Tales from the Commute - The Non-Rant Edition

What?!? I'm not ranting about my commute? I actually have something nice to say about cars today? Has Hell frozen over?

It indeed seems that when it comes to motorized vehicular traffic, my heart isn't as cold and dead as I thought, and there are still a few cockles in there to be warmed.

Yesterday, on my commute home, I encountered something that gave me a small bout of the warm fuzzies.  I was riding down one of the roads in my town which has a bike lane. Ahead of me, blocking the lane was a UPS delivery truck. Not an uncommon sight, and anymore not one that I bother myself with getting worked up over. The driver returned to his truck before I reached him, moved about 20 feet further up the road, around some cars, pulled closer to the curb as to be more out of the lane, and then did something that I was actually impressed by. I had to stop and take a picture of it after I passed. 

I give you exhibit A. 

Sorry, wrong Xzibit, I meant this one.

Can't see it? Well, it can't be because of my photographic skills. Still, let me help out.

Before he went into the back of his truck to retrieve whatever packages he was delivering, he folded in his driver-side mirror. I don't know if this is standard practice, or if he saw me coming up the bike lane and was just being a nice guy. Today, I tend to believe it was the latter. 

Tales from the Commute: The Overly Righteous Motorist

Yes, boys and girls, it's time for another Tales from the Commute.

This morning, I was riding in as is typical.  I was also riding on my normal route, which is typical. And, I was treating the stop signs on the lighter-traffic side streets as suggestions, again as is typical.(I should pause here from the narration and address the previous sentence. Yes, I don't stop at every stop sign or light. Yes, I know that here in Utah it still is the law to stop at stop signs. But, if there is no traffic coming down the cross street, and if there is no traffic turning from the opposite direction, I do not see the point of breaking my momentum and wasting energy. I like to think that I am obeying the law - Newton's law of motion.) 

So where were we? Oh yes, I was riding in, fully aware that I was skirting around the municipal traffic laws on my commute. I came up to the 4-way stop shown in the picture below, traveling in the direction indicated by the red arrow.

Now, at this particular intersection I never stop, nor even hesitate, because as you can see, there is almost 0% chance of any cross traffic, or left-turning traffic because the road dead ends at the high-school ball fields. 

Since today was a typical commute, I was typically not stopping at this intersection, when suddenly I heard a car honking behind me rather excitedly and repeatedly. I look back to see what his particular problem is, and see an older gentlemen sternly pointing and gesturing in my general direction - and in direction of the stop sign. Figuring that I already knew what he was so upset about, I rolled up next to him at the next light to "discuss".

He rolled down his window and I asked him if there was a problem.

"You didn't stop at the stop sign!" 
"Yes, I know, there was no one coming."
"But you need to stop! It is the law!" 
"There was no one coming, buddy! What about you?"
"I stopped at the stop sign. You didn't!"

The conversation was going nowhere, so I rolled on up to the stop sign. Then I decided that I wasn't finished with him yet, so I flipped around and went back to his car. (At this point I should mention that due to several cues, I knew that he worked in the nearby offices of the local predominant religion. This is not to disparage him, or the religion - of which I am also a member - but just to give perspective to my final words to him.) After I motioned him to roll down his window, I told him "Don't forget, 'let him who is without sin cast the first stone.' As soon as you're perfect, buddy, then you can talk."

I don't bring up the fact that I quoted John 8:7 to a motorist simply to say that I know scripture, but to point out that yes, we are not perfect. We run stop signs and do things that are against the law, but so do motorists. how often when we are behind the wheel do we exceed the speed limit? How often do we make that U-turn where we are are not supposed to? How often do we try to race the yellow light so we don't have to stop?

Yes, I don't stop at every stop sign when I'm on my bike, I also don't always obey the speed limit when I'm behind the wheel of my car (as the highway patrol in Orderville, UT are aware). My point is not to be so hasty to judge and point blame. None of us are perfect.

Tales from the Commute - I'm Faster than a Bus!

Well, not any bus, the UTA route 460, which is the bus that I took when I still wasn't able to ride.

The green line represents the route of the 460, the red is my route to work. 

Today, as I pulled out of my neighborhood (the top yellow circle) just in front of the 460. I didn't see the bus again until we crossed paths at the middle yellow circle on the map. At that time, I was waiting at the light, and it was almost a minute before the 460 came into view from the next block down. At the final yellow circle, the bus was still up the street. 

Yes, there are more direct buses from my suburb to downtown SLC, but they don't matter to me because they don't run at the time I needed in order to get to work on time. 

It may be a small victory, but I'll still take it! 

Tales from the Commute

Normally, my commute is nothing noteworthy. Today may or may not be an exception to that.

First, some back-story…

My commute isn’t that bad. I live 30 miles from my office. A distance that is not unmanageable on the bike, but one that is if I don’t want leave the house 2+ hours before work, and get home the same amount of time after.  Because I love my family, and want to spend time with them, I’ve made some concessions, namely riding to the train station, taking that downtown, then riding from the train to work.  My ride to the train is approximately 4 miles, and the ride from the closest train station to my work is a paltry 2 ½ blocks (about ¾ mile).

Recently, I’ve been unsatisfied with my commute, and have wanted to mix things up. Looking for more time to ride, I’ve been getting off the train further and further down the line in order to extend my riding time from the train to work. Currently, I get off the train at 2100 s (I know this won’t mean squat to those of you who don’t live in SLC, so to try and explain, I work on 200 s – about 3 miles additional distance as the bike rolls).

Okay, on to today’s commute.

At some point after I boarded the train, I noticed a co-worker who works on the same floor as I do board the train.  We rode along till the 2100 s stop, where I exited the train and started riding towards work.  The ride was uneventful and unremarkable as always, except for the fact that I was enjoying my commute instead of struggling to stay awake on the train. I arrived at my office, locked up the bike, entered the building through the parking garage entrance, and pushed the button for the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, I was standing face to face with the same co-worker who was on the train with me.

Even though I departed the train 4 stops sooner than he did, I still arrived at the office at approximately the same time (I probably arrived before him since my time to the elevator included locking up my bike).

I’m also fairly certain that I enjoyed my commute a lot more than he did his.