Beautiful fall weather here in New Orleans. I commute a couple of times a week from "uptown", about 2.5 miles to downtown and a free bike rack in a nice parking garage next to my office bldg which is near the Dome, at Loyola and Poydras Sts.

This is a flat town with streets ranging from God-awful been patched up for years now, to pretty nice, recently paved. Lots of traffic on the main scenic uptown drag, St Charles Ave, which is my main route. So it's a good place for an "English 3-speed".

My bike is a '62 Phillips, believe it or not I'm the original owner, got it new from Dad at age 13 (Dad had broken the frame on my old "middleweight" Columbia in a crash which has an interesting story I'll refrain from telling for now and fortunately left him uninjured) and nobody ever stole it (knock wood) so I have cleaned it up a little, some new bearings, and it's now "vintage", how 'bout that? Anyway, it's a good commuter and brings back good memories when I ride it once more.

We are getting lots of new "paintbrush" bike lanes here, not always without an argument as you'll see here:
Baronne Street bike lane cleared to move forward; judge rules against businesses | NOLA.com
Baronne is one of my possible routes home, as it the expressway crossing/bridge I pass under. I thought the good judge was going to cave to the complaining businesses, but not so, she denied a permanent injunction.

Downtown and uptown have a LOT of new construction and massive drainage repairs that strangle some of the major streets and will for at least another 3-4 years. In a car it's a pain. In a bike it's sometimes dicey getting around all that stuff, but makes bike commuting make much more sense than it might with "perfect" and unobstructed streets.

Anyway, best to all you commuters. I'm heading home now on this faithful old bike, it's really dark but I got a new LED headlight, one of the few "modern" things on it. The old DynoHub still works, but like any generator, is dim when you go slow.