The Unwoven Rainbow

Today marks the one year anniversary of when I began biking to work.

I’ve logged about 3500 miles. I’ve had three flats (only one was a blowout; the other two were slow leaks that I could fix the next day at home). I haven’t had any spills or any accidents, though there have been a couple of (kinda) close calls.

Payments for gas, insurance, inspections, and repairs have been quite low 

My original goal was to get more exercise. While I’m not in any kind of great shape now I’m a good bit healthier than I was a year ago.

And I still love it 

My daily bike commute takes me from the W&OD biking / walking trail to Pacific Ave. To get from trail to street I have to cross a BMW dealership. For a long time, this didn’t present much of a challenge — I just rode along the big grass patch next to their parking lot.

A few weeks ago, however, the dealership lot started overflowing and they began parking cars up on the grass where I ride. It certainly makes the trip a bit more interesting, having to worry about slipping (on wet grass or muddy track) into a fairly expensive car  :-/

I assume their overflowing inventory is due to decreasing sales (though I have no data to back that up). It wouldn’t be surprising, since you have to question the wisdom of buying a new car at this point in history. The end of the age of oil appears to be upon us, and gasoline prices are likely to rise pretty monotonically for quite some time. You especially have to question the wisdom of purchasing a new car (or truck, or SUV) that isn’t particularly fuel efficient.

If I had to replace my car right now, I’d be looking around for a small, cheap beater that I could run into the ground over the next several years… or maybe a scooter. I certainly wouldn’t be in the market for something that is likely to be a super-expensive, over-sized paperweight in 5 or 10 years.

To the woman in the big black pickup truck who, when passing me on my way home from work today, shouted at me to “Ride on the sidewalk!”:

I tried to catch up to you at the next light so I could explain a few things, but by the time I got there the light had changed and you were gone. So here goes…

As a bicyclist I have the same right to the road that you have. In fact, if I need to take the entire lane for reasons of safety, I am legally entitled to do so. You cannot force me to ride on the sidewalk any more than I can force you to ride a bike.

That said, I’m a nice guy and I try to stay to the right side of the road so that motorists can pass me. But I won’t ride on the shoulder, I won’t hug the cars parked along the side of the road, and I won’t swerve off of and back onto the road every time there’s a break in parked cars. Here’s why:

1. One of the leading types of accidents for bicyclists is when a driver in a car parked on the side of the road opens her door into the path of a cyclist coming from the rear. Any bicyclist who knows how to ride safely will stay about three feet from cars parked on the side of the road.
2. Another common accident for bicyclists is not being seen by a motorist backing out of a driveway or pulling out onto the road from the right. I need to stay a bit in the lane to make sure these guys can see me.
3. If I swerve off and back onto the road whenever there is the opportunity to do so, I increase my chance of surprising an overtaking motorist, and I endanger everyone on the road (because motorists don’t know what to expect of me). On the other hand, if I consistently take the rightmost foot or two of the traffic lane, everyone on the road knows what to expect and how to proceed safely.
4. Whether you are in a car or on a bike, getting a flat is a complete pain in the ass. So I will generally try to avoid riding through debris on the side of the road (much the same as you will try to steer around broken glass in your truck).

The bottom line is that on a one lane road you may be stuck behind me for a short while until conditions are safe to pass. I try to make it as easy as possible for you to get by me, but given a choice between my safety and five or ten seconds of your time, the former trumps the latter (both legally and ethically).

Have a good trip home, and in a few years when you cannot afford the petrol to power your oversized, gas-guzzling truck, I look forward to biking alongside you down the road.

If you’d like to read some more, here are two good resources. And if you want insight into why I ride to work in the first place, check out this older post.

Note (5/22/08): This post was updated to reflect the fact that bicyclists are allowed to ride on the sidewalk in Loudoun County, as long as they slow down for pedestrians. The original version of this post erroneously stated that bicyclists here were required to ride in the road (as they are in some other counties in VA). My bad…