Category Archives: Biking

By now, you should all have set your clocks back an hour, seeing as Daylight Saving Time officially ended on Sunday, which was four days ago.  Or maybe you somehow missed that occurrence and are reading this thinking, “OH! So that’s why I was ridiculously early to all of my meetings this week!”

Anyway, we had not driven anywhere since before our trip to Chicago.  Due to an unusual situation, I drove this morning (no, pigs are not flying, at least not yet), and as I pulled away from the curb, I noticed that it was 8:30am instead of 7:30am.  After bringing the car up-to-date on the time change, I filled up with gas for the first time in I don’t know how long.

I found the drive to be less horrid than I expected, although, as further incentive to ride my bike, the trunk seems to be leaking and has not aired out or dried completely, so the car has a special aroma that I would describe as Rotten Milk.  Somehow, I don’t see that being the next new scent trend in car air fresheners. 

 

My least favorite part of my commute, other than going over the train tracks (insert brain rattling in skull) is a short stretch of road between the park tunnel exit/entrance and my left turn on the way home from work.  If traffic is not heavy, I stay in the right lane almost until the intersection, then move into the left lane and on into the left turning lane.  Recently, traffic has been heavy on that section.  Regardless of what lane I’m in, I ride down the center, because the lanes are not wide enough for a car and my bike.

In heavy traffic, it is very difficult to move over to the left as described above because the cars just keep whizzing by, first the cars in the left lane, and then the cars in the right lane that switch to the left lane to pass me.  A car almost hit me after a messy merge into the left lane a couple of weeks ago.  To avoid being in that situation, I’ve been taking (i.e., “controlling) the left lane from the moment I enter the road, so I don’t have to worry about getting over later.

This means that for a distance of less than 1/4 of a mile, any cars traveling behind me in the left lane either have to slow down to my speed, or move into the right lane to pass me.  This should NOT be a big deal.

As I biked this stretch in the left lane last Friday, some jerk drove up right next to me, halfway in the left lane and halfway in the right, rolled down his window, and yelled at me to, “Get over to the side!”

I honked my awesome horn and yelled, “I’m turning left up here; this is where I need to ride,” while motioning with my arm for him to move the heck over.

The ignorant bleepity bleep continued driving half in one lane and half in the other, providing the further helpful suggestion that I should be riding in the middle turning lane.

Dude!  You had been driving down the road half in one lane and half in another for how long?  You created more confusion and danger than I ever possibly could have, while I was within my rights and operating my bike legally and SAFELY on the road!

The combination of anger at the jerk driver and fear from the dangerous situation that HE created left the adrenaline surging through my body.  I made it through the intersection and a bit further, body shaking the whole way, but I eventually had to pull over to the side because I was so worked up, I couldn’t breath.

I’m not gonna lie, if I had the opportunity to punch the guy, I might have done it.  And then we could have talked like nice, civilized adults.

St. Louis was recently designated a 2009 Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) by The League of American Bicyclists.  I put this in the “call to action” category with President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, “a kind of prayer and encouragement by the [BFC] for future endeavor,” to quote the NYTimes.

As planned, we biked to Saturday’s wedding under gorgeous fall skies.  It was my hubby’s first time back on the bike.  You know what they say about getting back on the horse.  I enjoyed locking our bikes up right in front of the venue as all of the other guests walked past us.

Just for the heck of it, I rode a very short distance in my heels.  Not recommended.  At least not with clip-less pedals.  I sustained no injuries in the process, but there were a couple of near misses before I switched back to my bike shoes.