Dave’s Good Stuff

Understanding. Empathy. More than skill, I think that’s what’s lacking on the roads. People don’t understand the rules and laws, and (to the point of this post), more importantly, they don’t understand what it’s like for other drivers of different vehicles. Bear in mind that I include myself wholeheartedly in this group, which also, I propose, includes each and every one of you.

The typical car driver doesn’t understand what it’s like to be a bicyclist on the road. The typical bicyclist doesn’t understand what it’s like to drive a semi. How many of us understand what it’s like to drive a bus? Some, to be sure, but not most. What about a garbage truck? 30′ moving vans? Fully laden cement mixers?

As I spend more time as one of the smaller, more vulnerable users of the road, I spend more time thinking about such things. I’m coming to believe that in order to operate a vehicle on todays roads, we should be required to have a deeper understanding of what it’s like to operate a wide variety of vehicles. That means licensing.

What prompted this line of thinking was the many times drivers, in vehicles of all sizes, display an obvious lack of understanding of what it’s like to be me, on a bicycle, sharing the road with them, in their much larger enclosed vehicle. They wait for me to pass when I’m hundreds of feet away (not a horrible thing), or they perceive me going slower than I am and pull out right in front of me - even when it’s clear they see me. They pass without giving me adequate room, or endanger themselves by giving me too much room. These experiences and many more tell me that many drivers just don’t understand what it’s like to take a bike to the roads.

Then I took this logic to the next step. Sure, they don’t understand what it’s like to be me, but do we understand what it’s like to be high up in a semi, or dragging a heavy garbage truck or cement mixer around the city streets, or a school bus full of children? Wouldn’t it help us all to really *know* what it’s like for the rest of the drivers on our shared roads?

Though I doubt it will ever come to pass, in the ideal world, I think we should all be licensed to operate all legally operational vehicles that share the roads with us. Maybe that would go somewhere towards giving us the understanding and empathy that is so lacking on the roads today. Probably not, but it can’t hurt, and it may just make people take driving a little less for granted, and a little more seriously.

I’m chalking it up to the route, but I only saw three bike riders on the way home yesterday, and two this morning. I’m not going to an area of concentrated offices, like downtown, where there are a lot more people working in a smaller area, and fewer bicycle friendly routes to get there (assuming the latter… I’ve never been downtown by bike myself). The general area where I work has as many inroads as there are… well… roads, and while there are plenty of offices, they’re far more spread out. The chances of meeting up with someone going my way on the road I’m on are pretty slim. Those odds will change as more people begin using their bikes as transportation, but while it would be nice to have company on the ride, and safer too, I’m sure I’ll manage just fine.

As I approach my first fair weather bike commuting season, I’m curious to see how many people actually get out and ride. It’s a safe assumption that more people ride to work as the weather gets warmer, but without any bike commuting experience from previous warm seasons, I can’t make any observations regarding the relative number of us out there. This season is unique in that gas prices may force more people than normal out from behind the wheel, and onto a saddle. Throw in a heightening environmental awareness, and we have another factor that may increase our numbers. Frankly, I don’t think that many will start biking to work at current gas prices, much less any vague and distant environmental concerns. It won’t be until San Francisco is flooding and gas prices reach $10.⁰⁰/gallon that people will really feel the crunch, and by then, it’ll be too late. They’ll wish they reduced their addiction to petroleum, but as they say… “coulda shoulda woulda.”

I predict only a very slight increase over previous years. More of us will ride, but not that many more. The *vast* majority of bike commuters will be returning to the road, rather than just entering it. Technically, I’m returning to the scene as well, having ridden to work and class for 6 years in the early 90’s.

Then again, I am new to the KC bike-to-work scene this year. That’s one, and where there’s one, there are likely more…

Good for them, but I have to wonder if they did so safely.

The first thing that comes to mind is how terribly unsafe (and aggravating) it is when cyclists pull up to the front of the line at red lights to the right of the cars there. I’ve always considered it the same as waiting until the very last minute to merge when a lane ends because of construction or other hazards.

I do know it can be done, however, and it’s not that hard.

