My Commute



Well, the police were just going to slap his wrist.<br /><br />I wrote to them, telling them that I had sustained a broken kneecap and that his driving was blatantly careless. They wrote back saying that they had changed their minds because of my injury, and charged him with Careless Driving.<br /><br />That's pretty shitty I think. Regardless of whether I had broken any bones, his driving was still careless.<br /><br />Anyway, the fecker has the audacity to waste taxpayer's money and court time pleading not guitly!!!! He came out of a side road on the OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD TO ME, crossed the entire road and hit me square on the side.<br /><br />The centre of his front bumper hit my right shin. How was that careful driving?<br /><br />I have legal cover with the British Cycling Federation, and the lawyers chased the insurance company and I got 60% of the cost of a new bike, and travel and physio expenses.<br /><br />I am waiting for a final medical verdict before we decide on an injury compensation claim.<br /><br />I know that without the BCF's lawyers I would have got ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Insurance companies will just brush off a cyclist who attempts to claim from them. If you don't have legal help, you won't get anything out of them. They have NO ethics.<br /><br />The Careless Driving case goes to court on the 30th. I am a witness, and there are 3 other witnesses who were driving down the road behind me. It must have looked spectacular because I really flew and spun!<br /><br />I was lucky. My patella was not separated, and it didn't need wiring. I am riding well again, but I have pain when I step up and down on my right leg. I think I'll have to live with it for the rest of my life.<br /><br />This chap: http://www.hullthursdayrc.co.uk/newsandresults/latestnews/damianupdate2.htm wasn't so lucky. Check those X rays... brrrr! Horrible!<br /><br />His attackers just drove off. He has had no compensation at all. We have the Uninsured Motorists Bureau (I think that's what it's called) here which is run by the insurance companies to pay out when the perpetrator does not have insurance. They don't want to know. I think he will be in pain for life.
 
Animal It's something I've been thinking about for a while but after reading your post I think I'll see about some insurance.
 
Hi all! My first post (I think.. can't remember!)<br /><br />I think I'm a bit lucky with my commute (25km each way) ... there is an excellent shared-path facility that runs alongside the nearest freeway into the city. Even better is that it seems that everyone forgets about it on the weekdays, and it's almost completely bare! (The weekends are a slightly different matter, though.) Path traffic is few and far between (and what there is, is almost universally friendly), and it's easily possible to cruise at a reasonable pace through most of the flats with excellent visibility as to what's ahead.<br /><br />It takes just over an hour to ride in, and 1:10 to ride home (home is more elevated than work). Once I get used to pedalling properly (I only recently got clipless pedals) I'm sure I can shave a few more minutes off :)<br /><br />For me there's about 500m of back-road riding from home to get to the freeway path entrance, and about 22km of this sort of path. The remaining 2.5km is through the inner city streets of Melbourne, however over a few weeks of cycling and intense study of Melways etc. I've managed to plot a route that is just about 'perfect' (only about 500m of it are busy streets, everything else is dead quiet side streets.)<br /><br />Interestingly enough, the only accident I've had was with another cyclist who was riding with brain out of gear, who went through a blind corner on the wrong side of the track! &gt;:( He didn't stop, or even realise what happened, the fool.<br /><br />I swerved to avoid him, but soon after my bar-end snagged the railing of a bridge and put my wheel into it. One endo, a rather heavily bent wheel and dodgy front derailleur later, I managed to &quot;limp-home&quot; at low speed (thank God for disc brakes! :D ) and drive in instead. Luckily I only had a minor graze on my palm and a knee. Needless to say, nowadays I always wear gloves, and am particularly careful around blind corners ;)<br /><br />There are heaps of showering facilities at work; I drive in one or two times a week to keep work stocked with fresh clothes &amp; towels. My office is big enough to comfortably store my bike, so security is not an issue. :)<br /><br />I ride a MTB with slicks -- I like it that way as in an emergency, it'll let me hop kerbs, ride off onto grass fields adjoining the track (in the rare case of an inattentive path user), and better deals with dodgy situations (like trees falling onto the track, leaving only bumpy singletrack as a detour) has far better brakes, and so on.<br /><br />I don't own a race bike (yet!) but when I do get one, I don't think I'd commute on it.
 
