Dear Drivers of San Diego

Please go check your parked car to see if you left your lights on. I noticed four on 6 mile commute home from work today.

Good luck,

Matt the Weatherman




Direct link to REI Cycling store

My New Favorite Thing about Cycling

Smelling.

One thing you get on a bike and usually don't get in a car is the scent of where you are. I've noticed recently how many smells I come across in my commute. I don't have particularly sensitive sense of smell so when I can smell something good I tend to enjoy it.

Sure sometimes I have to smell bus exhaust or roadkill but riding past the coastal sage scrub I get reminded by scent of camping as a boy scout. I also get to pass a number of great smelling restaurants. I get the smells of corn tortillas or just the general scent of Mexican or Asian-fusion cooking.





Direct link to REI Cycling store

October in San Diego

This is getting far, far too common.

This is smoke from a fire that burned on Camp Pendleton Marine Base Monday. This is the second brush fire on the base in the last week (the base is mostly open range, as far as I know no buildings were damaged). There was also another fire in another part of the county.

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Riding the Streets

Since I started commuting by bike in March 2007, I've spent a lot of time reading blogs and articles (not to mention writing articles for this blog) in order to better understand how to ride safely and to better enjoy cycling. There are many different opinions on what is "the safest" way to ride in traffic; there are also many things that everyone agrees on. Recently, all of the info I had read and received, conflicting ideas all sort of...clicked. In that moment I knew what I believe to be the safest way for me to ride.

I'll be honest, this riding style requires lots of confidence in your riding and awareness for what is going on around you. Luckily those are two of the three things you need to never end up in an accident (the third, and maybe most important is luck).

I've written before about a riding style called "claim the lane." My new style is derived from claiming the lane, but goes a full step further by controlling the lane once it has been claimed. This style is specifically designed for riding on single lane streets (especially narrow ones) without bike lanes that allows street parking. (Most of my riding around my home is on this type of road.)

Before we get too far into this, I want to discuss the three sections of a lane you can ride in and when each is appropriate. The left side of the lane is where you go to make left turns. The only other time I can see getting that far over is to get around something blocking the lane (I often have to go around garbage trucks emptying dumpsters in the morning). The most logical section for riding in is the right side of the lane. This is where California law says that you should ride. There are, however, exceptions: you can leave the right side of the lane to turn left, get out of a right turn only lane or if the right side of the lane is "unsafe". This last one is not very clear on a definition so I, and many other riders take a pretty wide definition of unsafe. I only ride on the right side of the lane if the lane is wide, smooth, free of debris and there are no cars parked on the curb. If any of those are the case, I move to the middle of the lane.

CA law says that you can ride in the middle of the lane (with all the rights and responsibilities of motor vehicles) if it is unsafe to be on the right side of the lane. I ride in the middle of the lane if the lane is so narrow that I am not comfortable with cars passing me. Similarly, I choose the center of the lane if there is debris (tree branches, rocks, broken glass, etc.) or if the road is not in good condition (which is often the case near the gutter). More importantly, though, is that I move to the middle if there are cars parked on the side of the road. This is to avoid being "doored." Being "doored" means having someone open a driver-side door in front of you and can be really dangerous if you are traveling at even just a decent speed. (A significant number of bicycle collisions and injuries come from being "doored.")

Now that you are riding in the middle of the lane, this is where your confidence and awareness will come in (hopefully luck has been with you all along). Here, you have to be confident enough to control both the lane and traffic. This means being aware of where cars and traffic signals are. When I am in the middle of the lane I keep an eye on my rearview mirror to know when cars are coming up behind me. When they do, I signal that I am in the middle of the lane and that I am not comfortable with them passing me (arm extended diagonally toward the ground on the left, hand open, palm facing the car). When I am comfortable being passed (if the lane widens up or there is a section without parked cars), I pull to the right side of the lane and wave cars past me (arm extended out to the left, sweeping forward). This allows cars to know that it is safe to pass you and that you are aware of their presence and want both of your journeys to be as safe and as fast as possible. I've noticed that cars will often speed up to pass you quickly once you wave them past, which is good if you don't have a long window to let cars through. Also remember that if too many cars build up behind you it is polite to just pull over and stop and let them all by (I believe CA law requires you to pull over once five cars are behind you).

