I get this every commute: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.2560...7i13312!8i6656

They added the center turn lane for the dairy there, but didn't widen the actual road, so both sides of this 75mph highway go from >6ft shoulder to <18in for a couple hundred yards. Southbound is built up 3-4 inches above the ground, too so there's a nice dropoff at the edge. Traffic is heavy enough that there's no way to wait for a break long enough to hammer through, either, though for the most part drivers just use the ridiculous turn lane to pass, giving me at least 6-8 feet of clearance.

*Shrug*

I race. I commute. More often than not, I ride my race bike to work because it's time-efficient for me to combine training and commuting.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18...psww9wyh6w.jpg

But that's what works for me. It doesn't work for everyone, and that's okay.

I do hope that is a private bike lock area with very limited access. With a bike like that I wouldn't want it anywhere with public access.

Unless he's got his name on it somewhere, nobody will know whose it is to go make fun of him.

Lots of people in the commuting forum have expensive road bikes, some of whom do ride them to work, and some ride more practical machines with attachments and accessories that make it more commuter friendly. So what?

I don't really know what this thread is about, I'm just trying to pad my post count.:D

Ha. :lol: You say that with tongue in cheek, of course, but how hard would it be for a bike thief to nick that?

If they came equipped to deal with the U-lock, not very hard, but there are easier, and more easily marketable targets in the rack.

It's in a keycard access cage inside a keycard access garage inside a keycard access building. And most likely a bike thief would swipe the Rock Hopper next to it first.

I'd bring a trailer and load the whole rack. I could mess with the various locking devices when I got home.

If I see clearly you use a quite interesting locking technique. That way you keep safe the rear wheel and the frame. You can do that if you lock the vertical tube along withn the wheel but only if you have a very spacious u-lock. A similar technique that locks only the rear wheel is employed by Sheldon, but for some reason I am not convinced:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html

Bytheway, with this kind of rack, how can you lock the frame and not only a wheel (if the bike is not at the start or end of the rack)?

You can't. It's a terrible old fashioned wheelbender style rack. We have complained, but the building hasn't replaced it with anything modern. Still, it's a pretty safe spot. As I mentioned above, it's in a keycard access cage inside a keycard access garage inside a keycard access building. It's not accessible to the public and most tenants probably don't even know where it is in the garage. Nor could you get a trailer past the gate, much less into the bike cage, at least not without heavy equipment.

I see. It's strange though how these poorly designed wheelbender racks have flooded the world.

I'm not fast.. and spend a lot of time on the bike. I just spent all day doing a "commute" that would have taken 2 hours in a car.

But there are exceptions to the "a lot faster" rule. In particular, there are certain places with downtown traffic (and parking) where a bike can beat a car. But, only if you don't count the commute from the suburbs.

Or for a short commute, perhaps a plus or minus a couple of minutes doesn't make any difference.

It is also not uncommon for a bike to beat public transportation, especially when factoring in a few minutes of waiting at the bus stop, or walking to and from bus stops.

Agreed, pretty much on all points.

Depending specific circumstances to say “A bike can be as fast” is fine, so long as you only ride in those specific circumstances.

I found that in day-to-day commuting, going everywhere I needed to, I was one-third as quick as a car.

In dense downtown traffic I could sometimes keep up from light to light—but flying through downtown streets, where a pedestrian could come out between two cars or someone could fling a car door open ....

I had a car stop short in front of me once. I did a complete endo—bounced off her bumper, went over the bars in a cartwheel, landed on my back with the bike on top of me. I guess the driver thought she saw a parking spot.

Not her fault that I was right on her bumper and flying .... but that’s the reality of trying to keep up with traffic in a packed urban environment. You have no time to react. Safer, in general, to be a little slower sometimes.

In an utterly urban environment—the heart of downtown—parking is much easier for a bike. Of course, theft is also much easier for the thieves. But that can be counted towards time saved.

However, on any route which only passed through downtown, or skirted it .... I found three-to-one to be a reliable ratio for calculating riding time if I needed to get somewhere on schedule.

All this is based on fifteen years of commuting in Orlando and the greater Orlando area (neighboring few cities.) These are only my own experiences—there was no control group, no second data source, no comparison. Totally unscientific. But I learned to ride and survive and get around pretty quickly on a bike in an urban environment, and these are some of the things I learned.

