This is the
Frederick Douglass Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge, named after two famous Rochesterians. I find it beautiful every day, but especially today with the frost on the ground.

And this is another view, looking towards downtown.

On this crisp morning, I feel incredibly blessed to bike to work.

A couple of weeks ago I took a bike ride near Holley, along the Erie Canal. This portion of the trail is not used much, and neither are many of the buildings, it appears.

I highly recommend that you make a day of it and take the kids to Hurd Orchards, one of western New York’s treasures. In the fall they serve apple pie which is yummy and filling enough to be your lunch.

Here are a few pictures from a couple of years ago. I get no credit for those adorable kids.

When my partner and I go on vacations, we always take Zoe (pictured above). We also always want to get out on our bikes. This presents a problem, because it is always too hot to leave her in our car, and the other campers wouldn’t appreciate our leaving her in our tent. We know that she would bark the whole time. Our previous solution has been doggie day care. but this year, I finally convinced her that we should get a doggie bike basket. If you want to bring your canine companion with you, this is a good solution for a small dog. (Zoe weighs 8 pounds.)

Tanya had her handlebars shortened in order to fit her better, so the basket only fits on my bike. It really didn’t slow me down much at all and I kept up with her pretty well, especially surprising since she’s generally faster than me. Zoe was unsure about it at first, but seemed to settle in pretty quickly.

So far, I’ve only taken it on bike trails and side streets. I would be hesitant to bike on a busy and/or hilly road with it, because the extra weight on the bars takes some getting used to, and I felt like it slowed my reaction time.

A great bonus is that it seems impossible for another rider to pass without smiling and saying, “Aawwwwww,” with the inflection rising at the end.

There seems to be a lot of hostility in bike blogs these days. Everyone has an opinion about wearing helmets (or not), vehicular cycling (or not), bike trails (or not), and so much more. Having an opinion is a great thing; forcing it down others’ throats with vitriol is not.

I just have 2 things to say about all this. First, cycling is not an individual act; it is inherently social, simply by the fact that other people are using the trails/roads/sidewalks. I am both a driver and a cyclist. When a cyclist is biking erratically or is not visible in the dark, it affects me as a driver, by increasing my stress level as I am driving and trying to be safe. Further, if I were to hit that cyclist, it’s not just the cyclist who would be affected. I would be emotionally devastated. Our health care system would take another hit. My loved ones as well as the cyclist’s would be impacted. Insurance costs would go up. So, yes, individuals have the freedom to make choices about how they want to bike. But that freedom does not exist in a vacuum.

Second, could we be a little nicer to each other and to those with whom we share the transportation infrastructure? There’s a great post at EcoVelo to this point.

Read the comments too, where you’ll find, among others, this gem from the post’s author:

“The idea that acting courteously as opposed to confrontationally is somehow going to put us on a slippery slope leading to “laws demanding that all cyclists get out of their way” is a fallacy that has been used all too frequently to justify rude, aggressive riding tactics. What’s going to get us kicked off the roads is disregarding traffic laws, riding irresponsibly, and treating other road users as if we bicyclists operate under our own set of rules (see it too often). You are right, the car is “almighty”, but fighting its supremacy with a head-on frontal assault is not the answer in my opinion. I believe we need to build good will with the general public and politicians to gain the political capital necessary to instigate the infrastructure and policy changes that would make our roads (and trails) more attractive to new bicyclists, thus growing bicycling to the extent we’re all hoping for. In my opinion, the “us versus them” mentality is counterproductive to this goal and has gotten us nowhere in the U.S.”

I would just like to report that, in addition to RocBike’s rank in the top 50 at London Cyclist, my public service announcement has apparently worked.

My rides home over the past couple of weeks have been exceedingly pleasant.

I attribute it to the power of RocBike.

This is so cool. Make your own blinking bike patch, jacket with glowing buttons, or turn signal cycling jacket.

Way beyond my capabilities, but way cool.

Dear men-who-hang-out-near-the-underpass-on-the-trail-I-ride-home (and I don’t mean to be sexist, but you are always men),

1–Why do you hang out there? It’s stinky, full of broken glass, and creepy. Then again, maybe that’s why you hang out there.

2–How many of you are there? Although I have never seen any one individual more than once, and you are of different ages and races, I must assume that you all belong to the same tribe, as your behavior is unfailingly obnoxious, and at least 5 of you are there EVERY afternoon/evening when I bike home, regardless of the time.

3–I hate to be the one to break this to you, but…”Hey, baby, can I get a riiiide?” does not actually inspire women to cancel their plans for the evening, do a 180 on their bike, and jump your bones. (p.s. Nor is it particularly original.)

4–Whether out of aggressiveness or cluelessness, it’s just not charming when you hog the whole trail. Would it really kill you to move over, for just a second, so that I can pass?