Whenever I approach a stoplight or stop sign I move to the center of the lane. This makes you more visible to vehicles that approach you from either direction and gets you out of the way of any vehicles that want to make a right turn (just because you have to sit at a light doesn't mean they should have to). When I approach a stop that has cars lined up I have to decide whether to move to the center and wait in line or ride past the line of cars up to the limit line at the intersection. Here is the criteria I use to make that decision. First, if I have waved any cars past me, I stay behind that car. If they were considerate enough to wait until I felt comfortable letting them past, I will be considerate and not make them pass me again. The only exception is when I don't think they will have a chance to keep up with me. There is a part of my commute that is through an area with a lot of traffic and I pass cars there because cycling through it is about five times faster than driving. Next I figure out if riding up to the front is likely to back up traffic. If road conditions mean that I am going to jump right back to the middle of the lane after the intersection and make cars wait to pass me, I'll just wait at my spot in the line. Finally, I take into account the speed limit on the street, if it is significantly higher than I can ride I just wait my turn. Otherwise, I generally move up to the front of the line (I consider it a 'perk' of bicycling).

When you are at or approaching a signal remember that CA law give you both the rights and responsibilities of motor vehicles. This includes stopping and waiting at stop signs and stop lights. There have been reports that California (or some cities in CA) might be considering a variation on a liberal set of cycling laws used in Idaho. In Idaho bicycles are only required to yield at stop signs and are allowed to treat stop lights as stop signs when safe to do so. I happen to think that this would a welcome change to the law that would encourage more people to commute by bicycle.

Finally, a reminder that this method is designed for single lane streets without a bike lane. If there is a bike lane, you should probably be there instead. And do whatever you can to stay off the sidewalks. They are dangerous for you and pedestrians.

-Matt the weatherman





Direct link to REI Cycling store

Road Bike Rides dot Com

Last week I alluded to a mapping and sharing website for bike rides.

Roadbikerides.com is a clever site that catalogs user-submitted mapping data to create ride reports on rides in any region. You can search by city to see all the submitted rides that are labeled in that area. The ride reports can show where there are water fountains and restrooms, places to stop and eat or any interesting points along the way. The rides will be rated according to difficulty and include elevation maps to show how much climbing is involved. You can also find group rides that take place at certain intervals (every week, once a month, etc.).

To really be a part of the community however, you will need to find and input some rides into the database. There are three ways that this can be done. You can upload a GPX, KML or Garmin file that has the map data in it already. While this is great for people who've learned to write this type of file (or have a device that writes it for them), I have not and so have no experience with it. The two other ways I have tried. The first is to input a starting and ending place and allow the GoogleMaps engine to build a route between the two points. You can then drag and adjust the routes as you would normally in GoogleMaps. This is useful because the route stays on roads, but is limited by the roads that the mapping engine allows driving/riding on. This method also automatically generates the text directions for the route, but if you had to move a lot of the route, the directions will include every hold point (even if they are all on one road) The second method is to plot a line over the top of the map point by point. This can be tedious because each point you add only adds the route in a straight line from where the previous point is but it does allow you to route rides off of the roads (to perhaps use a bike trail or bridge). This method does not create the text directions for the ride, but as I noted earlier, if you write them out yourself, they are likely going to be clearer.

I've been using Roadbikerides.com for a month or two now. I've inputted two rides so far (I don't want to input anything I haven't ridden myself), you can find them (and me) under the username: theweatherman. I find it useful in finding interesting routes or rides that I hadn't thought of and you can rate the quality of each ride. The San Diego section does not have a whole lot of rides in it yet, but hopefully with a little more public awareness that can be remedied.

