tibikefor2

Longhorn:

Congrats on noticing your increased fitness.

Longhorn

Jarery: I think your bike is cool! I love bright colors -- they make a bike look faster, too.

I appreciate everyone sending good thoughts but just so you know, it now looks like the storm won't affect my area at all, or very little. In fact, they're not even going to cancel the Austin City Limits music festival that begins today. My daughter flew down from Denver to go, along with my twin daughters who live here.

MDNewbie: You're right that I'm no dare-devil so it took a lot of nerve for me to try riding the highway. The reaction of many on the commuting forum confused me. Apparently, some cyclists won't ride on a highway under any circumstances. I don't know if our highways are somehow different here and they think I mean a freeway with on and off ramps? Or they know exactly what I'm talking about and still wouldn't do it. But there are at least two highways in our area -- Ranch Road 620 and Loop 360 -- that are very popular with area cyclists. Those highways have wider shoulders than the stretch of highway I rode but they also have much higher traffic, multiple intersections, and a few on/off ramps on one of them and numerous commercial driveways on the other.

The highway I rode has much less traffic at the time of day I rode it and very little traffic on the side roads. There isn't much of a shoulder but I never had to ride in the lane -- I was right on the fog line in a few places (no curbs) and to the right of it most of the time. Visibility is very good and vehicles had ample time and room to move to the inside lane. If they just hugged the left line, clearance still seemed fine.

Now, I realize that at any moment, a driver could swerve and hit me but that's true on the alternative, too. I'm comparing riding this highway with riding narrow, two-lane, curving, hilly roads with no shoulders and a speed limit of 45 mph. I felt safer on the highway because of more room and better visibility. Also, the drivers seemed to be less impatient on the highway because I wasn't impeding their progress. On the county roads, they must change lanes to pass or they pass me in the lane and that's a tighter squeeze. There is always a hill or curve ahead so they have to wait until we get around it or pass on the hill or curve, which many do.

So now I'm wondering if I should be riding either route -- in which case, I'm done as a commuter since I have no other alternatives. I can't even park and ride and get to my campus in a safer manner, unless I park about a mile away! Austin is supposed to be "bike-friendly" but the bike-friendly routes are in the city, not out in the country. In fact, I live in another county and ride just to the outskirts of Austin.

Am I an accident waiting to happen? What I do sounds a whole lot safer to me than all of the encounters I read about here -- I have no door zones, very few intersections, no busses or cabs -- just cars, SUVs, and semis whizzing past at 65 mph. Maybe I was crazy to ride my bike to work in the first place. I can tell some of my co-workers think I am but I thought that was a typical reaction to any bike commuter. Now I don't know.

tulip

A reasonable commute today after a late start. Saw the set up going on for this weekend's protests. And the Marines drilling on the Mall, and the Library of Congress Book Fest right in between the protest and the Marines. It's all good.

mirona

Two memorable moments today:

1) Pull out of my road at a 4-way (my road is directly across from a small plaza straddled by the main thoroughfare) to go straight across to the plaza. Another vehicle pulled to his stop opposite me to come out of the plaza and make a left (of course, he didn't have a turn signal on to indicate that). I pull out first and then he just guns it, turning towards me. I started yelling at him and he rolls down the window and says the most idiotic thing I have ever heard: "I used to ride and bicycles don't have the right of way." What the ****? First, this guy didn't have his blinker on at all, so he should have been going straight. Second, of course I have the right of way! I was there first; I pulled out first; I was going straight while he was making a turn across traffic. I told him to get out of the truck so we could discuss it, but he just drove away in a cloud of ignorance.

2) I'm coming home through a construction area where they narrowed the eastbound lane so no cars could get around me. They didn't seem to mind, though, and rolled behind me through the 1 mile corridor. Then I come to a police officer signalling to stop. He says, "You know you have a whole line of cars behind you." in a tone that was saying, "...so get out of the way." I replied with, "That's not my problem." and he ended the brief conversation with, "It will be when you get hit." What kind of thing is that to say? Especially coming from a police officer.

Besides those incidents, the commute was good.

JavaMan

Longhorn,
After considering the advantages and risks, you made an informed decision about your commuting route. You seem pleased with the results. Good for you! You seem to be making progress on all fronts!

Mirona,
I applaud the strength of your character! Ride assertively, but do be careful!

I'm so ashamed - I only commuted once this week

mirona

Pfft. I only commuted 2.5 times this week and the .5 is when my MOMMY came to pick me up when I had some minor technical difficulties. Every day your mommy doesn't have to come pick you up is a good day.

Jarery

Did my inaugral run today with my new day glow orange bike. (see pics a few posts up in thread).

OMG ! soo much quieter, turns so much faster, and it goes 5 mph faster just standing there, heck right now its doing at least 5 mph leaning against the wall in my office.

I still need to switch out the pedals to my TIme Atac, it came with some shimano ones that i'm not used to, but switching cleats was faster than pedals at midnight last night.

I have no idea if i made it to work in less time or not, didnt have time to switch over my computer last night.

Mudflap, new saddle, seat bag, and i'll be done

Marylandnewbie

Longhorn, it sounds like you've made a prudent choice of routes. I think you're right that most people's idea of a highway is a little different than what you describe. I would stick with the highway route and see how it goes over the course of a few weeks. If traffic stays as it is and you don't experience problems I'd stick with it. You're probably in a better position to judge local road conditions than we are. I think your thread just pointed out how varied commuters are. I don't ride a lot of high traffic roads, but I don't find it a huge problem when I have to do so.

Missed the VLC today since I took the day off to help a friend move. I guess I worked on upper body strength.