus I attended (Hunter College of CUNY) so long ago.

I just applied for a job at Barnard College, which is at Columbia University, which is where I was working most recently. The commute to Columbia is ideal, all along the bike path. I really hammered on that route today, and it felt great compared with riding in motor traffic. The Hudson River Greenway is a heaven of a bike commuter route.

Darth Lefty 

robertorolfo

That West Side route is really great. I haven't been playing soccer in that part of the city recently, but I used to love riding back uptown after games and having the chance to build up a nice pace (practically had the lanes to myself in most sections).

Thought of your last night, though, as I nearly witnessed an E-citibike accident. I was waiting for a light to change, when I heard a bell ringing and noticed a guy going through it was still green, about to turn yellow, on an E-citibike. He rang the bell again, and then I realized that people had already started crossing the street. Well, sure enough, a woman walked right into his path and it was an full on emergency brake for this guy, who came super close to going over the bars (his rear wheel was at least a couple of feet off the ground). Somehow he managed to avoid her, and at that point I had to set off and go on my way (cabs behind me), but I didn't really hear much of an apology from the lady.

Now, this lady was 100% in the wrong, crossing on a red and walking right into the bike's path. That said, I wonder what would have happened if the guy was on a regular citi bike, and therefor going slower. It's was tough to tell, but he didn't seem all that ready to handle a situation like that at the speed he was going (he first rung the bell with a solid 30 yards between himself and the woman, so there should have been enough room to avoid the last second panic stop). Something tells me these close calls are pretty common.

madpogue 

I don't know how fast a bike share e-bike can go, but given the weight, and what I assume is the capacity for higher speed than a strictly human-powered version, a bell is probably inadequate. The bells on our non-electric share bikes are wimpy at best. For an e-share-bike, an electric blaster horn might be more apropos. Not just for the audible range, but for what it "means" to someone hearing it. That ped probably heard the bell, had a fleeting thought about an ice cream vendor, and continued to cross without breaking stride.

robertorolfo

Noglider has ridden one, and he said they seem governed at 15mph. That doesn't seem too fast, but in some denser urban situations it can be more than some riders are used to. I agree about the bell, especially in a place like Manhattan with a lot of ambient noise. If someone is on the phone (very common), it will do absolutely nothing to get their attention.

noglider 

Yeah or maybe 16 mph. But that's really plenty. And I call them Cit-E-bikes.

madpogue 

Makes sense in NYC, where the "brand" is CitiBike. But other cities have different brands of bike share. Here, it's B-Cycle, run (naturally) by Trek.

mgw4jc

Friday afternoon had quite a bit of rain so my wife came to rescue me. Quite the drizzly weekend too.
Back to dry this week. A nice low 40s for the ride in, but DARK again! Gotta keep the lights charged for another few weeks.

Skipjacks

It was 45 degrees! A practical heat wave after the winter riding

And I've been off the bike for 3 weeks following the flu, so my legs were not loving the ride this morning. But it still felt great to be back on the bike and not be freezing!

pdlamb

Back on the bike again after a head cold knocked me back last week. I'm surprised how much conditioning I lost in that one week.

Yesterday was sunny and warm, so I was ready for more of the same even if I did need to start riding before the sun came over the ridge. Well. 0% chance of precip until it goes up to 3% later today, what's that black cloud out to the west? And why is Goofy (the Garmin) covered in water droplets?!

All was not that bad. Three miles into this morning's ride, traffic and lights let up and I glanced down at my bars and saw 21 mph. Wow! Just up the road was one of those oversized American flags, pointing in the direction I'm going. Yup, must be a tailwind!

daoswald

33 degrees. Made 4.35 miles in just over 14 minutes averaging 18.6mph overall, having hit only one light, just barely. Boarded the light rail, rode it into downtown (approximately 18 miles), parked in our building's key-access bike cage, and arrived in good spirits. Of course the ride home is never only 14 minutes. Between my home and the light rail station I lose 635 feet with only 13 feet of uphill along the entire route. So coming home I face a 635 foot elevation gain, and greatly reduced average speed. This is fine though; I arrive at work without having broken a sweat, and though I can't say as much for the ride home there's a change of clothes and warm shower at my destination.

I do typically turn my home ride into a slightly longer route; 6.5 miles. This avoids climbing a high-traffic hill. It's one thing to descend it at 35mph with cars going about 40. But the uphill lanes are narrower, traffic is still going 40, and I would be making seven or eight MPH along that segment with my pannier on the back. Much more fun to take a slight detour that takes me though roads with no traffic on them. The elevation gain is the same but the experience is much less stressful.

HardyWeinberg

30F blinding sun goddam dst

madpogue 

Mixed mode today. First bike commute in over a week. Last week was actually worse, compared to normal temps/conditions for the time of year, than the earlier polar vortex. There were days last week below zero F, on days that, the same date three (?) years ago, it was 80F. Still fighting..... some bug...., so I avoided gulping cold polluted air. Warmed up over the weekend, but also rained, and temps dropped again last night, so plenty of fresh black ice. Set out this AM, and still not feeling 100%. Bus happened to be at my stop, so I threw the bike on the rack. Should be a warm-ish ride home, with the sun a little higher in the sky.