Out of the drive way and on to the neighborhood streets!
I definitely had the best road conditions....the unpacked snow on the shoulders wasn't hardly slippery at all! You do want to watch out for the off angle sections though. The biggest concern is the drivers who don't seem to know that a 4x4 may accelerate just fine, but it doesn't stop any better than a car.
Down the hill to the i-80 bridge.
My chuckles at the state of highway traffic were audible enough to get a responding comment from a guy out walking his dogs!
At the next intersection I watched as two cars both tried to stop as if the streets were bare at a 4 way stop...yeah, not so much. The both slid right through for a lovely low speed fender bender! You should have seen the absolute looks of dismay on both drivers faces, priceless. I gave them a huge thumbs up and headed through the intersection (sorry, no picture....if I hung around after the thumbs up my life might have been in danger!).
The rest of the ride was quiet with a few early passing pedestrians and just a couple other brave riders. The fresh snow muffled everything but the river and made for a really relaxing commute! I'll wager that most people can't say that if they drove in this morning!
The only part of the ride that got my heart beating a bit faster was when I left the river path for my short section on Rock Blvd. An inch plus of ice on the roads and the snowplow extras pushed into the bike lane. The traction and the riding weren't a problem, but the traffic was pushing it at 30+ mph and sliding around (and way to close to me).
After watching no less then 3 cars slide through red lights at the corner of rock and mill, I made it safely in. All told it took about an extra 7-10 minutes compared to my normal commute (and a lot of that was my stopping to take pictures). One of my office mates told me his commute took 30 minutes extra today.
So lesson of the day. If you want a low hassle snow commute.....break out the bike! Enjoy the snow day!
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