Dave Moulton speaks wisdom…

I see it on the various bike forums and blogs, where cyclists recall the near misses, and their run-ins with aggressive drivers. The problem is, the person posting is re-living the event, and causing others to re-live their bad experiences. We cannot erase bad events that have happened in the past, but we can learn from them and move on.

I like the bit about re-living. That is of the truth for me.

Henceforth, while I may offer a note about negative experiences with motorists, I will not detail, nor dwell on them, and will do my best to spin it positively.

I shall not interpret those that stop unnecessarily at intersections as having little comprehension of the Way of the Bicycle (though this may, in fact, be the case), rather I will see it as a kindness that they chose to let me through, or an opportunity to show them a considerate and attentive cyclist. I will spend more time and energy focusing on the good aspects of my rides, and let the bad slough off like water off a ducks feathers.

I’ll let you know how this works out for me…

I’ve been in the red since the downtime of February in terms of keeping up with my goal of 5,000 miles this year. Tonight, on the way home, I expect to finally be back in the black! With only 4.94 miles remaining to break through the barrier into a mileage surplus, and at LEAST 7.8 miles ahead of me, only mechanical failure, a collision, illness, or a plague of flying howler monkeys will stop me!

Tonight is my long route too, according to my training “schedule.” I’ll be pushing 16 miles on some leg busting hills tonight. A stiff southwesterly wind will help me on the northerly stretches, as well as the final leg home.

A friend of the GF and I is moving to Seattle. To celebrate her time with us, there will be much fun to be had at Bloomington Beach at Clinton Lake on Saturday.

Why not combine both the fun with the need for saddle time? I see no reason. No reason at all. Aside from weather, perhaps. Or injury. Perhaps illness would make a difference. But I digress.

From my front door to Clinton Lake, it’s about 50-60 miles. I throw some meandering about on familiar roads and I can easily stretch it out to 70-80 miles. Both are decent routes, with convenience stores along the way, though both will have a bit of a dry spell towards the end between Lawrence and Bloomington Beach itself. There’s just not much out there. I’ll make do. That’s why they make pockets and frame bags and the like. As always, maps are behind the cut…

This came through on a couple of bike commuting groups I have an ear to:

Wednesday, May 14th -10:00 AM
Illus Davis Park - Freedom of Speech Circle near Locust Street between 9th/10th Streets

RAIN LOCATION - will be at the Power and Light District

Mayor Mark Funkhouser will announce the vision for KC to become a “Platinum” designated Bicycle Friendly Community.

I would love to go, but what with having to work during the day, I won’t be able to show my in-person support. Instead, I’m limited to showing it by putting this out there for the two of you to see.

There is some irony in the fact that I have to skip work to show my support for using the bike to get to work instead of the car.

A cool 40°F kicked off the 2008 Bike to Work Week work week this morning. There are various activities set aside for the week, but my schedule is going to keep my from doing… well, any of them, really.

The Commuter Convoy that others are having great success with was a bust for me (and others) this morning. I arrived at the Walmart parking lot at about 06:05 this morning and hung out until 06:15. No one showed, so I took off. On Quivira at around Monrovia, I passed the news crew that interviewed Noah. They didn’t even raise their heads for a lone cyclist not part of a convoy. I guess that’s not news.

This weekend was similarly news unworthy. With the rain on Saturday and the wind on Sunday, I stayed indoors and watched much of the television with the GF. I did get on the rollers for an hour or so on Sunday, pulling the equivalent of about 20 miles. It’s a shame really, the rollers marked the first time the new Edge 705 met the Torelli, and the maiden voyage of the new Triple cranks. They work, at least on the rollers, like a champ. I love the fact that I lost nothing on the high end, but gained a lot of wiggle room on the low. I am so not worried about the Triple Bypass now.

While watching the Buffy, and since I couldn’t/wouldn’t get my newly transformed Torelli out into potentially nasty, bottom bracket chewing weather, I, instead, revamped a process that had, up until this point, been somewhat cumbersome. Previously, to update my mileage and expenses pages, here and here, I updated an Excel spreadsheet, and then copied and pasted the results of the formulas and calculations into my site. I’d built an elaborate and complicated set of concatenate functions to distill the many numbers into an easily copy/paste format. While such an endeavor did teach me much in the ways of Excel Love, it was a process much less than streamlined.

