Commuting - Favorite part of your commute?

My commute takes me from central Brooklyn to downtown Manhattan.
I don't usually have a fixed favorite part of the commute, but one contender is emerging...

After I get off the Brooklyn Bridge I go crosstown on Chambers Street. There's a street vendor who sells little minature bubble mackines, so for about twenty yards or so, there are bubbles floating in the air all around me. It's so surreal and wonderful and almost always makes me slow down a little and smile.

What's your favorite moment(s) of your commute?

That sounds like a nice ride.
My favorite part of the commute is the big hill right in front of my house, when I am coming home at 5 pm flying downhill, passing all the motorists who are sitting there in the rush hour and moving about 5 feet a minute. It's not a bad hill when it's completely empty, either.

5 miles of my commute are on an MUP and I commute into work of the early evening. This is my favourite part of the commute. Lots and lots of chicks out jogging in short-tight clothing. Yum!

At any point that I crest a hill or hit a green light on the fly.

The beginning of my commute is up a really steep rolling hills, I hate that.

But after that there's about 1/2 mile of slight decline, I can go reall fast, but most fo the time the wind would ruin it. But that's not my favourite one yet.

After the high speed section there's a pretty long slight incline, just enough for you to put some effort into it without being out of breath. I usually get off the seat and do my Armstrong impression there.

I'm going to sound like a broken record. Suprise suprise

Washington Park in Denver is a lovely park with a street running circular through the whole park. One side is for peds and the other for cyclist. Very lovely foliage, lake, grass, etc
Just a nice allaround vibe. However, those are not the real reasons I like it.
It is a mile or two north of Denver University and in a bit of a hip area.
The actual reason is all the beautiful female joggers. Something about a fit woman..... *drools*

Non hormonal would be:
Morning: the set of rolling hills south of my house on an empty 6 lane street. I love hitting 30mph+ on a touring bike
Evening: rolling my bike into the garage.

I use the DCR path to get into Cambridge, and my favorite part is just before Watertown square, stopping to watch the Watertown Dam.

The elusive zen of seeing a path through traffic that's only meant for me. This path takes me past cars and can involve lane changes and most often means lane-splitting. When it happens, it feels like I'm riding on rails.

...or hit a green light on the fly.

Ahhh! This reminds me of a second favorite aprt...the MAGIC STREETLIGHT OF PROSPECT PARK.

the first bit of my commute is on streets to prospect park, which I enter after the downslope and before the climb (such as it is). I have a long piece of the loop, and then a climb from by the zoo until the exit at grand army plaza back into streets. For a long while...not just a week or a month but multiple months, it seemed like on mornings where I worked hard and really went at the hill hammer and tongs, I was rewardsed with a green light and smooth sailing through Grand Army Plaza and out onto Flatbush, whereas on mornings when I slacked off and didn't try as hard as I was capable of, I'd get a long red light cycle where I could stand and think about what I had (and hadn't!) done.

(not trying to be overly dramatic about that hill or anything, as I'm sure it would look like child's play to many of you, but it's the first resistance aside from wind that I meet on my way in.)

The elusive zen of seeing a path through traffic that's only meant for me. This path takes me past cars and can involve lane changes and most often means lane-splitting. When it happens, it feels like I'm riding on rails.
+1. to the urban cyclist this is probably the equvalent of cresting a hill and having a lovely vista of a spacious valley open up before you. all is revealed and nothing is hidden.

They bulldozed two of my favorite spots :mad:
1 - a short shaded and cool slighlty windy path thru the woods
2 - factory that smells like new vinyl shower curtains. Yes, actually kinda pleasant and not stinky.

The parts that are left:
1 - downhill in the AM commute - 39-42 MPH for about 1/2 mile, best in 60 degree slightly chilly weather.
2 - going past the family of deer in Valley Forge Park, they are always there
3 - CATS on the MUT (CATS = Cute Athletic Twenty-Somethings), 3 1/2 miles by Kelly Drive (Philly).

Ditto - Wash Park is beautiful, and lined with remodeled old homes lining the streets.

My favorite part is rounding the corners into my neighborhood after leaving my work's sterile office park streets, and getting back home to the tall old trees and old homes, and seeing many more fellow bikers, walkers, runners, stroller joggers, people working on their homes, etc...




I'm going to sound like a broken record. Suprise suprise

Washington Park in Denver is a lovely park with a street running circular through the whole park. One side is for peds and the other for cyclist. Very lovely foliage, lake, grass, etc
Just a nice allaround vibe. However, those are not the real reasons I like it.
It is a mile or two north of Denver University and in a bit of a hip area.
The actual reason is all the beautiful female joggers. Something about a fit woman..... *drools*

Non hormonal would be:
Morning: the set of rolling hills south of my house on an empty 6 lane street. I love hitting 30mph+ on a touring bike
Evening: rolling my bike into the garage.

