My bike-to-work day

I have been off and on with biking to work lately. A combination of being a short walk away from BART and working some long/tiring days have had me in kind of a funk. For bike-to-work day I made an extra effort though, and it paid off with pancakes.

Someone in the City of Oakland hierarchy organized a pancake breakfast/booth show/speeches event in front of city hall, and I work all of two blocks away, so I pretty much had to stop by. Because I was still in my bike funk, I rode the Schwinn and planned on only riding the short hops from my house to BART, and from BART to the office. I had forgotten how much of a workout (on the quads specifically) pedaling that monster was, and in my nice clothes no less.

I was met at the first BART station by some early volunteers. They weren't supposed to be up and running until 07:00, and I went by about 06:45. One of the guys came over to give me a bag and asked if I wanted any of the beverage/food they had, but since I was hopping a train I passed. When I got to Oakland I got a nifty "I biked today" sticker, like the "I gave blood" ones you get at blood drives. I also got a couple of pancakes, some coffee and OJ, and saw some interesting booths. I was pretty early (07:30) and most of the booths were just getting set up. I hung out for a little while and then wandered back to work.

There was one other guy from my office that rode, and where ever it was he went, he got a t-shirt. We did run into another guy in the building when we were heading out that night who had ridden for the first time that day (although I got the impression he had ridden before, just not to that particular location). All in all, a lot of fun.

A ride to work (sort of)

"Sort of" to work, I mean, not a sort of ride. Most of this week I'm in training away from the office. The training is a couple of miles from the closest BART station and makes it a perfect ride. The area of Dublin where the training is has a lot of new development, including new wide roads with nice new bike lanes.

There were a couple of downsides, which go more to show how long it's been since I did a bike commute than anything else:

• The stairs - the BART platforms are raised, somewhere between two and three stories high. My bike is a tank (and I love it) and hauling it up all those stairs was a little rough.
• The climbs - the office we're meeting in is up a mild slope. I have said before (and will say again) that I hate gentle slopes because I always think I can take them in a manly gear and then bonk about halfway up. To some extent this, is mitigated by using the Schwinn since it's only a three-speed, but still.
• The weather - not a big deal, but it was five-ten degrees cooler when I got off the BART train in Dublin than it was in San Leandro when I left. Nothing significant, just surprisingly chilly.

All that aside, I'm glad to be on the bike for the week.

Bike commuting in the Bay Area 3

I mentioned that some BART stations have lockers that you apply for, and some now have first-come lockers. The last option for bike storage at BART stations is only available at a few stations, and is supervised bike parking.

Three stations (Fruitvale, Downtown Berkeley, Embarcadero) have bike parking. Fruitvale is operated by Alameda Bicycle and is located in the back of a small shop (great for getting new tubes). The others are in the BART stations themselves, and are operated in partnership with Bikestation. Unfortunately, all of these stations are on the wrong side of the hills for me.

I need to do a little legwork (har har) and check out the area around the stations at my end of the commute to see if there are options. If I had the money to ride a Rivendell (sigh, someday) I would stop by the shop and see if there was a way to park there, since they are walking distance from the Walnut Creek station.

Note - this whole set of posts was actually inspired by this article from the NY Times blog. The blurb that showed up in the reader irked me because it sounded as if the article was arguing that there should be government-sponsored bike valet parking set up, and I couldn't figure out why there needed to be government involvement. Then I read the piece and saw this:

The city (or perhaps a third party like Transportation Alternatives) should license the valets so people would be be confident that their valet isn’t a fly-by-night bike thief. The city has already used its licensing power to increase the availability of fruit and vegetable vendors in poorer neighborhoods, why not use it to increase parking valets?

Government licensing could be necessary, especially if the parking area is not right where the bikes are dropped off. The only one of these I've ever used is the one at Fruitvale, and you can see them wheel the bike into the back and place it on the rack. Plus, the fact that there is an obvious brick-and-mortar facility makes it a little easier to know who you would "go after" if your bike went missing.

