Good stuff folks...thanks...and I'm very open minded to listening to the more experienced than I here (and that's probably about everyone) and willing to take the good with the bad as it all has it's place and value for me at the moment...so keep it coming and thanks!
qcpmsame...in hindsight?...I think you're right (about me not having a problem "making it") rendering the first two reasons I mentioned (that came to mind) as "excuses"...as I do still have a tendency to make those sometimes LOL!...but that 3rd one there?....is a serious matter of concern for me...maybe it'll take a few times of "Just Doing It" before I become comfortable enough to get some confidence....in my safety skills.
Originally Posted by
RonH
I'm a former Atlanta bike commuter (now retired) and have a question. Is your bike commute route that same as the car commute route?
Many new bike commuters ride the same route they drive never looking at an alternate route that may be a few blocks off the beaten path that may go thru quiet neighborhoods and on less travelled roads.
Ron...no..my "Drive Route" is 10 miles...but includes a stretch on an interstate...I-95...which I have to navigate around...and none of that is an issue...matter fact?...it takes me through a very plush...well lit...upscale PGA golf community...but stretches it out to 11 miles as my "Ride Route"....the "FEAR" I have is not getting out of the suburban ghetto section I live in at the wee hours when most are still in bed...(and it didn't used to be that way...but I've been here since '89 and it's changed...a lot)....it's the getting back in (that last two lane 2 miles) when all the undesirable types are squirting around in their boom boom ricers...along with migrant workers in construction trucks...it gets pretty insane....and I guess it didn't help that this past wedneday evening I attended my grandsons soccer game only to witness a Trauma-Hawk helicopter NOT arrive in time for a bicyclist that got hammered on the far end of the field (at dusk) and was DATS...a few miles from my home....I guess that thought was still lingering in my mind and influenced my decision as well.