On the way in, going north on 21st Street. At Q Street, it's the top of a hill (well, a slight rise actually) and it's usually a tailwind in the morning. The speed limit is 30 and I can always keep up with traffic so I take the lane and I love it when I make I contact with a driver and there's the look: "Oh my god, that guy on the bike is going as fast as me!"

Out the gate on the side of my house, rolling down the lawn and off the curb into the street. I almost always do it one-footed and standing, summer or winter. In the spring and fall, I turn the corner and face straight into a beautiful sunrise more often than not.

Near the end of my homeward commute, I have to take the lane on a busy street in preparation for a left turn. At the end of the workday, this street is often filled with impatient motorists trying to escape downtown. That sometimes makes taking the lane and making the turn little worrisome for me. Yet after the turn, I find myself on a shaded residential street lined with 1920s and 30s bungalows, which I enjoy at a slower pace for four blocks or so. That's my favorite part. Especially when the leaves are changing in the fall. And by fall in Savannah I mean two weeks in the middle of December.

It could be a few things on mine. Vermont weather is as strange as the people.
The morning ride in always has wack low floating clouds rolling through the mountains
and these great Maxfield Parrish type sunrises and lots of wild life, from frogs to fox's !

all is revealed and nothing is hidden.
exactly. :)

I like my ride by the bird refuge. There's a pair of ducks always in the same spot each evening, and just a couple of feet from me. They don't get scared when I go by. Hitting the bike path by the bird refuge just after negotiating Coast Village Road and the screwy freeway underpass at Hot Springs, is like finding a quiet oasis in the desert. There's a lake, lots of birds, reeds, flowers that bloom all year, green grass and the bike path is just enough away from the street the noise of traffic is quieted.

Coming down off the mountain, once I hit the lowland - the road gets less bumpy, then it goes from rock to asphalt. I just start building speed. Since most people here have beaters in various stages of repair - I pass everyone with about 8 MPH to spare. Since I have white hair, I definitely get the double takes.

Up to that point, it has been more of a technical ride than an effort (the effort is the return) - but once I get on the pavement, I crank it up for the last section. Since it is inside a small town, no cars try to pass me since I am going faster than the trucks usually.

Mine is riding by the ship canal on the Burke Gilman trail in the morning. That's right about the point my coffee kicks in.

Passing a string of cars caught by a light or a traffic problem. I nailed over 300 cars once on the 101 north of Novato including a CHP. I waved at him and he waved back when he finally caught up a few miles later. He even checked his rear view to see how I responded. Good people.

on friday's, there is a well known pizza joint that has a person in a gorilla suit by the corner I always take at a decent speed. I put my hand up once and got a high five... now, every friday I go by there... I get a high five. don't have a clue who's in the suit, I just think it's kinda funny. i know, it's weird...

on friday's, there is a well known pizza joint that has a person in a gorilla suit by the corner I always take at a decent speed. I put my hand up once and got a high five... now, every friday I go by there... I get a high five. don't have a clue who's in the suit, I just think it's kinda funny. i know, it's weird...
that is so sweet. we should hook up your gorilla and my bubble guy...a hi five from a gorilla while surrounded by bubbles would be the best ever.

The really busy stretch on Bundall Road, where I get to pass hundreds (sometimes thousands) of gridlocked cars.

My commute isn't among my more exciting rides.

My favorite part of the commute is leaving my driveway and the entire next hour or so. Just being able to get on my bike and ride every morning is the best.

The ride home doesn't qualify so much because of the current central Texas summertime heat, but it still beats Austin traffic.

At the end of the day, there always seems to be a tailwind down Bergen St as I make my way to Smith from Utica (my tail stretch) as I've reached amazing speeds nearly effortlessly, sometimes uninterrupted by red lights. When I fly through Flatbush/5th/4th/3rd without hindrance, all traffic related resentments are left behind.

I have the bubble guys on Canal St after the Manhattan Bridge.

My favorite part probably both ways is the part of the MUP, south of 14th down to Canal. I always get into a good rhythm.

Worst part would be Canal during Friday PM rush hour during the summer. Talk about riding through a parking lot.

sounds kinda mean but i really enjoy drinkin' my coffee after i've ridden 9 or 10 miles and seein' all the overweight folks gettin' their morning feed.:eek: :D

there's also lot's o' fine lookin' babes too.:) :)

and tailwinds are the jam!:beer:

Ditto - Wash Park is beautiful, and lined with remodeled old homes lining the streets.

My favorite part is rounding the corners into my neighborhood after leaving my work's sterile office park streets, and getting back home to the tall old trees and old homes, and seeing many more fellow bikers, walkers, runners, stroller joggers, people working on their homes, etc...


I have to agree... I love doing a few laps then actually look forward to my uphill ride home. East up Mississippi to Colorado. Im so lucky to live so centrally to trails that I can take literally ALL over the metro area.

On my ride to work? Flying down the big hill after running out of gears.
On the way home? Cresting that hill and remembering to thank it.

A 3 mile strech of paved mutliuse pathway with no cars and lots of flora and fauna :)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y275/LilSprocket/DSCN02492.jpg