Originally Posted by
WalksOn2Wheels
The speed limit is only 40 miles per hour, yet just before this stretch (where I turn right onto the road) is a school zone that gets clogged up with parents dropping their kids off which means that the instant they leave the school zone, they and anyone else who got caught in the traffic must approach light speed in order to arrive to wherever they must so desperately be. As a result, this is where I receive about 80% of my close calls/buzzes/honks/rude words of discouragement on my route. I absolutely, positively hate it.
That sounds pretty miserable. Makes me feel lucky that all of my hill climbs involve separated paths or neighborhood roads with low speed limits.
I'm blessed that for about 50% of the school year, I get to ride on 7 miles of uninterrupted MUP all the way to school, with only about half a mile of low speed neighborhood roads between my home and the path. But they groom the path for skate skiing in the winter, and I think that it's inconsiderate for cyclists to ride the path when the snow is soft, leaving miles of ruts and furrows, so half of the time I'm shunted out onto the alternate street/sidepath route.
The street section (Fireweed Ave to Latouche St to the sidepath north of 36th) isn't terrible, beyond the harrowing thought of sharing an icy road with motorists, trusting that they'll be able to stop in time whenever we all pull up to a stop light. But after being spoiled on the MUP, where I'm the second largest beast out there (after the moose) and the burden is upon me to make sure that I don't run anyone over, it's kind of a scary jolt to go back into the road where everything is larger than me. It feels like dropping back to the bottom of the food chain. And unlike the rest of the streets I tend to travel on in this town, Fireweed is one place that I
will hold up traffic, and that I
will get honked at and be passed too closely. Still beats riding the bus, though.