Heh! You will...<br /><br />When you discover that you make it to work in 45 minutes for half the effor, and that the road bike will still go up and down kerbs and off the road...<br /><br />I was an MTB man. Not any more! My Cannondale Super V 1000 hangs neglected in my garage!
 
Argh no! Stop it! I've been giving the cut-price Trek 1400 at my LBS a good look over every time I've been there for the past month or so! :-* It's my frame size too. Why do they taunt me so ...<br /><br />Or maybe the special deals on Peugeot Professionel-framed bikes at the other bike store nearby ..<br /><br />If only I had some spare money about! I do prefer riding on tarmac than singletrack BTW. I guess it's only a matter of time :)
 
Hmm, I don't know what roads you have but the Johannesburg ones occasionally warrant a full MTB. Put some slicks on the MTB and one has something which isn't massively slower than the racer, while allowing you to hit potholes (sorry, shouldn't talk about that, he sounds like a nice guy) without needing to true your wheels each time. Occasionally one doesn't have a choice with traffic around you, I'm reasonably nifty on my racer now (can take kerbs and potholes) and its still much quicker reacting on a MTB, one just has to look at the relative positions. So saying, I'm not exactly a trials rider and guys like animal seem to be a little beyond us, I just find I need the extra time the MTB gives me, maybe in a few years I'll have the bike skills to feel as comfortable on my racer (and confident of not destroying the poor little thing).
 
I commute occasionally, it's 8km each way so it's nice and easy. The route into work is mostly downhill, the first section is through a park with single track. There are a couple of hobo's that may want to expropriate my bike so I do that section at terminal velocity.... scares the daylights out of the haadedaaas.<br /><br />Then its into traffic, I cross a small bridge on the pedestrian portion, cross a main road and then it's back roads all the way to work. A quick shower and I'm ready for the day... The looks you get from the sedentary office workers when you come strolling through the office with the bike, all sweaty, muddy and grimy is worth it ;D<br /><br />The only hassles I have is the Highveld thunderstorms in summer and forgetting my underpants at home and having to go &quot;Commando&quot; all day at the office.... (Sing along now........swing loww...... ;D )<br /><br />The route home is all uphill (Steeeep uphill!) but worth it. I love beating the guys in their expensive cars up hills. You can see the envy in their eyes as you zip past them...
 
Normally I commute to and from work at times when the traffic volume is pretty low, but today I had to come home at peak traffic time and it was a blast.<br /><br />I think I spent the whole time with a big grin on my face as I went from one traffic jam to another, there I was cycling happily past the cars with their drivers blankly watching and waiting for the car in front to move and I was loving every minute of it.<br /><br />At my normal time I rarely see anybody on a bike, but today because I was two hours later I saw quite a few and I'm leaving and open message to everyone of them I saw today<br /><br />&quot;Your all IDIOTS&quot; (to put it politely) not one of them had lights on their bikes, here in the UK at Five pm it's now dark, and not one of them took any effort to get themselves noticed.<br />Everyone of them had dark clothes on (black in most cases), so whilst I'd like to praise them for getting on their bikes, going about it in a suicidal manner is not the way.<br /><br />Laz
 
Laz,<br /><br />I've heard of some people putting the flashing red lights on the FRONT of their bike! :eek:<br /><br />I firmly believe that some people just don't think anything through...<br /><br />Most of the commuter cyclists I've seen are pretty good with lights (well at least the rear lights; a good number of them don't put their front light on half the time).. the most annoying thing I see is people pedalling at a 30rpm cadence ;)<br />
 
[quote author=rek link=board=8;threadid=574;start=15#22164 date=1036446421]<br />Laz,<br /><br />I've heard of some people putting the flashing red lights on the FRONT of their bike! :eek:<br /><br />I firmly believe that some people just don't think about anything...<br /><br />[/quote]<br /><br />Some people don't want to live ;D
 
I work at night so traffic is a bit scarry (ie they are usually speeding - posted speed is 45 mph).....I leave my house at 8:20pm...and I arrive at work at 9:50ish......the moring is differant tho.....I get off work at differant times (we must do quota before leaving.....and if a machine has a problem it slows us down)....but the average has been 8:15am - aka - RUSH HOUR....I actually ride from one town through another town to get to the city I live in..
I get home right around 10:00am.....shower relax online for a while...
Still getting used to this commute....but I like it.
 
