The ride home from work on Wednesday was discouraging. With some additional new snow, my bike lanes on Kinawa Drive were full of brown slush. The sort of stuff in which the front bicycle tire floats around in a very scary way. So to maintain control of the bike, I had to ride on the edge of the traffice lane. Kinawa Drive has a center turn lane, which gives some extra space for cars to go around cyclists forced out of the bike lane by slush. But after Kinawa there's Dobie Road. As I think I wrote in the last post, Dobie is very narrow, has no shoulders, no center lane, and the asphalt is crumbled and full of holes. The sidewalk on the west is a good path for bikes since there are no driveways, but the sidewalk is dark, oncoming headlights are bright, and the layers of snow make it very difficult to ride. There is not sidewalk on the east. I chose the road. There were long lines of cars approaching and behind me. Some cars passed me, forcing the oncoming cars to swerve to the side, honking horns. Some cars passed me leaving no space between their mirror and my head. I like riding my bicycle, and I'm not afraid of riding in traffic. But this was pushing my limits. It's too bad our roads are not designed to accomodate slower forms of transportation. Bikes, velocars, mopeds and scooters, little electric cars, what else?
Thursday I took the bus to work. Left the house at 7:15, arrived at work at 7:45. Faster, safer, and easier than biking, costs $1 a trip. It's public transportation, not a Single Occupancy Vehicle. It fits within my self-imposed boundaries of social and environmental responsibility, but it's not as fun as riding bicycle, and it doesn't provide much exercise.
Today I walked to work because I missed the bus. I guess I haven't fully characterized the variability of the bus schedule, and I cut it too close. The walk was nice. The sidewalks had a couple inches of new snow. I found the constant roar of traffic and spray of slush from the car tires onto my legs to be somewhat annoying. I left the house at 7:15 (same time as yesterday) and arrived at the office at 8:03. Not bad. I will consider other routes that might be more pleasant, but slightly longer, in the future.
Imagine how healthy and happy we'd all be if everyone could just get out of their cars and ride a bike or walk. It would be a better world. What's wrong with us?
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