Bike commuting in the Bay Area 2

My last post on commuting in the Bay Area was full of hill-love, this will be a little more of a downer. I mentioned last time that I liked to ride home over the hills rather than take the train. Even on those days I usually took the train partway, I just went over the hills first. The full trip is about 30 miles, one way, which is why I usually multi-moded it.

Where I worked before (Alameda) was a short hop from a BART station, about a 10 minute ride. That meant I needed my bike at both ends of the trip, which meant getting up really early. BART is semi-liberal with bikes, but excludes full sized (non-folding) bikes during commute hours which are ~ 7:00-9:00 AM and 4:30-6:45 PM. The issue I ran into before was that I would have to leave work really early to catch a train I could fit in (no bike-specific cars) which meant having to start really early so I could get my full 8 hours in.

The new office is across the street from a station, which means that bringing my bike with me is pointless unless I plan to ride after work. That means I'll be locking up at the station, which gives me the heebie-jeebies. Some stations have lockers that can be applied for. I have no idea how long the wait list is for the station near my dad's place, but the last time I was there I counted maybe 10 lockers. Apparently, some stations now have electronic, first-come/first-served lockers that can be registered for. The station near my dad's house is on the "coming soon" list. If I can't get a locker it means locking up outside which is something I've never had to do and I'm not at all comfortable with.

My plan is to check out the electronic lockers at one of the other stations (about twice as far away, but a locker would make it worth it), and time my ride to it. Hopefully I'll be able to do all that before I start working. If not, I'll check out the lockers by driving to that station for a couple of days during the week (to judge the usage) and time the ride on the weekend. The other option is to buy a folder, and as much as I'd love to do that I don't know how practical it would be. Given that my office is almost on top of the station at the other end of the trip, leaving the bike at the "home end" just makes more sense to me.

Bike commuting in the Bay Area 1

As I prepare to once again bike commute in the SF Bay Area I am faced with the same challenge as the last time around: I will be living on the east side of the hills and working on the west. People from the Bay Area will understand without explanation the semi-obstacle that the Oakland-Berkley hills present, for those who don't, I offer this:

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE riding in those hills and am eagerly awaiting rebuilding my climbing motor using them, but that riding is for the weekends and afternoons.

When I was there before I lived in Concord (the A point on the map) and worked in Alameda (the island to the west of the B point). This time I'll be living in the same place and working in Oakland (the B point) for at least a few months, then I'll be moving into my own place. My commute to Alameda was crack of dawn early (4 AM) so I could leave work early enough to get on BART before the 4:30 PM "no bikes in commute time" rule kicked in. Sometimes I would ride over the hills instead of taking BART home, which gave me trips like this:Personally, there's no better way to end a long day spent over a lab bench (at that time) or in front of a computer (this time) than a 10-15 mile climb through semi-wild rolling hills. That, and the bragging rights that I earned when I was strong enough to ride the whole route home while my preparing-for-a-tour-I-couldn't-go-on buddies couldn't do it.

I will get back to that, but initially I won't be taking my bike all the way. The new office is right next to the BART station, so I would be lugging my bike on the train just to carry it into the office.

But those hills are calling loud enough that I can hear them all the way in Baltimore...

More bus problems

Anyone who has read more than a few posts here knows how I feel about buses. Today I had another less than pleasant encounter with the brain trust that is the MTA.

For reasons I haven't bothered to figure out buses in Baltimore seem to always be stacked. It is rare that I come upon a single bus on a route. Most of the time there are two and occasionally three or more. This morning I somehow managed to end up between two, so I had one breathing down my neck (at one point it had pulled close enough behind me that my shadow on the road was obscured by the bus') and one belching soot into my face.

Thankfully I had some movies to drop off at the post office and I dumped off the road a little early.

