Commuting Gear

There’s no one right way, but I can tell you what my experiences have been, and why I’ve ended up where I am, in terms of gear.

Bicycle commuting is easy when you have a short commute and the weather is moderate (dry, neither too warm nor too cold). Some people do it with nothing more than an elastic to keep their pants out of the bike chain. Personally, I recommend against that, because cycling is really hard on dress clothes, particularly the seat/crotch. When I worked somewhere I could wear what I wanted, I was wearing much heavier & tougher pants in winter, and I’d still wear through the seats in just a few years (even while the rest of the pants were just fine).

Honking Doesn’t Help

I’ll cut right to the chase here: I’m already going as fast as I can, and I’m positioned as far to the right on the road as I can safely be. So, if you honk at me in an effort to get me to change my behavior, I only have two options: move further left, or slow down. I’ll probably do both.

Stop Ninja Cycling

Dear Ninja Cyclist:

Get a light!!

Thank you,
A Night-Time Cyclist.

Twofer: Lego + Education

Saw this via The Brothers Brick, and just had to share:

Sensible bike advocacy and Legos, all in one. And it’s cute.

“Multi-Use” Paths Aren’t Really

I recently responded to a thread on a local forum about multi-use path etiquette, and thought this was a pretty good statement of why paths are bad for cyclists, so I thought i’d repurpose it for here.

flarosa:
That’s why I must object to the way some people behave on our bike paths. Of all the thousands of miles of streets and sidewalks in Madison, we bicyclists have only a few narrow paths which we can call our own. Yet every day, I pass dozens of non-bicyclists who take over these trails and treat them like their own personal playgrounds. They stroll two or three abreast, oblivious to the fact that they are blocking traffic from behind. They walk on the left side of the road, or suddenly lurch from the right lane to the left without a thought for what might be behind them. They walk dogs. They carry infants, push baby carriages, and let their young children roam unsupervised. It is at best a constant annoyance, and at worst a grave danger to everyone involved.

Bike paths may not be strictly for bikes, but they’re for people who want to move. If you’re jogging or inline skating, fine. If you’re just walking or goofing around, please use the sidewalk instead.

Your basic problem here is that you’ve fallen for the propaganda: those pushing the paths call them “multi-use paths” when they’re selling them to pedestrians or trying to get funding, and “bike paths” when they’re selling them to cyclists.

How Not to Lock

we don’t need no stinkin spokes
Originally uploaded by faster panda kill kill

OK, maybe cutting through the rim and tire is more trouble than it’s worth, but apparently cutting the spokes does the trick. Gotta wonder how long that took.

Do you even know what lanes are for?

Does the average motorist even understand basic principles of traffic and road utilization, like destination-based lanes? 

W Dayton St has a bike lane, so when it’s safe to do so, I use the bike lane, out of consideration for the motorists. Though given the way motorists treat me, I don’t know why I bother. A car is the first vehicle to Park St, and they already have their right-turn signal on as they come to a stop at the lights, so they obviously already know they’re planning to turn right. But they’re not in the right-most lane. 

With friends like these…

You know, I gotta wonder if the folks making “pro-bicycle” decisions in this city ever actually ride a bike.

Actually, maybe they do—maybe they’re the people I see cycling all the time. The ones who scare the hell out of me, and/or piss me off, with their combination of blatant disregard for their own safety, obliviousness to traffic laws and rules of the road, and poor bike-handling skills. In fairness, the average cyclist is probably no worse than the average motorist, once you factor in differences in vehicular capabilities. And I’ve never been able to observe a motor vehicle for more than a block, and not see them do something dangerous/illegal/stupid (and i’ve been behind the wheel for most of my employment history, so I’ve seen a lot of motor vehicles). But the sheer stupidity of some regular cycling behaviors just boggles the mind: passing a stopped bus between the bus and the curb? Heck, passing any vehicle on the right, if you’re anywhere near any sort of intersection, driveway, or open parking spot. There’s plenty of room on the left side, where people expect to get passed. And yet, just because somebody painted a stripe on the pavement, cyclists think it’s ok.