I also learned that just about every driver looked tense or angry ... while I was pretty much always thrilled, because I was riding my bike.

In my experience, most of those bikers who say they can make better time on a bike in urban traffic are the ones who cut lanes, run red lights, have no worries about riding against traffic, and switch freely between sidewalk and road depending on the convenience of the moment. In short, they are the ones that drivers cite when they say that cyclists ignore laws.

Maybe, but it could be that there is a bike lane that cuts through bumper to bumper traffic, or a segregated bike lane. This is the case on many downtown roads in Toronto. And depending on the time of day it can be faster.

+1. Also...Philly has a lot of stop signs as opposed to traffic lights. I can easily pass lines of cars stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, stop and an intersection and proceed. Just got done with the NFL Draft Experience, which took place close to my house. Bike was an easy way to get around compared to driving.

I'd say that, at least for me, my commute time is dependent mostly on the direction and strength of the wind and is independent of the traffic/time of day. But it's like ten minutes one way or the other/

I am sure there are places and times when a bike is the best transport mode ... and just as sure that at times and in places, it isn't.

When I moved to Orlando it was rated the deadliest cycling city in the nation. Bike lanes were non-existent. (Mayor Hood made Huge strides there, in a short time.) Even with the occasional bike lane it was always dangerous.

I have never ridden in a city where planners really considered bikes a serious transport mode and designed bike access right into the city at ground level.

A thing I note---the times of day when cars are slowest is when the roads are most congested, the drivers most irritated and impatient, and the rate of bonehead maneuvers is highest. Those are the times when aggressive, legal cycling is going to get you there faster ... and might get you hit.

If I lived in Toronto I would certainly appreciate the times when I could fly down the bike lanes safely and leave cars behind. Where I live, I try to be extra heads-up anywhere in town. often people are polite and give me lots of room, but I have also had a lot of drivers try to race me to a stop light or squeeze me off the road because they couldn't wait 30 seconds for oncoming traffic to pass.

I stand by my 3:1 ration, though. For general urban/suburban commuting (i.e. going from city to city through business and mixed-use neighborhoods not on highways or though residential districts) it seemed to be a valid average.

Interesting - I took this as a moderately funny joke that had no serious intention of raising a serious issue. Guess I was wrong.

dave

ps. Back in the 90's when I was riding seriously, my bike and car had roughly equal value (but a bike commute was simply not practical in my case - 50 miles each way through varying degrees of California congestion).

If I were them, I'd just cut the bike rack itself, doesn't look all that formidable

Part of the reason I enjoy biking after work is that I can make it to the brewery faster than I can in a car. Car I have to drive north, then west, in gridlocked traffic for 12 miles. Bike is a trail running on a diagonal, where the only stopping I have to do is cross roads, for 7.8 miles. Generally about 5 minutes faster on a bike than in a car.

No comparison on the ride back when traffic is cleared, though, car is far faster.

Perhaps comparing bike commuting time with public transit would be a better comparison. Obviously if the distance is great and you are able to drive your car on a highway, there is no comparison. If, however, you have the choice of using public transit or riding, I think the commute times might be more inline with these two modes of transport, especially when you figure that taking transit means you have to walk to the stop, walk from the stop to work/home, as well as waiting for the bus/train.

If I were to take public transit to cover my 20 km to work I'd have to walk 2 min to the stop, then transfer to a second bus, and then a third, and then finally walk 10 minutes to my work from the bus stop, all of which would take more than an hour, and that's being optimistic that the buses arrive in a timely manner.

I took it as a pretty stupid cartoon that I could use as an opportunity to ruminate and fulminate. Any excuse at all .....

Couple minutes to do that, plus then they're stuck carrying a visibly locked up bike to their vehicle.

IMO, clipless pedals are a fair theft deterrent for the same reason; if they can't ride it, they'll stand out until they can get it loaded into a truck.

Cheaper bike? I say ride the Venge until the wheels fall off! Well, its probably not the most practical commuter choice. But, then again I'm still riding my older carbon road bikes on my daily commute. And they have a fair amount a wear and tear on each. Who says that carbon assplodes? :-)