JPprivate

So the blizzard put a hard stop on my commute. Yesterday pretty much everybody stayed home,today there was some traffic, not much. The 20+ inches of new snow were piled up on the side. Most streets were reduced to a narrow lane. I did ride back home around 3pm on Tuesday, but the winds had already picked up with some 35mph gusts.

No melting in sight, not sure when I start up again. I haven't been driving to work for more than two days in a row since I starting biking to work.

https://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....r-cyclist.html

How did everybody else do in these conditions?

Steely Dan

i didn't ride on tuesday because the afternoon forcast said it was going to be insane along the lakefront (i'm a lakefront bike path commuter from downtown up to evanston and back), so i just took the train. yesterday my office was closed, so i didn't even leave my building. today i rode the train again because i don't know if the park district has gotten around to plowing the lakefront trail yet. i wish there was an online resource to check whether or not the park district has ploweed the trail, because if its not plowed, then i have an AWFULLY long, traffic-light-ridden ride all the way up clark street to evanston.

SurlyLaika

I saw some pictures online yesterday. Holy s*%# I do not envy those of you on the east coast.

JPprivate

Actually, you may know about this. But they haven't updated it yet.
Also posted a question about the Lakefront path here.

Steely Dan

this blizzard actually savaged the midwest much worse than the east coast, though the east coast has taken it's fair share of pounding this winter as well.



thanks for that link. i did not know about that. bookmarked!

nelson249

Us folks downwind from Chicago were supposed to get nailed by the mother of blizzards. All we got was a paltry 6 inches despite the best efforts of the local media to scare us all to death. Fortunately my workplace's management panicked and declared a snow day. So I went out cycling and met a friend at my favourite cafe.

Steely Dan

^ the storm actually lived up to the hype here in chicago. we got 20.2" out at ohare, making it, officially, the 3rd biggest blizzard in chicago history, although ohare is ~13 miles inland and neighborhoods closer to the lake saw several more inches than the official recorded amount due to lake effect snow.

dedhed

I got to spend from 3AM to 8PM in either a plow truck or skidsteer. I did look at my bike.

no1mad 

We had a record breaking system hit us Mon/Tue. Shut down TIA until noon on Wed., MTTA called it quits around 3 on Tue., and resumed "limited" service today. Work was closed the last two days, and only half of us managed to make it in today. Bunch of on/off ramps to various highways were closed due to semi's were stuck or just blocking them...

Of course, my LBS was running a tune-up special, and I had to drop my bike off last Sunday. That shop has been closed since Monday- the n+1 is really starting to make a strong argument for itself.

JPprivate

Yes, and unlike the east coast, we don't see any above freezing temperatures anytime soon. Single digits and MORE SNOW in the forecast...

unterhausen

I feel like there is a bubble over us here in Happy Valley. We got rain, and lots of ice, but in the end it was a non-event.

AlmostTrick

It sure did. My company cancelled second shift Tuesday, and first shift Wednesday. My wife's company did the same... both were for the first time ever. It took us more than two hours to shovel ourselves out. Since I didn't have to go to work I pedaled around the neighborhood just to marvel at the narrowed roads, tall mountains of piled up snow, and talked with people. It was pretty exciting actually.

SurlyLaika

hmm, thanks for the correction. i guess i overgeneralized, but I consider anything east of the rockies as the east.

Steely Dan

it's all a matter of perspective, but we midwesterners do not associate with the notion that we are "east coast" at all. it'd be kinda like a brit calling someone from alabama a "yankee". to brits, all americans are "yankees", but people down in dixie certainly don't associate themselves with that term

no motor?

Nice article. I looked at the time off as kind of an adventure/day to get started on bottom bracket maintenance, unlike some of my neighbors who seemed to be upset with the ideaof having to stay home instead of going to work.

no1mad 

I left for work this morning with a 20% chance of snow, with little to no new accumulation... 4" later, with now another 2" predicted, I'm finally home.

Rob Glatfelter

This was when I was waiting for the train, only to be told it was delayed over an hour due to the snow, this was...what, Wednesday morning? During the blizzard still, at about 9AM.
I hadn't taken the train yet this year and I figured that was a sign that I was dumb to think of trying it that day, so I got down off the platform and rode.

The train was delayed over an hour, I was late for work about 5 minutes, which is about what I spent standing on the platform before they announced the train would take that long.

nashcommguy

When I first starting cycle-commuting it was in Chicago in 1987. February, as I recall. By bus it took me 1.5 hrs to go from Peterson/Western to Rand McNally in Skokie via a transfer @ Howard St.

One day I saw a guy go by riding a bike w/a full beard. Cigarette dangling out of his mouth and he was SMILING. I'm on a warm, crowded bus, miserable and this guy is out in minus 5 degree weather on a bike and having a good time. A light went off in my head. That weekend I helped some friends move and there was an old road bike w/cobwebs all over it in the corner of the basement. They gave it to me, I cleaned it up and have been commuting ever since.

There wasn't anything like studded bicycle tires...or at least I didn't know about them. Anyway, I slid all over the place and fell dozens of times that first winter on those skinny tires, but changed my life in the meantime. I miss and love Chicago. Cycle-commuting gave me a whole different perspective on the urban landscape.

I could do a whole blog on all my first 'thriftstore weather gear'. Including 'dishwashing rubber gloves'.

SurlyLaika

you should start some sort of blog. your post was pretty entertaining. i'd read.