Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.thirdin77
11-07-08, 05:29 PM
This is cross-posted from A&S because I wanted some SJ people, esp some East Siders, to chime in.
Here's a satellite image. (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=37.316421,-121.834559&daddr=tully+and+alvin,+san+jose+ca&hl=en&geocode=&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=16&sll=37.317701,-121.830976&sspn=0.006911,0.013819&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=37.318383,-121.830311&spn=0.006911,0.013819&z=16)
Background- I'm on a stiff road bike and am wearing road shoes with external cleats so walking is slippery an awkward.
I'm traveling from west to east so I have the wind at my back. This overpass often gets congested so traffic often is slowed to a crawl but when released by the nearest stoplight, will resume its speed of roughly 35mph. It's stop & go.
This overpass has no shoulder or bike lane so that my options as I understand them are:
(1) get on the sidewalk and use the crosswalks to traverse the fast-moving entering and exiting HW101. Possible but slippery and akward in road shoes with large external cleats.
(2) merge from the expiring shoulder into the (far right) entrance/exit lane and ride that over the overpass until the shoulder resumes
(3) take the middle lane to avoid the entering/exiting traffic in the right hand lane but risk greater exposure to faster (35mph-) traffic.
What I did today-
approached the overpass and saw that traffic was congested and slow-moving. I was confidend and merged from the expiring shoulder to the right hand entrance/exit lane. Then there was an opening in the middle lane so I merged into it, only to run out of gear- I think I was in my 39x12- and probably impede the people behind as I had one or two cars on my right pass me. At that point, mercifully, the shoulder resumed and I jumped into it. And out of the middle of the road. This all happened at about 2:30 so visibility was good.
I have very mixed feelings about what I did. I know that confidence and assertiveness are important but I don't want to impede traffic or be seen as reckless or, perhaps, just stupid in what I am doing. That part of the city tends to be lower income which means that road cycling is not part of the culture and I think people tolerate me there because they're just too surprised to react with anything but caution and accommodation.
Give me your thoughts. Should I just start using the sidewalk from now on?
Here's a satellite image. (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=37.316421,-121.834559&daddr=tully+and+alvin,+san+jose+ca&hl=en&geocode=&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=16&sll=37.317701,-121.830976&sspn=0.006911,0.013819&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=37.318383,-121.830311&spn=0.006911,0.013819&z=16)
Background- I'm on a stiff road bike and am wearing road shoes with external cleats so walking is slippery an awkward.
I'm traveling from west to east so I have the wind at my back. This overpass often gets congested so traffic often is slowed to a crawl but when released by the nearest stoplight, will resume its speed of roughly 35mph. It's stop & go.
This overpass has no shoulder or bike lane so that my options as I understand them are:
(1) get on the sidewalk and use the crosswalks to traverse the fast-moving entering and exiting HW101. Possible but slippery and akward in road shoes with large external cleats.
(2) merge from the expiring shoulder into the (far right) entrance/exit lane and ride that over the overpass until the shoulder resumes
(3) take the middle lane to avoid the entering/exiting traffic in the right hand lane but risk greater exposure to faster (35mph-) traffic.
What I did today-
approached the overpass and saw that traffic was congested and slow-moving. I was confidend and merged from the expiring shoulder to the right hand entrance/exit lane. Then there was an opening in the middle lane so I merged into it, only to run out of gear- I think I was in my 39x12- and probably impede the people behind as I had one or two cars on my right pass me. At that point, mercifully, the shoulder resumed and I jumped into it. And out of the middle of the road. This all happened at about 2:30 so visibility was good.
I have very mixed feelings about what I did. I know that confidence and assertiveness are important but I don't want to impede traffic or be seen as reckless or, perhaps, just stupid in what I am doing. That part of the city tends to be lower income which means that road cycling is not part of the culture and I think people tolerate me there because they're just too surprised to react with anything but caution and accommodation.
Give me your thoughts. Should I just start using the sidewalk from now on?