Another reason why buses are evil

Most of the talk about the surprise attacks motor vehicles like to pull on cyclists is centered around the right hook. For those unfamiliar (are there any?) the pic below illustrates the right hook in all its glory.


Simply put, a right hook happens when a cyclist (either in a bike lane or just riding to the right of the road) is passed by a car which then makes an abrupt right turn, leaving the cyclist with few (and no good) options. This picture takes you to a nice bit from Commute Orlando! on what drivers should do to avoid hooking cyclists and I'm not going to cover it in any more depth. I want to talk about the pinch.

This happens, primarily with larger vehicles (vans, delivery trucks, and especially buses) when the driver in question passes the cyclist and then either drifts or cuts towards the right, leaving an ever-narrower gap for the cyclist that ultimately can only be avoided by slowing down to the point that the driver is far enough passed for the cyclist to take the lane. Sometimes it happens because the lanes shift and the drivers just aren't paying attention, and sometimes it happens because the driver is an arrogant MTA bus driver (yeah you, route 40, bus number 06008) who is apparently offended that a cyclist is on his road (at least that was the look he gave me when I came around to make a turn while he was stopped at the light).

The full story: As I got to the major intersection (where President St. becomes the JFX, around the flag in the map) I pulled out and took my lane (2nd from right, far right is turn only) because there was a bus loading up a short distance back and I know they like to crowd. As the light turned green I paced the van in front of me across the JFX slowing a little around Frederick to prep for the turn at Gay. The driver apparently was in so much of a hurry to offload some passenger (depsite there already being a bus at the stop, where the bus is visible on the map) that he started pulling over to the curb before he had fully crossed Frederick. That pinched me between him and the sidewalk, as he was passing me at the time. I ended up having to stop and then pulled out to the left while he was stopped at the Fayette/Gay light and went around (I turn right at Gay). As I went passed the driver the look he gave me was somewhere between being asleep and "you're lucky I didn't pull all the way over, @$$hole".

Just one more example of why buses are evil and I am a strong opponent of cycling on roads used by mass transit. Too bad in Baltimore you're more likely to find a rodent and roach free abandoned building than a road more than two blocks long without a bus line on it.

Mass transit and "green"

I'm going to come right out and say this, but I despise riding mass transit. I don't go near buses and use subways (light-rail, etc) only when I have to. About the only form of mass transit I will use is the train from Baltimore to DC. Mainly this grips is about the over-high concentration of people and the less than pleasant condition of the carriages. (One exception that I have encountered is the light-rail in Portland - the seats were actually spaced apart so that standing people didn't lean on you, there were specific spaces for bikes, all in all a pleasant experience).

Recently, as part of the "cars are evil" push from the mass of the Environmental Movement, mass transit has been pushed as the solution. Get people out of individual cars and into buses. This morning I encountered one of the two glaring flaws in that.

Most mornings when I get stuck anywhere near an MTA bus I slow down to a crawl to let it get far enough ahead that I don't have to play leapfrog at every stop. The bus I was behind this morning was so nasty that I could still smell the exhaust when it was three blocks away. The best part? It had a giant MTA Green ad on the back end. Yeah, real "green".

My other major gripe as a bike commuter with the push to get everyone onto the buses is that all of the near misses I have had in my ~ 10 years of bike commuting are with buses. The drivers either don't care or can't see what's going on around them. Especially in Baltimore there is an definite attitude of road-ownership that you can almost feel anytime you get within a half a block of an MTA bus. They regularly crowd cars, trucks, everyone using the road out of their way, to the point that there is really no benefit in griping since if there was going to be any changes they would have happened long ago.

I understand the Movement's ideals behind pushing mass transit over personal vehicles. I just think there needs to be a little more thought applied. Buses aren't necessarily very green, but they do work great for greenwashing, allowing jusridictions to avoid actually doing anything to cut pollution, while making life significantly more difficult for the cyclists who are legitimately cutting their pollution output.