So, I converted that locally bound Excel spreadsheet to a Google Docs spreadsheet, and then took advantage of the publishing options, and embedded choice bits and pieces straight into my site. While this does offer the disadvantage of being reliant on the availability and accessibility of Google Docs any time one visits my site, as well as being somewhat limited in formatting options, it offers the advantage of merely having to update the spreadsheet online once, and simply being done. My updates show up here automagickally.

Tank is the GF’s dog. Not long after she moved in with me, we started looking into local BSL, and as it turns out, Pit Bull’s are banned in our neck of the woods. I won’t go into how ridiculous I think such bans are, aside from saying I think banning a breed (or, as in the case of Pits, a group of dogs with similar characteristics) is ridiculous. The point of this is to mark the day we found out that Tank is not, in fact, a bully breed, but a Rott/Boxer mix.

They can’t take him away for being a Pit, we have the papers to prove he’s not! Happy day!

I just dropped my car off for repair. Between the various bits and pieces that need fixing and/or replacing, it’s going to run me over $1,100. How’s that for irony? I ride my bike far more than I drive my car now, at least in terms of daily use, and yet I still plunk down thousands to keep it around. I’m thinking the day isn’t too far away that we become a one car household… All the same, it’ll be nice to have it in fully working order, without fear of being unable to stop, and without having to air up the slowly leaking tire every couple of days. I’m down to the last few payments, so after that, I’m going to ride this one to the ground.

After dropping off the car, I rode the slightly extra distance to work. It ended up being about a mile extra, which isn’t hardly worth noting, except that it was in the rain. It was coming down, if not overly hard, at least steady with a nice southeasterly cross and headwind. I do like riding in the rain, but being pelted in the face by hard little droplets thrown by an angry wind isn’t my idea of fun. Still, I made it just fine with nary an incident. I was wet, but my clothes in my panniers were dry. With coffee in hand, and wearing warm dry clothes, I’m ready to continue a very hectic and long week.

I have to mention a few things about last night’s commute. It was the most vocal of my relatively few commutes, by far.

• At about 99th and Walmer, I heard the following behind me: “BLEEAACCH!! BLEEACCAH!!” with another voice saying “… why they have sidewalks!” I looked around and it was a couple of high school kids in daddy’s big blue truck. It was awesome! I’m finally a Real Commuter!! I’ve had my first real heckler!
• At 95th and Lowell, as I was pulling up to the intersection and slowing to a stop, a lady in an SUV coming from my left had started into the intersection going straight. She saw me and stopped… dead in the middle of the intersection. “Oh nos! A bicyclers! Whatever am I to dos?” I was slowing to a stop with a foot out of the pedal and an arm signaling a left turn, and she stops in the middle of the intersection. I stop and stare in befuddlement. She stares back at me. The car opposite her gets tired of waiting and cuts in front of her to turn left. She apparently realizes that I’m not moving while she’s there, scowls at me (at ME!) and then moves on. What a hilarious idiot.
  It was uneventful until I got to 67th and Midland/Greenwood. Everyone did the Right Thing™, and obeyed right-of-way like a bunch of rock stars. I got to the intersection first, before the car to my left, and the car coming in the opposite direction. All of us were going straight. I went, followed by the car to my left. As I passed the car heading the opposite direction, I heard her yelling “WTF, B?!?!?” Another high school student. Oh, to have the blood pressure of youth…
• That covers it for the angry and stupid. Somewhere between Pflumm and Quivira on 67th, a man in a red pickup truck gave me a couple of short “beep beeps” with his horn, threw his arm out the window and gave me a thumbs up. He had that “attaboy!” look on his face. I waved back, smiled from the heart, and soaked it in as thoroughly as I let the angry idiots wash off me.
• Not far after that, I had the opportunity to return the favor. A small boy of maybe 10-12 years of age was riding on the sidewalk on my side of the road, heading towards me. At that age, I have no problem with riding on the sidewalk. He couldn’t keep up a decent speed, and might not be able to hold a line well either. I smiled real big, said “Hi!” and gave him a thumbs up as well. He just gazed at me in wide eyed wonder. I can only hope I helped keep him on that bike of his.