Bike-commute day 38—to work

Wednesday, 15 June 2011.

My start today was the latest ever to get to work: 08:13. Usually I've decided to drive when I have too much to do and can't leave by 8 o'clock. But today was different: Chuck's car is in the drive, and that would mean a bit of musical chairs with the garage. So I decided to bike, no matter what, and pulled out whatever reserves I had to keep intensity up throughout the ride.

A FiveRivers Parks truck was exiting the maintenance compound as I passed out of Eastwood Park, and I stopped them to mention the need to sweep loose twigs on the corner a bit east of the yellow gate. While I'm at it, there are other housekeeping tasks for the bikeway segments that are part of my commute.

• The ramp from the Monument Avenue bridge to the river-level bikeway has many loose stones and twigs, over its entire distance.
• The culvert crossing underneath the Main Street bridge has concrete washed away by the Spring flooding. Though a part of the washout has been filled with compacted dirt, the entire width needs attention with filler concrete or asphalt.
• A relatively small amount of stones litter the bikeway just west of the Findlay Street bridge.
• The intersection of the bikeway, North Smithville, and Springfield Street and the bikeway crossing of Smithville just a tenth mile south of that intersection still lack road markings for the crossing.
• Quite a few dropped walnuts litter the bikeway in several areas between Airway and Linden. I suspect the number will increase over the next two weeks.
• Almost all crossings would benefit from reapplication of paint and better approach signage at Airway, Burkhardt, Linden, Woodbine, Woodman, Spaulding north of the county waste treatment plant, and Spaulding at the crossing to Founders Drive

As I eased into a steady but fast rhythm in the final leg, I passed Gladys on her way to meet Millie for their daily walk. I had no time to stop, but I gave her a big, two-hands-wide wave.
Ride conditions
Temperature: 59 to 61°F at 07:55, 63 to 66°F at 09:30
Precipitation: none
Winds: calm
Clothing: Skinsuit, ankle socks, open-finger gloves.
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed gear
Time: 00:42:58 for 11.99 miles
Heart rate: 132 bpm average, 156 bpm maximum
Bikeway users: 6 cyclists, 6 pedestrians, 1 dog
Here is a playback of the ride.

Bike-commute day 33—to gym and home

I got a reminder this afternoon on the unreliability of drivers. As I approached the bikeway crossing of Linden Avenue, a driver from the west graciously stopped for me. I slowed for the crossing, saluted a thanks to the driver, and then looked to the right. A driver was approaching from the east, obviously slowing. But not stopping, just slowing.

As she crossed in front of me, I saw inside the auto. The driver was busily fitting a supersize cup into the cup holder, oblivious of the marked crosswalk and the stopped vehicle in the approaching lane. Unaware that her slowing might have been understood as an invitation to cross in front of her.

The distracted driver is the greatest hazard presented to a cyclist who uses the roadways. And the cyclist who aims to use only the bikeways, since the bikeways intersect with roads, often at distances of less than a mile from one intersection to the next. The cellphone and texting are only the two more recent sources of distraction, joining many other sources that have been present almost as long as the automobile itself: lighting a cigarette, tuning the radio, opening and closing windows, conversing with a rider, eating and drinking at the wheel, responding to a nuisance insect, squinting from sun glare, daydreaming.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 77 to 81°F at 17:10
Precipitation: none, then a lot
Winds: calm to 5 mph from the northeast
Clothing: Skinsuit; ankle socks. Open-finger gloves.
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed-gear
Time: 00:58:03 for 15.82 miles
Heart rate: 123 bpm average, 142 bpm maximum
Bikeway users: 31 cyclists, 14 pedestrians, 3 dogs
Here is a playback of the ride.

Bike-commute day 19—to work

Recently the City of Dayton released its 2025 Bicycle Action Plan, and it asked for comments to be sent to Andrew Rodney. Among my suggestions, I asked that the city establish alternative, designated routes that are parallel to the bikeways and can be used during river flooding or bridge construction. I would hope, in implementing this suggestion, that the street department would install facilities that make the alternate routes safer than they already are.

For the most part, these routes already exist, though they are not designated or in much use by cyclists. For example, these parallel routes already exist near the bikeway that typically is flooded during high water:

• East Monument Avenue parallels the Mad River Bikeway from Irwin Street west to North Patterson Boulevard.
• The Riverwalk and a gravel path parallel the Great Miami River from North Patterson Boulevard to the Monument Avenue Bridge.
• An unnamed delivery street parallels the Great Miami River south from Washington Street to Veterans' Park near Stewart Street.
• East River Road in Moraine parallels the Great Miami River south from Carillon Boulevard to the point where the river-level bikeway rises to join East River Road.
• North Alex Road parallels the Great Miami River in West Carrollton.
• North Miami Street parallels the Great Miami River in Miamisburg.

Not all of these are contiguous, and some construction is needed to make them so. But the existing routing needs little more than a marking system or curbing system that makes sharing the road safe.