5–I would like you to know that I plan to continue to take this route. For one thing, alternate routes involve alarming amounts of cars anxious to escape their work days and head home. For another, I don’t think you’re really dangerous…you just want to display your machismo so your buddies don’t notice your inadequacies.

Finally, you don’t get to hog the trail. I have just as much right to be there as you.

Sincerely,

Every-cyclist-(especially female)-that-passes-by-you

Last weekend, my partner and I (and our dog Zoe) walked most of the length of the Hojack Trail. The trail is about 8 miles round trip, so it would be a short bike ride, but it would be nice to do with kids or with someone new to cycling.

You could also combine it with other trails in the Webster Trails system. If you go to that web page and click on trails, you’ll see an overview map of the whole system.

The sections east of Klem Road abut the backyards of several new developments, which I didn’t enjoy nearly as much as the more wooded sections to the West. The trail is fairly narrow, much more so than the Genesee Greenway, for example. It’s a dirt trail, maybe a tiny bit rocky. (It can be hard to tell on foot vs. bike, but I’m pretty sure I would enjoy cycling it.)

If you go back in about 4-6 weeks, you might find some fruits on these wild strawberries (although I suspect the critters will get to them before any humans can, if my garden is any indication).

Nice Day for a Bike Ride
(In 4 parts)

Ride to work
First day in the seat since my whiplash injury.
A few aches, but I’m feeling okay.

Ride home
Three teenage guys are blocking the path.
Two move, but one stays square in the middle and looks me right in the eyes.
I know a challenge when I see one,
and I’m not in the mood for it.
There’s room for me to pass, but barely.
As I pass, I sarcastically say, “thanks for moving.”
Not really smart.
But ignoring men who harass me gets old.
The guy mocks me, “thanks for moving.”
On a good day, I figure I can out-bike someone who’s bikeless.
But my first day in the seat, with an achy back, is not really my best day.
I’m a little concerned they’ll take chase.
I look in my rear view mirror. No sign of them.
I hear “Fuck you!” yelled at my back.
I want to flip them off, but I refrain.

I start to fume, reflecting on every rude act I’ve experienced or heard about over the past few weeks.
I’m pretty sure that the phrase, “Kids these days,” pops in my head.

As I near my home, I see a boy on his bike, meandering along the sidewalk.
He cheerfully yells out, “Hello!”
I say hello, though not so cheerfully.
Undaunted, he says, “Nice day for a bike ride!”
Smiling now, I say, “Yes, it is!”

Ride to yoga class
Feeling stronger now.
I come upon a couple of young boys on their bikes.
One says hello.
The other rides up alongside me.
I say, “are you gonna race me?”
He smiles and starts pedaling.
I shift my gears and start to pull ahead.
He says, “Oh, you’ve got gears, that’s why you’re faster.”
I smile and keep moving.

Ride home
Twilight.
Sounds of the neighborhood as I pass by.

Yep, nice day for a bike ride.

There’s proof that I got my bike out in the last couple of months, and I’ve even ridden it a couple of times, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. For one, I don’t have studded tires, and we have had an extremely icy winter. Jack and Adam have both written before about the joys of studded tires, and next year I may finally take the plunge.

But there’s another reason I haven’t ridden, and it’s got me coming up with the counter-intuitive notion that bike commuting is actually a form of privilege. Hang with me here…not for many people, of course, I know that. Many people cannot afford cars, and while Rochester’s public bus system isn’t as awful as I thought it would be, it’s often not very convenient or time-efficient.

So I’ll own my privilege…I am solidly middle-class, and I could afford a reasonably nice car if I were willing to go into debt for one (which I’m not…my current car is 13 years old, has 135,000 miles on it, and is literally rotting/rusting away.) But I do have other trappings of a middle-class lifestyle–professional job, kids with multiple commitments, and pursuing a higher degree to boot.

In this kind of weather, when it comes to bike commuting, the sad truth is partly that I just haven’t had the time. When I have to work all day, then pick up my daughter and deposit her somewhere, then head to class for the evening…not to mention fitting in necessities such as purchasing and eating food along the way…there’s not a lot of leeway in the schedule.

Which is what got me thinking of bike commuting as a form of privilege. There are lots of women with a similar schedule to mine–for them, it might be working in a low-wage service job, picking up the kids from day care, then coming to class at the community college. Different details…same challenges. Honestly, I can’t imagine trying to convince any of them that bike commuting is a practical alternative.

It would be great if we lived in a society where it were more practical. In my mind, such a society would pay a living wage, would provide free or very inexpensive education at least up through the bachelor’s degree, free child care, and a public transportation system that was multi-modal and had multiple routes.

But we don’t live in that society. And thus I am reminded not to get high and mighty about being a bike commuter (when I am, indeed, such a person, which is not lately!).