Bike-commute day 31—to gym and home

I needed to make the ride and gym work quick today, so I would have time to feed Howard-the-dog, shower, and make it to the 8 p.m. screening of In a Better World.

It seemed fine by the online radar and by feel on the road to Cardinal Fitness. But it had started to sprinkle after my 20-minute power shoulders workout. By the time I approached Linden, it had turned to real rain, though a light rain. It continued so for about a mile before tapering off. The roads were still wet, though, and I cautiously navigated corners and stops.

The ick factor was how much road splash my ankle-high cycling shoes caught and retained. The shoes were soaked through by the time the rain stopped. —The shoes and socks were still wet the next morning.

At the concrete bank of the Mad River, which is my gauge of whether the river is flooded as it joins the Great Miami, the water churned and roiled from the recent increase of flow.

• The Mad River's normal depth allows all of the concrete and its bottom horizontal edge to show, and a ribbon of mud embankment below the concrete is visible. 
• As the Mad River rises, the water covers the western end of the horizontal edge first. 
• Usually when half the length of the horizontal edge is covered, at least the depression in the bikeway west of the Webster Avenue bridge will be flooded. 
• If all the horizontal edge is covered, then at least another depression east of Webster Avenue is also flooded. 

This evening, the full horizontal edge was covered, and it looked to be at least two feet deep at the eastern end. So clearly only Monument Avenue was the viable way toward downtown. At the traffic signal on Findlay Street, I saw Tom Helbig stopped from the opposite direction. He was headed home, on the bike that he used to visit the Research Park bike to work event this morning.

You and Ohio law
I found an excellent summary of Ohio traffic laws that relate to cycling.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 65 to 68°F at 17:10
Precipitation: none, then a lot
Winds: calm to 5 mph from the south
Clothing: Skinsuit; ankle socks. Open-finger gloves.
Bike: Trek 850
Time: 01:03:04 for 14.90+ miles
Heart rate: 125 bpm average, 138 bpm maximum
Bikeway users: 4 cyclists, 7 pedestrians, 1 dog
Here is a playback of the ride. 15th Garmin day.

Bike commute day 10, to work

As I rose to the top of the banks above the Mad River, which stretches from the Findlay Street bridge to the firemen's training yards at McFadden Avenue, I saw a white van on the adjacent stretch of Monument Avenue. His window was open, despite the below-freezing temperatures; his hand was up to his ear, indicating a split attention between driving and using his cellphone. I called out, "Get off the phone" loud enough that he glanced over at me. I smiled, which along with my nose was probably the only visible part of my face shrouded in a full-head stocking cap and smoked glasses. He nodded, smiled, and then resumed his phone conversation.

Bikeway (magenta) above the Mad River from the Findlay Street bridge to the firemen's training yards
March 2005 photo from Google Earth

It doesn't bother me greatly when as much as 25 yards separate the bikeway from the roadway, but inattentive drivers can be a real hazard on my route along residential streets in the first tenth of my commute and at the ten crossings once I've joined the bikeway. The Ohio legislature is due any day to vote on whether texting while driving is allowed or outlawed, which is outlawed in 30 states; but the legislature missed the mark many years ago in making it against the law to use a hand-held cellphone while driving, which is outlawed in eight states.

Of course, it is inattention of any sort that contributes to auto accidents ...and collisions with cyclists. If it were possible, could legislatures outlaw these activities while driving, which I have seen as a cause for a swerve or drift in a car's position in the road?

• Lighting a cigarette
• Eating
• Tuning the radio
• Changing a CD
• Reading the newspaper
• Consulting a map
• Writing notes
• Changing clothes
• Talking animatedly
• Reprimanding a child in the back seat
• Reacting to spilled coffee in the lap

Temperature: 29°F at 07:30, 29 to 33°F at 09:15
Precipitation: none
Winds: none
Clothing: Top with 4 layers (Lycra longsleeve undershirt, skinsuit, arm warmers, poly fleece vest, Lycra-wool jacket); Bottom with 2 layer (skinsuit, quilted tights); ankle socks. Quilted gloves. (Comfortable; toes and fingers began to notice cold. Light sweating in chest & back.)
Bike: Trek 850
Time: 0:50:00 (approx.) for 11.86 miles
Bikeway users: 1 pedestrians, 6 deer, 1 cat

08:12—departing from home.
08:24—passing the zig-zag up from the Mad River Bikeway.
08:36—passing the west gate to Eastwood Park.
08:48—passing the trestle remains at Linden.
09:02—arriving at work.

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.