Worst part of your commute?
 

There's always a worst part. It could range between that short spin through an open sewer to that long stretch of slightly less pretty woodland, but there's always a worst part.

What's yours?

For me, the worst part, if I had to be picky, is the sea breeze effect. Coming to work is a head-wind, usually dead on. Leaving work is also a head-wind, usually dead on. In fact, in general it's a head wind, even when I do a complete 180. I live in a cyclone.

M.

the worst part of my commute is arriving at work.

not because i hate my job or anything, but because it means that bicycle time is over.

Lol, +1 for the "arriving at work"...

Other than that, I think the worst part is trying to figure out if it's going to rain on my way back. When I wake up and it's really nice outside, but the weather report says it's going to be driving rain on my way home...lately here in Minnesota they've been predicting rain every day this week to. It's driving me nuts.

As for my actual route - my least favorite thing is probably sitting at stoplights. I have 2 choices - go 50% further, but stay on the greenway and official bike trails with very few stops on the route, or go the direct route with more lights, busy 4 lane intersections, but it's something like 11 miles vs 17 miles.

this is an easy question.

a flat 1.7km stretch along sheppard ave east, westbound from markham rd to mccowan rd in scarbourgh[east toronto], ontario. on strava it is called 'IEDs'. the potholes curbside are so big and deep you would be lucky to get away with just a bent wheel and flat. when taking it quickly you need to shoulder check if you have room or not and decide if you want to hit the middle of the right lane or bunnyhop. i am proudly the KOM of this section with a time of 3:03[avg speed 32.9kmh]. task was completed on my felt breed singlespeed cyclocross 42/16 wearing a knapsack and i def almost died doing it. sometimes they do a quick patch on a few of them but it usually doesnt last and the bits of asphalt they used just become new obstacles. the reason the road is so bad is because the TTC bus depot is right there and bus traffic is heavy. construction would infringe or the bus operations so i guess they just leave it alone and 'bandaid' spots that get too dangerous for cars.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...ps90028fc1.png

Why not use Nugget Ave? Is it worse?

M.

Longboarders. Longboarding just got popular here in the past year or so, and it seems as if the new participants are either too high or too stupid to pay attention to their surroundings. It would be one thing if they could stay in one of the marked lanes but they insist on swerving back and forth across the whole path or roadway, unpredictably, and they're always listening to way-too-loud music with earbuds so it's impossible to get their attention until you're right up upon them...

I'm tempted to start blasting them with an air-horn as I carefully pass, but that would be too mean for my blood.

if i did small detours around every bad part of my commute i would end up adding another 10km each way. while logic says 'take nugget', the fact that 'the shortest distance between two points is a straight line' wins when im already moving in that direction at +30kmh.

nugget is an industrial park. i've never ridden my bike there but i imagine the road conditions are probably not much better.

For me, while going home, it's the last 2 miles. The whole ride is up hill but the last 2 miles are the worst. It goes from a low and steady climb to a 6% climb. I climb it easily when I just go out for a normal ride. After 10 hours of work and 9 miles of riding home, that last 2 miles can be hell. My total ride is 11 miles. I still love that ride.

:thumb: The mood definitely sours when you lock up. I like my job but sitting in a cubicle does not compare with riding a bike/

Yup -- getting off the bike at work. It IS about the ride being over for the time being, but it's also has to do with the job. The WORK, I don't mind so much, but who I do it for IRKS me.

I have an 800 foot climb between my office and home. In the morning it's great. In the afternoon it's a different story.

Here I thought I was going to be original by saying getting to work...but then again unlike the others with similar posts, I don't like my job. Thankfully my ride home really helps to sooth the nerves .

I've got a sizable hill in the middle of my route to go up and then back down, then a traffic circle to maneuver around. I ride on PCH in Long Beach, CA so the traffic is pretty sketchy. Also, there are a couple areas I ride through that have parks adjacent to the road...skunk road kill unfortunately is not a rarity. I almost ran over one today while I was trying to enjoy the ride. It was right in the middle of the bike lane, now I get to look forward to that for the next few weeks... Jeeze, now that I think about it, my commute is actually a little depressing, lol.

Are you seriously complaining about a sea breeze?

Yep! Worst part. Makes it a headwind each way.

M.

any part that includes rain or a head wind!

My personal slice of hell is the left from Burke onto Carling

So I use the pathway, which is an excellent way to bike commute, the paths are generally well paved and don't crack up from the snow, ice and salt. Problem is that Burke is this tiny little street, and Carling is a 80km/h road.

Biking on Carling is fine, I guess, until you note that just east of that intersection, there's train crossing. Carling goes underneath the tracks, but it's a narrow stretch, with roughed up pavement (even in a car). So either you have to figure out how to take that left, or bike on Carling with a lot less scenary, and scrunch up onto the road way with no shoulder to get through the train-track underpass.

There are no terrible parts to my commute. One segment that follows a river is pretty exposed and the wind has been 20+mph recently in the morning. I'd rather deal with hills than headwind, but neither are avoidable, so it is what is is. On the other hand, I get a nice tailwind through that section on the ride home, so it's even-steven

The fact that 80% of my ride (both ways) is canted toward, or directly into the S/SE 20+ headwinds that come in off the Gulf Coast here.

I can be cranking along at 21-25MPH and then that first turn into the wind I'm down to 13 and spinning like a crazed man.

You know, I think I manage like 8MPH. I suck.

M.

Worst part of my current commute is that it is too short!

+1

My worst stretch, coming and going. The direction indicated is coming home in the afternoon.
I make a right turn from the bike lane on Sawyer Brown onto Old Harding for this stretch.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=751...ra=ls&t=m&z=15

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=320465


(unobserved) 40mph speed limit and driver's with the attitude of 'you shouldn't be there'.
I love riding downtown. Here; not so much.



SIDEBAR: The photo below shows the traffic lights at Morton's Mill (midway on the route above) halfway submerged in the Nashville Flood of 2010.
For reference: The camera position would be ahead of the van in the top photo, just beyond that bend in the road.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=320470

Brick roads and crossing 4 lane roads where the traffic hardly seems to leave an opening for you to cross.

Getting ticketed by the sheriff, mostly for being alone on the road home and they are bored
and see a law statute applying to all of life, they just need to throw enough at you for one to stick.

There are two spots, which pass under railroad tracks. The sections are always coated in gravel/grit/sand, and both are the bottom of a hill, where I'm cruising at about 20MPH, only having to slow way down at the bottom to keep from waxing the street with my cheek. After than, it's a climb from a near stand still.

uphill right hand blind turn, where cars insist on riding the shoulder, because it's the Monaco GP and all.

i'm only on it for about 30 seconds, but that's where i've had the most close calls. once got clipped by a "trailer mirror" on a pickup truck. nice bruise on my shoulder.

and people wonder why my messenger bag is neon yellow with orange trim and reflective tape, and why i have the most annoying blinking tail light possible.

Ditto Steely Dan - arriving at work.

I'm an old Mountain Biker so riding in rain, sleet, snow is a fun challenge for me. Grinning ear to ear through most of it.

Seriously...sometimes I "lose the joy" of riding and it gets to be old so I find a new route, set a new challenge, buy a new shiny bit of bling for the steed and it all gets better again.

Same here. Longboarders, stand-up paddleboards, if there's a morning swell the parallel parking along the beach is full of people swinging boards across the bike lane.