Overall I would say that it is a well designed website that many cyclists would find useful (and the more that use it, the more useful it becomes.) There are, however, two problems I have with RoadBikeRides.com: First, local rides for me can be hard to find because I live in a large metropolitan area that is not incorporated as one city. My trip to work includes six different cities. This make it hard to search for rides that are in my area as some might be labeled San Diego while others get tagged as Del Mar, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, La Mesa, etc. I would like to see a county search for rides so that you can get all the rides in one county. My other problem is a little more messy. The difficulty ratings are very haphazard. By allowing the user who inputs the ride to select what level of difficulty it gets the rating gets skewed by how experienced and fit the user is. There are some rides input as Moderate that I find laughably Beginner and one ride that is listed as Moderate that I would rank higher than most of the rides rated difficult. Do I know the solution to this problem? No. But if you can figure it out, post it below or email the site creators.

Now go put in some rides for me to tryout!

-Matt the Weatherman






Direct link to REI Cycling store

Ride the Lightning

Riding in Lightning

Question: What is the protocol for riding in a thunderstorm? Lightning is a rare occurrence in San Diego and I found myself wondering about the safety of it as I rode Monday morning in the dark toward ever increasing lightning strikes. I was fortunate to be able to get onto the train before it even began to rain (I was not expecting adverse weather and did not have any rain gear, but I did have my laptop).

I'm sure that the terrain has a lot to do with how safe the ride will be; an open field will be far more dangerous than midtown Manhattan, between all the skyscrapers. Do the tires of your bike work the same as your car tires to insulate you from the ground so that you are safer on a bike than walking? Should you just abort whatever trip you were on and wait the storm out (or call for a ride if you are so lucky)?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but I hope that you do.





Direct link to REI Cycling store

Four Day Work Week

One often overlooked method to relieve the stresses of traffic (including the stress on the environment, stress on the roadways and the mental stress of being stuck therein) is to lessen the number of days spent traveling. I'm talking, of course, about a four-day work week.

The purpose of a four day work week is to work longer shifts causing work the same number of hours in fewer days. In a traditional 40-hour work week this would mean working four 10-hour shifts instead of five 8-hour shifts. Ideally, we could just work on less day at the same length shift and just make every weekend three days long. Let me know if you can talk your boss into it and then forward me an application. If you work a non-traditional number of hours or length of shift you might have to tweak the numbers a bit to get that day off.

There are many benefits to working only four days a week. Not least among them is the extra day off. You can use this day for projects around the house, working on a side business, hobbies or even just blow it on video games. Better yet, use it to do bike rides that are longer than your commute. Another great benefit of a four-day work week is saving money and who doesn't like to save money? That day off that you get to take every week isn't just a day off from work. It is a day off from your car, a day off of traffic, or a day off of public transit. You spend less money on gas, you save wear and tear on your vehicle of choice (be it automobile or bicycle) or free up a seat on the bus or train. You are also available to clients, customers and co-workers for more hours in a day. If you are working 10 hours in a day, you will be able to help a co-worker who is in early working on that report that is due by the 10 o'clock meeting and still be available to that client who calls "after hours" because of a mistake on their order that they just noticed.

While these are all great reasons to start working just four days a week, there are also potential costs. The most noticeable cost is the longer work days. In fact almost all of the costs of this arrangement are due to working more hours a day. First, and most importantly to your employer, there is a potential for a loss of productivity. Working a longer shift can wear you down mentally and physically so that you are no longer working at your peak level. On top of the wear of working a ten hour shift, you would have to get over your mental idea of what a full day of work entails. If you are used to making 800 widgets a day when you work 8 hours a day, you will need to notice that you now need to make 1000 widgets a day. While this example is simplistic, many jobs do not have a quantifiable way of determining the amount of work done; if you work one of these types of jobs, it might be good to start your day making a list of things you need to accomplish that day or week. On a personal level you will also find that there is less time in your day for sleep or even your personal time at home before and after work. This feeling can be mitigated some by using your time more efficiently, you can make your lunch before bed or set your coffee maker on a timer so that it is ready for you when you wake up. Another cost is that while you are available to your company for more hours in a day, you are available for fewer days.

