Motivation for a Chilly Morning Ride!

How to avoid traffic delays....

So....they closed down a few lanes on 395 (I-580....or whatever).  Between this and the fact that drivers are having to locate the controls to their windshield wipers for the first time in 9 months, the world has apparently come to an end according to news coverage.

I get it.  It's an inconvenience, and traffic does grind to a very slow pace during the rush hour times.  Many people have figured this out and the side streets are pretty busy as well.  This is simply the cost of maintaining your infrastructure folks.  If they didn't do this type of work (once every 30 years for this particular section), the same folks would be complaining about the "horrid" condition of the road.

I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again.  Don't like the traffic.  Wish you could pass 100+ cars that are backed up along Mill St.?  YOU CAN!!!!  Just ride your bike!!!  The bike lane is literally never backed up.  As an example, today on the Mill St. portion of my commute, I passed 87 cars!!??  Yes, I counted and yes, this is a personal record.   It's totally related to the new construction and it made my day!!!

So anyway, bike week might be over.  You might want a rain coat.  But if you too want to fly through grid locked traffic with a ridiculous grin on your face, try bike commuting.....you'll be glad you did.

Muggy commute.

Well it might have cooled down overnight, but it sure was a muggy morning for a bike ride.  On the up side, when do you get to ride in humid weather in Reno.....so I'll call it a unique experience!

Grey skies....you can almost feel the humid air just by looking at this.

Bikes go here....curious...maybe we should label car lanes this way.

Another bicycle commute.

Nothing special today.  Just another bicycle commute.  I decided on the river path this morning for no particular reason.

Yes, that's my thumb.....you try riding no handed and working a camera phone with gloves on!

So what are you waiting for???  Bike to work week officially starts on May 10, so get out there this week and get that dusty bicycle dialed in!

Low traffic commute.

Even when you ride a bike for transportation there can be a bit of a morning traffic rush.  Yes, that means there are more bikes out there.....but it also means you have to deal with the morning drivers.  Somehow I got out a bit early this morning and hit that perfect window where the streets were just clear.  No bikes, no cars, just a few people out running.  So, pretty much a perfect commute!

1st St. without a moving car in sight!

Variety is the Spice of Life.

The title translates into, I took a slightly different route to work today.  That's right, even those of us who really love the commute get bored with it after a while.  I'm lucky in that I have a couple routes that get me to work and keep life interesting.....but even those get boring.

Now if you think that interesting means you have to create an entirely new route that detours around town and takes twice as long....you may be disappointed with this post.  If you're slightly more practical, read on, because all you have to do is move over a few blocks on a cross town commute and the dynamics can completely change.

So here are a few of my options:

Mill St.  This route is technically the shortest option at just over 5 miles but has multiple stop lights, so it's not always the fastest.  And yes, I do stop and wait at all the lights.

The River Path.  At 6.3 miles it's a bit longer, but has a super low "risk" rating since I don't have to deal with traffic for more than 4 miles.  And the homeless guys don't really count as a "risk".  It's the same one's every day and they really don't even interact with you unless you say hi...and then they respond in kind.

Today's route.  Basically, down 1st St. and then jogging over to E. 2nd St. all the way out to Sparks.  A little jog on 21st St. to avoid a tight section on Rock Blvd. and then around the remainder of Rock Blvd. to work.

Today's route ended up just under 6 miles, so it's kind of in between the other options.  2nd St. isn't a cycling paradise.  It doesn't have bike lanes and it's 4 lanes wide, but it does have adequate shoulders in most places and traffic is slow (due to numerous traffic lights) and fairly light volume (for a 4 lane road).  It probably didn't hurt that it's Veteren's Day and many people are on holiday, so traffic was light everywhere.

Here's a few pics along the route:

With this route you get to right past the baseball field.  Even if you don't care about baseball, it's a pretty cool building / space.

The corner of E. 2nd St. and Well Ave.  As you can see not much traffic today.  Pretty wide lanes, so there's plenty of room to ride with traffic when it's there.