This is quite a good thread. My commute is between 13-14km each way, and I do it between 3 and 5 days a week. I'm in Columbia, MD, USA (near Washington DC) and weather here permits mostly year-round commuting (except for the occasional frog-strangler downpour or blizzard when no one should be out anyway.) I've spent a lot of time exploring alternate routes and tend to like suburban streets (it's all suburban around here) with the wider the shoulder, the better.

What I like about commuting: fitness, time saving (keeps me from having to go to the gym), being outdoors and feeling alert and alive, the occasional polite motorist, moral superiority, and being the oldest person at my office (51 -- I work in a software company) and the only cycle commuter.

What I don't like about cycle commuting: abrupt speed bumps (traffic calming humps), traffic lights that are volume dependent and can't sense bicycles, road debris, and above all, rude and/or ignorant motorists.

I've built up a special ride for commuting. Custom touring frame with extra-strong wheels, super tires (Continental Gatorskin Ks), full rear rack and mudguards, and an unusual gearing setup: 9 speeds, 11/34 rear with a single chainwheel in front. The only problem is the occasional dropped chain since I don't have a front derailleur. Nice simple bike, though.
 
I ride about 12k's each way to work heading north on a major arterial road (ie. against the traffic!). Some bike lanes, but mostly a 2 lane road. Work has excellent showering and changing facilities, so I'm pretty lucky in that respect. I ride a road bike, but have to be careful about how I treat it (left hand lanes are sometimes a bit dodgy).
 
my commute is 16km, 3 or 4 is along the river on a shared path. The rest is on non-busy roads or in a bike lane.
 
Hello All. This is my first post here.

I live in Chicago and commute only once a week for now on casual Fridays. My trip is about 13 miles to our downtown center. I started this June and am now considering doing it 5 days a week next season (May thru Oct?). I ride down a major/busy street called Archer Ave. and I have used the rides this summer to train and learn about how to deal with the traffic and (sometimes) beligerent drivers. People are cool for the most part but I have had a couple of close calls with cars coming too close and people yelling out their window to try and scare me.

Otherwise, I really enjoy the trip and I arrive at work in a much better mood and look forward to the trip home!
 
Hello. This is my first post here as well.

I live in Northern New Jersey and commute to work as often as possible. The trip was 14.5 miles but I have to detour around a bridge that is being repaired, so it's 16 miles now. Most of the ride is back roads, but I do have considerable traffic where two highways meet (I78 and I287). I start my ride at 5AM and get to work by 6:30. I'm much faster on the way home because I can see the pavement better and the ride is downhill. Because I go so early in the AM I miss much of the traffic. My major problem is visibility. I have a Cateye headlight and a blinking LED taillight, but still got pulled over by a cop one morning because he couldn't see me very well. I've added reflective tape to my bike and two extra blinking LED's on my shoulders. I feel kind of silly, but hope it makes me more visible. For the most part, I try to focus on my riding, signaling and following traffic laws. I have had a few incidents of harassing drivers, and have thought about using my cell phone to report them. I ride through several jurisdictions and am not sure whom to call--certainly it's not been serious enough to dial 911. So who should I call?

As far as parking, I am a biology teacher and park my bike in the stockroom. The anatomy skeleton makes an excellent helmet rack. I have to drive once a week or so to bring my clothing in and to take dirty clothing home. Commuting has done wonders for my mood, and I've lost enough weight that a belt is an absolute necessity.

I tend to avoid riding in the rain because I'm not sure how to do it safely. Any tips would be welcome.
-DM