Discuss the Ups and Downs of Your Commute
 

This has probably been done before. But, what the hell? Perhaps we can have some fun by adding a twist, or sharing a specific story or just writing something others find interesting. At the very least, I can relive a piece of my ride while I kill a few minutes of the eight hours I spend here between commutes.

My commute is basically a 50-mile loop. I have a morning route and a different one for the ride home. The morning route is shorter, runs primarily downhill and is much faster than the afternoon run. However, the afternoon route is almost exclusively on a recreational trail running through forest and near homes with vast wooded lots. It is quite serene. The morning ride is a 50% mix of road and commuter trail. The trail runs parallel to several busy roads and swings around a large Air Force Base before dumping me out onto a four-lane highway.

Both routes are fun to ride at their given times. The commuter route does well to wind me up for work. It's 20 fast paced miles, especially as I get closer to the city. Pedaling that route definitely lets me know I am heading to work. My ride home is the exact opposite. With the exception of a few cross roads, once I get out of the city, the bulk of my 30-mile ride home feels like I am on a camping vacation.

Not to be a spoiler, but FYA, earlier this year I started a thread, ”Describe your Commute” with a template of the various aspect of the commute

So, BvT, that's an exceedingly long route. How often, and what city if I may ask?

I recall a recent post by you on a thread about urban commuting; the picture was quite serene.

Ups and downs? The numerous hills go up and down on my commute. :P

Up: 80% of my commute from home has a bike lane
Down: The road from my subdivision sucks big time

Up: My route is fairly straightforward
Down: There isn't a good way to add on an extra 5-10 miles without going completely out of my way. At most I can do a mile or two.

Up: I get to ride a bike!
Down: I have to wait 8 hours to get back on it

My 10.5mi commute starts in a very rural setting, down a dirt road. I say, "Hello, beef!" to the cows and steers in the fields, very often see other wildlife like deer, and too many squirrels and chipmunks to count. Veers onto US Rt-1, past some outlet malls, perhaps the most unpleasant part of the commute... and it's not even that bad, with less than a mile total of no shoulders, 2-lane road.

I cross the ME/NH border at the Memorial Bridge between Kittery and Portsmouth -- love the fresh ocean smells, the coolness of being that close to the water. The new drawbridge is fast, so even if I'm trying to make time and get caught with the bridge up, it usually doesn't delay for long. Portsmouth is a quaint town and the roads are kind of chewed up, but easy enough to get through and not he biggest part of the commute,

Out the other side, where I cut through some secluded neighborhoods and a wooded path to get to the bus station.

Bus to Newburport MA.

3 mi from the bus station to work on a lockup bike I keep there. Again, fairly rural by most standards and Newburyport is another quaint New England town.

I could complain about parts of the commute, but it would ring shallow, especially compared to the urban route I used to do from Malden, through Cambridge, into the south end of Boston. The only real issue is getting 5 mi from a meeting in Kittery to the bus out of Portsmouth within a half hour window -- if the meeting runs long, and/or I get caught by the bridge, I will be an hour late to work. ...and it's not the kind of job where that's really even an issue as long as it doesn't happen on a regular basis.

I also juggled my work hours to accommodate bike-bus-bike commuting. I'm going to call it mostly Up with very little Down to my commute route. Until we get weather. Snow and ice suck.

I'm going to go ahead and say that 100% of my 31 mile round trip commute has NO bike lanes, which to me is an UP. No dangerous edge facilities to deal with, or the harassment that comes with not using such edge facilities when they exist.

Also I'm the ONLY person I ever see on a bike during that whole commute. I think that's a good thing, also, as I don't have to deal with unsafe practices by other cyclists, and the associated harassment from motorists who think I should do what the other cyclists do (ride in the gutter), or who may think I do what other scofflaws may do (ride against traffic, blow red lights etc.).

Woah. Here's a shot of the Memorial Bridge from last night:

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...d2&oe=56444F79

Here's what it looks like from another angle during a commute where I got stuck while the bridge was up:
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...8&d=1436835421

...compared to the condition and construction of the bridge before it got replaced:
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...9&d=1364670304

Sorry, but this is THE Memorial Bridge. Your pictures are of just some random Memorial Bridge.

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...utSdIcLEqKRLhq

I live in SW Ohio, commute into Dayton. That picture is a bridge crossing the Little Miami River. The location is a little less than 10 miles from the house.

I ride in about 4 days a week, weather permitting.

The Ups of my commute: the downhills.
The Downs of my commute: the uphills.

That would be The Arlington Memorial Bridge...

The Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth pre-dates that one, and memorializes those who died in WWI. Your characterization of the bridge in Portsmouth as "just some random Memorial Bridge" could very well be construed as disrespectful of those to whom it was dedicated...

1990 it was up to 12 miles, now its down to less than 1, or 5 to go on a food run ..

I've moved many times in-between .

Dang, you're right. The Arlington Memorial Bridge is newer since it was caught up in political battles in DC. Sound familiar? Anyway, no offense was intended with regard to the Portsmouth Memorial Bridge. Do you know how many "memorial" bridges there are in the U.S.? I would guess in the thousands.

Ups: no one ruins my ride in.
Downs: someone ruins my ride in.

Ups: Riding a familiar route every day
Downs: Riding the same damned route every day.

Mine is pretty flat. Even my hilly route is flat by most standards. (I can climb the "steeps" in my 39/23.) No ups or downs really to speak of.










;)

Up: Dragging myself up out of bed at 5:30 AM to go ride

Down: Laying myself down to sleep by 10:30 so I can get up at 5:30 to ride.

One of my favorite parts of the commute is leaving the village in the early morning and riding through the greenbelt on a nice quiet country road for 5 or 6 miles before I hit the first subdivision. This stretch has a nice two-stage, 2-mile long downhill that kicks in at almost exactly the halfway point. I've learned to work this hill into my training, taking advantage of the upcoming respite by pushing myself hard into that first decline, and coasting for a minute as the bike glides down the hill. I repeat the process for the second stage which is about a half mile further ahead.

The only drawback with this stretch are the crossings, feeder roads and driveways coming in at right angles to me. There are about a half dozen of them, and at any one, a car can come flying up to the stop sign at any time. There is never a guarantee that the driver sees me.

In those areas I would be as far left in the lane as possible, which makes you much more conspicuous to those approaching stop signs from the side.

Same here, except I occasionally see another cyclist. (but more often not)

I know others disagree, but I actually think it's safer this way. I stick out like a sore thumb and do not go unnoticed!

I do have to get out of bed at 4:30 AM but that's not much of a down once I got used to it. Riding the streets of suburban Los Angeles (Whittier, La Mirada, Santa Fe Springs, Norwalk) is a down since there are no bike lanes or MUP trails I can take.

The Up is that I have mostly adequate room, riding AFRAP and the truck drivers give me plenty of room and/or warning. Other cycling commuters are a non-issue since the vast majority either ride on the sidewalks, are salmon or both.

I ride the Metro train from Norwalk into Los Angeles and that's usually neutral, neither up nor down. Or . . . up when there's plenty of room, down when it's crowded. The other UP about the train is it gets me over (instead of in) bad neighborhoods like Compton and Watts. And, it's only .75 each way with my senior TAP (Transit Access Pass) card.

Two big ups are that my commutes (Mon./Wed./Fri.) are easy recovery rides after my training and endurance rides on other days and the 2nd big up is that it keeps mo out of my car, which would be going 15 mph on L.A.'s lovely over-crowded freeways.

Oh, another down is that the "scenery" is not scenic at all and overall a fairly ugly ride. No wonder I head for the mountains on the weekends!

Rick / OCRR

My commute is pretty tame. From my neighborhood I am on a relatively lightly traveled rural road for the first 6 miles. Fields, a few houses, some ponies and two horses. Then I cut through a developed neighborhood with bigger homes lining a golf course. Here I'll see joggers and dog walkers and the occasional recreational cyclist, but only in the warmer months. There is a bike lane through here, but it can often be blocked by wheeled trash bins or yard waste. Then I repeat with another rural road, eventually crossing a busier highway and through another neighborhood.

I have both ups and downs, and also some flats. But I have not had a flat in about a year.

the down: 3 mile stretch of on/off shouldered road to get over a freeway (on a 17 mile one way ride)
the up: the old guy sitting on his porch who waves at me when i pedal by. he looks like an old Mississippi blues man. i need to stop one day soon and ask if he needs a hand cleaning his gutters.

my commute is 15 miles roundtrip. the ups: fairly steady downhill all the way in the morning, and Denver has a great bike infrastructure. there's a "grid" of bike routes that all use low traffic side streets with minimal stops, so it's mostly all houses and dog walkers.

the downs: home commute is seven and a half miles of steady up hill. 300ft gain doesn't sound like a lot, but still being new to commuting and after working construction for eight hours i'm pretty beat.

it's great when i can talk myself into it, the exhaustion and accomplishment and all. but i usually just do the beginning half of the route before the hills, then catch the light-rail for two stops. then a quick flat jaunt home.

Salmon guts on the ARBT... I've said this before and probably will again.