Corner of e. 2nd St. and Kietzke Lane.  This intersection is a bit narrow but then widens out to a full extra "lane" to ride in all the way to Rock Blvd.

So mix it up if you're bored with the commute.  It might just show you a part of town you don't normally see.

Time to trim the trees.

It's been coming for a while.  Winter is long gone (if the 100 degree temperatures hadn't let you know) and the vegetation is about as green as it gets in Reno.  This also means the trees that (very fortunately) line the river path and a lot of our bike lanes have been growing and growing.  As a result it also means we've been ducking lower and lower to avoid the trees that encroach into our lanes, or dodging into traffic depending on your riding style!

Here's an example I actually remembered to take a picture of (Rock Blvd and Mill Street).  Not a great place to lose one's head and / or veer into traffic!

Here is my head as an example of what we are all trying to protect from low hanging tree limbs.  I'm not normally a fan of self portraits on this blog....but I was running short of content this morning so here it is.

My plan is to bring the pruning shears one of these days and do some trimming on the trees on my route.  I'm sure I'm about the only nut who goes to this extent but hey, it's my commute and it's worth making it as enjoyable as possible! 

p.s.  Not shockingly, the darn trees repeat this cycle on a yearly basis.  Here's some clearing from 2 years ago on the same route (before Rock Blvd. had bike lanes!).

1st morning ride in a while!

Finally, back on the bicycle and on the way in to work.  Looks like things are still evolving in Reno.  The post office deal must have finalized while I was gone....they were working on the grounds when I rode by.  I noticed they tore out some trees (?)....a commodity in Reno if you ask me.  Hopefully, the new landscaping will be an improvement.  And hopefully, they will have some real retail and not just another gallery or office space on the river!

Other than this everything looked the same on my commute. 

Couple birds handing out that caught my eye.  I'm sure there's more going on than this in Reno.  What do you say, what are you doing on your bike with this great weather!?

Hardcore bike commuter.

Even I'd be calling it a day with this one....

Bike blog boredom....change of commute!

Lately it seems I'm just not inspired to write much about the commute, even taking pictures seems forced.  I guess that I've seen all the "normal" interesting things along the commute route just one to many times.  I've been here before and it helps to change up the commute during these funked out times.

I was late leaving the house today so a drastic exploratory ride wasn't in the cards.  So, rather than my normal variation of the river path, which is 4th Street, I decided to return to the old alternate commute (Mill St.).

For the record...I do drive to work sometimes and I hate the lines and they make me rage.  It's one reason I ride, less stress!

 Man o' Man, did I forget was riding in dual lane traffic was like in just a few short months!  There are a few sections that don't have bike lanes on Mill (or wide parking areas that go unused) and I pretty much take the lane on these sections.  Even with being centered up in a lane I had a guy try to use the 1/2 side of the lane to pass me with another car in the left lane.  What are people thinking!?

I watched traffic interactions between cars a bit after that and I don't think it's that they just don't see bikes.....they behave in the same manner with respect to other cars!  Perhaps I shouldn't used the work "respect" in the previous sentence....it's not really appropriate!  They just try to shove their way ahead like the other drivers aren't in just as much of a hurry. 

I was musing about why their so aggressive and in a hurry....since most of them probably are going to work and don't really want to be there.  And then it hit me, just driving or idling (as is the case most of the time) they are burning precious gas and just look at how much it must cost them!

Also for the record, since I do drive a car, these prices SUCK!  Another good reason to ride.

It must really grind them when I pass them when their backed up at lights (sometimes 30+ cars), rolling to the light at the front of the underutilized bike lane!  It's actually pretty fun...from the Hospital to the Airport I passed 37 cars this morning (over approximately 1.5 miles) and in the following 1 mile stretch before the next light (where the speed limit is 50 mph) only 27 passed me back!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!! I know it's petty to keep track, but it shows that even in non-city traffic areas you can stay ahead of automobile traffic if you catch the lights right!  Anyway, it definitely gave me some new material write about so I guess I better explore some additional alternate commutes.  Until then, enjoy the ride!