The pulse...

Traffic pulse that is.  I rode in along Mill St. again today.  A lot of people might call me crazy for choosing this route when I could just as easily ride along the river.  The truth is I think I like being "traffic".  Mill St. has bike lanes (mostly) and is supposed to be a "bike route", so I guess I feel like I need to represent. 

Anyway, Mill St. is kind of fun to ride because (much to the dismay of drivers) you keep up with the flow of traffic.  This is mostly due to all the stop lights Mill St. has, making it a pretty slow road.  These lights leads to a "pulse" in traffic....rush, rush, rush, wait, wait, wait.  The fun part is if you ride along and pay attention you can pass the long lines of waiting cars, time the light turning green and actually make it from the Sienna Hotel (downtown Reno at Sierra St.) to the far side of the airport (Mill and Rock) in exactly the same time as someone in a car! 

Now it definitely doesn't always work out that way, but I'd say you'd be within a minute or two of the same travel time most days.  It's kind of priceless to see the same driver gawking at you when you roll up next to them yet again 2.7 miles down the road!

Here's a couple pics of a pulse of traffic just past Mill and Terminal.

I picked up this guy with the load of carpet at the parking lot of the Sienna.

I didn't quite nail the timing today....and I stopped for these pics.  But as I crossed the top of the airport I could him swing right onto Rock Blvd.  I was right at the same intersection within a minute of him.

 So remember to get out there and be traffic.  And if you play the game well, you might just beat traffic to your destination.