Machka 

The commute route photos I took and posted here were all taken on weekends when I included the commute route in a longer ride.

When I'm actually commuting, I don't have time to take pictures all over the place.

However, I keep thinking I should bring a camera with me on my walk to the bus stop in the mornings. One day I will. The view from the pedestrian overpass is really quite lovely.

cooker

I posted my pictures in this thread from an actual commute, but that's probably the first (and last?) time in 20-something years of bike commuting that I have taken photos along the way.

Machka 

Some streets from today's ride ... This is quite a popular stretch of road with cyclists, all within Hobart. You come off the cycleway and keep going northward. These are taken facing southward, cycling back to the cycleway.




Incidentally, that's wattle in bloom up on the bank on the right ... I'm starting to get used to it now, but it has given me some difficulty with allergies.



Climbing a bit here ... and there are a father and son riding in front of us.

Machka 

Some roads from our anniversary ride ... That's quite a nice loop which we've ridden a few times.

Jim from Boston

All my cycling as a decades-long, year-round commuter and occasional centurian in Metro Boston ranges from dense urban, to suburban, to exurban, but no rural. I'm goal-oriented, be it miles or destinations, so I take the Road as it comes, to satisfy my Goal. Over the years, I have described roads, so for this post I compiled my descriptions in order of cycling pleasure (paved roads only):

• Enchanted
  
  
  Quote:

  Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

  ...There are certain roads I have discovered, unfortunately usually short, that I describe as “intimate,” or “enchanted”; so serene and peaceful, shady, lightly traveled, and without shoulders...
• Exurban (no residences, no commercial buildings)
  
• Residential: Urban (dense, multi-unit dwellings), Suburban (single unattached homes)
  
• Light commercial (storefronts close to the sidewalk, street parking)
  
• Heavy commercial (shopping malls, driveway accesses, parking lots)
  
• Industrial: (dreary vistas, rough roads, debris-strewn)

But,

The de facto poet laureate of the Metro Boston thread posted:

Here’s the only commuting picture I have taken, of the Harvard Medical School with the entrance precisely bisected by the double yellow line.

gerv 

Your streets are relatively car-free. Were you travelling early in the morning before cars get out of bed?

Machka 

I never travel early in the morning!! Hardly every.


We started that ride about 1 pm or so on a Sunday ... and the ride was about 1.5 hours long.

The traffic wasn't overly heavy ... our anniversary ride was last weekend ... a Sunday in late winter. Not a lot of things open ... not a lot of tourists about.

And of course, there's some strategic timing to some of the shots. I was cycling when I took those photos, and I don't whip out my camera when there's a lot of traffic. I'm too busy focusing on the matter at hand then.

enigmaT120

I guess we'll all be able to recognize Rowan from behind.

Machka 

Roody

plustax

I live in LA so I have nice wide pot hole filled roads.

tandempower

Narrow cobblestone streets bordered by high curbs with high speed limits and large auto traffic volumes are the streets I like to ride on least.

Machka 

What do you like to ride on the best?

tandempower

Machka, do you notice that you kind of obsessed with getting people to avoid making negative statements in favor of making positive ones instead. Really I understand because I know people can become habitually negative and it's not healthy, but that's not what I do. I was just posting some humor here about the worst possible road combining all cycling irritations. Cobblestone is always something I avoid if possible but high curbs on narrow lanes is another (one that's becoming more popular unfortunately, seemingly as a measure to force cyclists onto sidewalks.).

To answer your question, though, asphalt bike/MUP paths and paved shoulders are the best for cycling. Taking the lane would be fine if drivers were content to drive 10-20mph and had plenty of room to pass in-lane. Otherwise, they speed up behind you and then slow down at the last minute to change lanes or, if there's someone in the lane preventing them from getting over, they drive behind you continually checking their mirrors for a chance to get over and pass. Shared lanes are not a good idea. They are, imo, a covert attempt to dissuade on-road cycling.

Ekdog

I agree, especially about cobblestones. There are quite a few streets made of them where I live, and I avoid them like the plague.

Roody

I think the best street is one that was just repaved. Smoooth!

Sixty Fiver

Grant still runs the bike shop in Bentley... I plan to go and see him over the next couple of weeks to talk bike stuff.

I lived in Bentley for some years and the riding in that part of the province is wonderful and will agree in Hwy 11 as being pretty spectacular.

Sixty Fiver

My favourite place to ride is in our river valley... our city has the largest urban parkland in North America and you could spend the day riding through it. It also provides and east west corridor and several south central route for cyclists, although it offers a little more challenge than surface streets as you have to climb out.

It is down there in the trees... D:



It does not take one long to leave the city behind...





In the city I often find myself riding through the Highlands area and down Ada Boulevard which looks over the river and is a wonderful cycling route... there are houses on the north side and the south side overlooks the river valley and has access to the parks and trails. It has very little traffic and the road is wide enough for everyone to share...

John Hood

Marked bike lanes are better than no bike lanes, but all too often I find they are located right in the door zone of parked cars, which means you get in the habit of riding right near the edge of the general purpose lane.

I really prefer quiet residential streets and rural roads. Nice pavement is a big plus. MUP's are a close second. There's usually too much pedestrian traffic on the MUP's though to really cut loose. Arterials with bike lanes a distant third.

The hands down worst roads to ride though IMO are busy 2 lane rural highways with small shoulders and deep ditches. You find yourself hugging a tiny shoulder, next to a 3' drop, while getting closely passed at 60 mph by drivers that are angry that you are there at all and trying to seize the lane on these roads would border on suicidal.

Machka 

I'm a positive person ... and life is too short to fill it with negativity.

Machka 

Oh, good to hear he's still in business.

Sixty Fiver

He specializes in recumbent bicycles and as such, is one of the few dealers in the province.

Bentley also has a nice test track...

Machka 

Yes ... I think my father got his Cattrike from him. And he's got an interesting collection of penny-farthings.

Machka 

From our 100 km ride on Saturday ...

For those of you who like to see cars on streets ...




For those who prefer car-free streets ...





Those photos were taken between two fairly closely placed towns, in the early afternoon on a Saturday.

(click for more photos ... )

Roody

Wow, you're lucky to live in a part of the world that doesn't have many cars.