My energy level on today's ride was fairly low. The 705 device worked well until 38:08 into the ride, when the 705 went to autopause for no reason. (I remember that just prior to the shift to autopause, a loose twig got picked up in the rear wheel, at the cadence sensor, and that I looked town to check that it was clearing from the wheel.) I lost data from just south of Linden Avenue through just south of Woodbine. I turned off the device, waited 10 seconds, turned it on, and waited for acquisition of satellite information before resuming. This restart caused an additional lap time (split 4).

Ride conditions
Temperature: 34 to 41°F at 06:45
Precipitation: none
Winds: calm to 5 mph from the east
Clothing: 2-layer top, 2-layer bottom; ankle socks. Full-finger gloves.
Bike: Trek 850
Time: between 00:46:25 and 0:57:00 for 12.00 miles
Heart rate:124 bpm average, 142 bpm maximum
Bikeway users: 2 pedestrians, 2 cyclists
Here is a playback of the ride. 4th Garmin day.

Note about the illustration
The line drawings were published online and captured by me during the playback. The video provides stills from The Art of Frank Patterson by Horace F. Button, which was published 1952 by Temple Press, Ltd.

No bike commute today—Mr. Sunshine does not help

At 6:45 this morning, I wrote

I've gotta getta start much earlier than usual today, since I need to get home in time to shower and drive (!) downtown to dinner and theater. The curtain time is 19:30; the will-call desk is probably open at 18:00 or 18:30; the closest restau doesn't take reservs. So I hope to be home by 17:30, leave work by 16:30, start work by 08:00, and leave here by 07:15. If there is enough daylight by then. That's really my gating factor.

That gating factor, enough daylight to be seen by motorists, is a safety factor. Though I may be able to see well enough even at 7:00, it does me no service if a driver fails to see me and runs me down through both inattention and dim lighting.

Some fellow cyclists might refer to the superb illumination now available with LED lamps, and I acknowledge that they greatly improve the odds of being seen. But for me, it's a matter of trust and a knowledge that today's drivers are multiply distracted. Often too distracted to notice well enough that wobbly, weird light on the road.

Now at work, with benefit of my minivan, I feel more comfortable with the timing of the evening's activities. I effectively have given myself another hour to work, eat, attend, and arrive alive.

On the subject of illumination and being noticed, I found this product video from MonkeyLectric that is both fun to watch and consider buying.


But for me, the $60 price tag might be okay if the lamps were easily ported from one bike to another, and if the lamps were actually visible from behind and head-on. Unfortunately, the lamp assembly is attached to the spokes with cable ties, and the light show is visible only from the side.

Bicycling and state traffic laws

The Los Angeles Police Department offers training in safe bicycling to its officers, and now the video is available on YouTube. The primary thrust of the video is the way traffic laws in California (and almost all other states) apply equally to automobiles and bicycles.

The organization of the video is fitted for classroom use: a short presentation of a unified concept of traffic law is followed by a set of multiple-choice questions. And its strength is that the video waits for the incorrect answers to be corrected before continuing to the next concept.

Rain day #11

Light rain has been falling through the night, and it continues this morning. And as I look outside now at 7:24, it is still too dark to bike safely through the city streets. The heavy cloud cover on this rainy day deepens and lengthens the darkness. Twilight has begun to dispel the dark, but it will be several minutes before I could consider riding.

Editing in a later comment at 7:51, it is now just light enough to start my biking, though my cutoff for departure has already passed at 7:40. Any later start would have me arriving too late at my desk, especially now early in the bike commuting season, when I am a bit slower in transit.

Daylight calculators
In these weeks after the change to Daylight Saving Time and before the change to Standard Time in the fall, I watch carefully for the point when I can safely be on the roads. I also consult several online calculators for understanding when the daylight will be suitable for biking. One site provides a data presentation, one line for each day. (From the link, you need to select your location and then select See sunrise/sunset.) This presentation can be set for the current week or the current month. You can also chose among 3 groups of information for the columns.

timeanddate.com : week sun times

Another site provides similar presentation that highlights the line for today. (From this link, navigate to the very bottom of the long list of cities, and select Sunrise sunset and current times. Then select your location from the long list.) This presentation is not as concise, though it does present the information for today near the top of the data. I suspect this site also creates a pop-up window for ads, so make sure your browser prevents pop-ups. The ads between selections are also very obstrusive if your browser does not prevent ads.

timesunrisesunset.com : quarter sun times

Another site creates a calendar of the sunrise and sunset times. (From this link, select More... from the world area you're interested in, then select your state, then select your city and other parameters, then select Make calendar.)

sunrisesunset.com : March calendar

Another site provides the sunrise time for one day at a time. (From this link, enter the question "What time is (sunrise OR sunset) in (your state)?") The question-answer format allows little leeway in varying your question.

trueknowledge.com : sunrise today