I was rather slow coming in due to a strong headwind, but had a great commute nevertheless! First of all, it didn't rain as the forecast warned me it might. So the coolth of the morning didn't bother me at all and, in fact, was actually very pleasant. And of course "early morning" = "few cars".

When I reached about the halfway point of my commute I got passed by another bike commuter. He wasn't going that much faster than I, so we had time to exchange "good morning"s as he overtook me. I must say I was surprised - I do get passed by roadies all the time but I say I move at a decent clip for a Toronto commuter. And this guy didn't even have clips and straps on his pedals and his bike looked like a 30-year-old ten-speed with flat handlebars... definitely not a roadie type. So I followed the guy fairly closely - not actually drafting, but not letting him drop me either. As we came to a long red light, we chatted a bit and then continued to chat as we rode abreast for the next couple of kilometers along a fairly quiet road. It turns out he commutes for about 10 km each way, and rides through the winter too! I told him I intend to keep riding this winter. Such a conversation never happened to me before on my commute and it sure was nice.

Then, as I arrived at the university, I met a fellow graduate student who gave me an amazed look and said that riding a bike to school was, in her opinion, "awesome". She asked me how far I ride and how long it takes and was surprised to learn that I am about as fast as public transit. She said she takes subway + bus to the university every day but really likes the idea of biking. She actually doesn't live so far from me, as I found out, so I suggested that she takes up bike-commuting and she and I ride together one day. She said, quite reasonably, that she is probably not ready to start commuting given the seasons, but that she'll definitely consider it in the spring. Hey, perhaps another commuter will join our ranks thanks to me! That would be really great!

Anyway, sorry for the slightly lengthy post, but I just loved the experiences so wanted to blab about them for a while.