Now that you have decided whether the four-day work week is for you, there is one big hurdle before you can start your eternal 3-day weekends: permission from your company. Before you march up to your boss and demand this to be an option available to you, try this plan I've outlined. Start by talking to your co-workers. Find out who is interested and if they are willing to meet with your bosses with you. The more people in your workplace that are interested, the easier it will be for your management to support the idea. Next, meet with your boss (or send an email if that fits your workplace better) and outline how this can improve working conditions, worker morale and that it can lower the workload of office equipment; then show the number of (and names of if possible) people who are interested in pursuing this option. If you boss seems wary, offer to look into your state's labor laws regarding this practice. Employers could be worried about paying overtime which is required in some states after an eight hour shift. There should be options, however, built into your state's labor laws that could allow non-traditional work schedules. If your boss still seems wary, have other employees bring the idea up to them so that they can see there is a desire among your co-workers. If all else fails, send him to this article or any of the number of columns, articles and studies done on the subject.

I have personally been enjoying three day weekends since the start of September. My case is a little different from normal. My train ride limits the number of hours I can work in a day. If I take the first train north in the morning and the last train south in the afternoon I get in exactly nine hours of work. This is not really enough to put in a full work week in four days so I was not able to cost-effectively achieve a four-day work week. My boss had even floated the idea to the employees in order to help the company out (we have been expanding this summer and purchasing computers and workstations for each employee was putting a strain on the company financially). However, now that my wife is comfortable on her bicycle again and is riding up to four days a week (without the help of public transportation!) I've figured out a way to tryout the four-day work week. I have been working two nine-hour shifts (where I ride my bike and take the train) and two eleven-hour shifts (to which I drive our Civic hybrid).

While this does cut down on my bike commuting it does free me up to go on some longer rides I was not able to find time for when I was working Monday-Friday. (Next week I'll talk about a great site for finding and planning rides.) I've also found that my fears about productivity slide were unfounded. Once I got used to working the longer shift (and assuming I am getting enough sleep) my production has not dropped off at all. One of the best parts of this setup is the money saved. I do not buy a monthy pass to the Coaster ($156) instead I buy a two round-trip tickets a week ($11 each) and driving the hybrid saves gas money (costing me about $5 in gas a day). Combine that with the day that I do not pay to go to work and I'm coming out way ahead.

Do you have any stories about alternative work schedules? Post them in the comments section below.

-Matt




Direct link to REI Cycling store

What a difference 10 months makes!

November 2007:

Washington Post

"Oh no! Oil is going to hit $100 a barrel!

September 2008:

Montreal Gazette

Wow! Oil is only going to be $100 a barrel!

(of course gas prices are still going to go up).

Ride your bike!

I should also take a moment  to explain my absense. I've been thinking about how I want this blog to be and what I want to do with it. I have decided to try to convert to once a week, column style publishing. This means less in the way of writing, but hopefully what I do post will be of higher quality. I will probably still post short tidbits when I have something I want to say that doesn't warrant an entire article.

So look for that soon.

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Bike Park?

A story about some kids doing things the right way. (Not that I always feel that is the best way to go about things). A young group of trick bicyclists went to a park board meeting to try to get permission to use the local skate park.

The board members were very positive, noting that parks in other towns do manage to share skate parks with bicyclists but did warn that the government cannot be accused of ever moving quickly so it would likely be months before approval.

I say good on these kids for going through the proper channels. This at least gives them some credibility when they are caught riding there anyway (which the article notes that they do.)

-Matt the Weatherman




Direct link to REI Cycling store

OMG I want this vest!

Mykle System Labs






Direct link to REI Cycling store

Green Light

For your weekend viewing pleasure, John Legend's new single "Green Light" featuring Andre 3000.



