just wanted to run a situation by you guys/gals to see what you would do. a little background: i've been commuting by bike (50 miles round trip) for about a year and a half now from my new home. My general routine is to drive in one day with my bike in the back, leave the car, ride the bike home...ride in the next morning, repeat again,etc. usually i get three days of commuting in total (spread over 4 days). this has been working great for a few reasons:
1.) i always have the option of driving home if i want to...i have kids, and work a pretty hectic job so it's nice if i have unexpected plans, etc..
2.) i can change/clean up quickly in the back of the car (think hatchback style) while stuffing my bike in a guarded parking lot. this saves me from having to walk through my workplace, which happens to be a hospital, without my kit and being all sweaty.
3.)it's a killer 150 miles of training per week i would otherwise have to forego
I don't want to give it up, but here's what happened: upon riding in this morning i found my car windows smashed. turns out that the parking lot isn't guarded overnight! i live in a big city so i guess it goes with the territory but it still sucks. so now, i'm concerned that i'll have to give this up for fear of the suspects coming back or someone else jacking my car, etc. when i talked to the security guard about it today, he's looked suprised and said it's "very rare" for any vandalism to happen up there, and all the other practicioners i spoke to who leave their cars there when on-call have never had problems.
I'm thinking i should just let it go, consider it a fluke (guard said it was "rare")and not be intimidated, but i also don't want to be stupid either and just put myself right back in the situation. I would love to be able to leave my care at home and just ride up to the hospital without all the rigamarole of stopping at my car, but in my position i feel uncomfortable trapsing through the hospital in my bike kit with my bike (it's expensive and the bike rack would be the last place i would leave it!) i know it probably sounds self-conscious to say it but i feel sorta unprofessional in my position walking around like that. anyone who works in a teaching hospital will know what i mean. so basically that means my options are to stop the 1.) stop the commuting (which is my sanity) 2.) ride without parking my care ahead of time andd find a place to stop and throw some "real people" clothes on before i walk in 3.) just continue what i was doing.
what would you all do?
Mike
1.) i always have the option of driving home if i want to...i have kids, and work a pretty hectic job so it's nice if i have unexpected plans, etc..
2.) i can change/clean up quickly in the back of the car (think hatchback style) while stuffing my bike in a guarded parking lot. this saves me from having to walk through my workplace, which happens to be a hospital, without my kit and being all sweaty.
3.)it's a killer 150 miles of training per week i would otherwise have to forego
I don't want to give it up, but here's what happened: upon riding in this morning i found my car windows smashed. turns out that the parking lot isn't guarded overnight! i live in a big city so i guess it goes with the territory but it still sucks. so now, i'm concerned that i'll have to give this up for fear of the suspects coming back or someone else jacking my car, etc. when i talked to the security guard about it today, he's looked suprised and said it's "very rare" for any vandalism to happen up there, and all the other practicioners i spoke to who leave their cars there when on-call have never had problems.
I'm thinking i should just let it go, consider it a fluke (guard said it was "rare")and not be intimidated, but i also don't want to be stupid either and just put myself right back in the situation. I would love to be able to leave my care at home and just ride up to the hospital without all the rigamarole of stopping at my car, but in my position i feel uncomfortable trapsing through the hospital in my bike kit with my bike (it's expensive and the bike rack would be the last place i would leave it!) i know it probably sounds self-conscious to say it but i feel sorta unprofessional in my position walking around like that. anyone who works in a teaching hospital will know what i mean. so basically that means my options are to stop the 1.) stop the commuting (which is my sanity) 2.) ride without parking my care ahead of time andd find a place to stop and throw some "real people" clothes on before i walk in 3.) just continue what i was doing.
what would you all do?
Mike