I had a great opportunity for an extra bike commute since my wife had days off on both ends of the July 4 weekend. Since I didn't have to deal with getting kids ready, I decided to get out early and take another shot at riding to work the full distance from home. Totally car-free.
Up to this point, I had cycled from home on two previous occasions. The first was one of my first bike commutes ever about a year ago. I took a roundabout route to try to avoid some hills and it took me two hours to get to work. I proceeded to get a ride home from one of my coworkers. The second time was this year's Bike to Work Day. I rode all the way from home, but, again, didn't do the round trip because I got a ride home in order to get to my daughter's dance recital that evening.
Well, this time I had no excuses not to complete the round trip. During BTWD I did the trip in about an hour and a half or so, including three pit stops. I figured I should make decent time. How good I wasn't quite sure. It currently takes me about 25 minutes to bike my normal ~6 mile route, but including the drive portion, it typically takes me probably about 50 minutes to an hour door to door, depending on traffic, etc. My route this day ended up being 15.4 miles and I got to work in about 65 minutes. I was a little bit surprised the time differential was that small. Vehicular traffic congestion is no longer a worry. Certainly a plus.
I repeated the home to work round trip again this past Wednesday (during a drizzly, wet July San Diego morning, no less). I think my multi-modal drive & bike commute days are over. When I started thinking about bike commuting, I thought a completely car-free bike commute was probably out of my reach. I guess I proved myself wrong. Looking forward to doing it again this week!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
World Cup Fever
I played soccer beginning in the 2nd grade and played 4 years of varsity high school "futbol." I never did, however, become much of a fan of pro or World Cup futbol. Nevertheless I was sporting my yellow #9 Ronaldo Brasil jersey for my Wednesday weekly bike commute. My parents got it for me when they vacationed in Brasil a few years ago.
It actually is pretty good as a cycling jersey since it is close, if not identical, in hue to the hi-viz yellow many cyclists wear, anyway. This was not the first time I've ever worn the Brasil jersey for my bike commute. Even though I certainly chose to wear it consciously knowing the World Cup was underway, I didn't think much about it once I had it on.
So there I was not even a couple minutes into my commute and I encountered a Latino guy riding toward me on the sidewalk. I looked in his direction 1) because I had just seen another cyclist pulled over on the sidewalk changing his tire, and 2) because he was a "sidewalk salmon," a common variety of the bike salmon. The guy shot me a blank look and then yelled something unintelligible at me with, oddly, still no change in his expression. I was perplexed until my brain reprocessed what it had heard. I still don't know exactly what he said, but it definitely had "Brasil" in the middle. I then took a look down at my chest. Duh.
Brasil was still in the tournament when this happened. As you may know, in the time it took me to write this post, Brasil has since lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
It actually is pretty good as a cycling jersey since it is close, if not identical, in hue to the hi-viz yellow many cyclists wear, anyway. This was not the first time I've ever worn the Brasil jersey for my bike commute. Even though I certainly chose to wear it consciously knowing the World Cup was underway, I didn't think much about it once I had it on.
So there I was not even a couple minutes into my commute and I encountered a Latino guy riding toward me on the sidewalk. I looked in his direction 1) because I had just seen another cyclist pulled over on the sidewalk changing his tire, and 2) because he was a "sidewalk salmon," a common variety of the bike salmon. The guy shot me a blank look and then yelled something unintelligible at me with, oddly, still no change in his expression. I was perplexed until my brain reprocessed what it had heard. I still don't know exactly what he said, but it definitely had "Brasil" in the middle. I then took a look down at my chest. Duh.
Brasil was still in the tournament when this happened. As you may know, in the time it took me to write this post, Brasil has since lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
More on Kearny Villa bike lane
For anyone interested, I've got some tidbits to share about the Kearny Villa Rd bike lane repaving...
I was back on schedule with the bike commute this past Wednesday. It was my first day riding on the newly paved bike lane. What a difference!
The repaving begins south of Miramar Rd, right where Kearny Villa Rd starts to straighten out. The southbound side from here to Miramar Way was by far the stretch in the worst condition. At the time it looked like they had just begun to mark the lane for re-striping (or maybe painting the full lane?). On Friday I drove up & down and noticed they had marked all the southbound side and I saw a crew out in the process of marking the northbound side.
The bike lane was repaved all the way down to Harris Plant Rd on both the southbound and northbound sides of Kearny Villa Road. It was nice to see that the City did a complete job and didn't just half-ass only repave the really bad portions of the bike lane, as was the consensus opinion after the City did the initial patching to the cracks north of Miramar Way earlier this year.
One more interesting note is that they actually repaved the southbound side all the way through to the SR-163 entrance/Harris Plant Rd merge. For those not familiar, this is not currently the official bike lane, though I believe it was in the past. The current bike lane takes you up the Harris Plant Rd exit and back down to re-merge back to Kearny Villa Rd. I actually find this to be more dangerous, so I just take the straight ahead route, which is why I was pleased to find that section repaved, too. However when I drove by, that section was not marked for striping/painting. Oh, well.
I was back on schedule with the bike commute this past Wednesday. It was my first day riding on the newly paved bike lane. What a difference!
The repaving begins south of Miramar Rd, right where Kearny Villa Rd starts to straighten out. The southbound side from here to Miramar Way was by far the stretch in the worst condition. At the time it looked like they had just begun to mark the lane for re-striping (or maybe painting the full lane?). On Friday I drove up & down and noticed they had marked all the southbound side and I saw a crew out in the process of marking the northbound side.
Ahh, fresh asphalt!
The bike lane was repaved all the way down to Harris Plant Rd on both the southbound and northbound sides of Kearny Villa Road. It was nice to see that the City did a complete job and didn't just half-ass only repave the really bad portions of the bike lane, as was the consensus opinion after the City did the initial patching to the cracks north of Miramar Way earlier this year.
One more interesting note is that they actually repaved the southbound side all the way through to the SR-163 entrance/Harris Plant Rd merge. For those not familiar, this is not currently the official bike lane, though I believe it was in the past. The current bike lane takes you up the Harris Plant Rd exit and back down to re-merge back to Kearny Villa Rd. I actually find this to be more dangerous, so I just take the straight ahead route, which is why I was pleased to find that section repaved, too. However when I drove by, that section was not marked for striping/painting. Oh, well.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Bike Lane Repaved!
I was out of town this week on vacation and thus missed my bike commute. I did ride last week and there was no indication at the time of the work that would come to pass, though the City had stated previously that the bike lane on Kearny Villa Road was to be repaved in June. I was pleased to see this post in Bike San Diego about the freshly repaved bike lane. From the looks of things, it appears that they still need to go back and re-stripe the lane. There was some mention in the past on the SDBikeCommuter forum of the possibility that the new bike lane would get painted, too. I guess time will tell if that indeed will become a reality, but I am eager to get back on Kearny Villa to check out the bike lane for myself.
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