I love how Andre 3000 leaves the party the next morning on a bicycle in his suit. So much cooler than a convertible. (Bear with the beginning of the video, it is a little awkward, but the payoff is worth it.)

Have a great weekend, I'm giving you the green light.

-Matt






Direct link to REI Cycling store

Dear Abby: Are you freaking kidding me?

From Fritz at Cyclelicious:

DEAR ABBY: I want to thank all the wonderful people who make biking to work possible. I am a mid-40s professional and never thought I could do this, but I am. My goal was to bike at least once a week to work -- 15 miles each way -- and I have been doing it since May and loving it! Thank you to the drivers who respect bikers, the municipalities who planned for safe cycling, and the companies that provide showers and lockers. It has been so much fun. I never thought I could do this because of work schedules, kids' activities and weather, but with a little thought it works. It's good, fun exercise. Help the environment, save energy and get fit, America! -- GEORGE IN MIAMI VALLEY, OHIO DEAR GEORGE: I'm pleased that you are enjoying your healthy new lifestyle, and I'm all for physical fitness. However, I hesitate to encourage large numbers of people to embrace your challenge until both cyclists and motorists are better educated about the rules of the road. Communities need to act now to provide safe bicycle lanes and paths for people trying to conserve gasoline. Awareness needs to be raised among drivers about the rights of bikers. The television and print media could be a significant help in this effort, and I hope they'll take the opportunity to inform their audiences.

Is she serious? I mean...really?

How can she possibly expect for any bicycle infrastructure to be built if no one is out there riding their bikes? We can't even get bike lanes built in the "liberal haven" of San Francisco (story here and here) where literally tons of people (seriously if you add up their collective weight) ride everyday. They can't find enough room for them on the trains and yet we are supposed to use fossil fuels and cause traffic on the freeways until the government decides that maybe the best thing for us is to build bike lanes and racks and the rest of the necessary infrastructure.

Really. It is taking every ounce of decorum that I have to not burst out in a stream of expletives.

Please feel free to send your thoughts to Dear Abby at the address below. And leave out the profanity, I understand she's not to keen on that stuff.

Write Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

-Matt the Weatherman




Direct link to REI Cycling store

Kidical Mass - Wrap Up

Wow, what a weekend! I'm only just now getting around to writing about Kidical Mass. On Saturday we went an picked up all the new bike stuff we ordered from REI including my new gloves! My hands are much happier now. On Sunday we went and picked up my 5 year old twin cousins and took them to the zoo and then had dinner with their parents (my uncle and aunt) that night.

Kidical Mass was a blast. In all there were about 45-ish people (I didn't count, but you can tell by the pictures in my last post). Lots and lots of trailers, one tow behind tandem and a few kids riding their own bikes. Everyone was super friendly and the route was nice and easy. The traffic did a good job of not giving us trouble and whoever was picking a route did a good job keeping us out of traffic.

My wife, (who refuses to ride a critical mass) had a ton of fun as well. Probably more than I did. She was almost as excited as the kids about the ice cream shop that the ride ended at (she's so cute!).

Oh and I guess I should mention The Daily Scoop where the ride ended. Fantastic little ice cream and cupcake shop in South Park. A number of unexpected flavors of ice cream (which I unfortunately cannot recall) and a small little shop with locally produced clothes and jewelry.

If I had to find one problem with the ride, it would only be that far too many of the adults chose not to wear helmets. I understand that it is not illegal and that it is their choice (even if I find it to be a poor choice), but I would hope that they could suck it up for 2 hours once a month to set a good example for the kids riding (for whom it is illegal to ride without a helmet).

All in all, however, it was a wonderful time and I can't wait until next month's ride!

-Matt the Weatherman




Direct link to REI Cycling store

Kidical Mass Photo Dump

Here are my photos from Kidical Mass in San Diego.
If you or your kid is in one of these pictures and you want a copy, email me and I'll set you up with a copy.
Alternately, if you aren't comfortable with these pictures being online email me (fitzophrenic-at-gmail.com) and I will gladly take them down.























Direct link to REI Cycling store