My New Commute

As I sit here on the Coaster writing an update about my new commute, I am happy for three things. First, I'm happy to be able to write on my commute instead of my lunch break. The second reason is a just a small word at the beginning of this post, sit. On the trolley I was supposed to stand with my bike and only occasionally was the car empty enough for me to justify sitting down. The 1.5-2 hours I spend commuting is much better if I don't have to stand the whole time I'm on the train. Finally, I'm happy that I see the same faces everyday with their bikes on their way to work or on their way home.

My commute works out like this: Ride from my residence to Old Town using surface streets. This part of the trip is not yet finalized. I'm not real happy with the route I'm taking (which happens to be the most direct route). I have a few other routes I need to try out, but they involve writing up a direction sheet, which I haven't had time to do.

Once in Old Town, I jump on the Coaster and hangout, either chatting, catching up on podcasts or coming up with some delicious word meat for you all to chew on. I get off the train in Carlsbad where the worst/best part of my commute takes place. Due to the fact that there were so many transit options between my house and my old job, I was able to slack off and only ride the easy parts. This means that I was not in shape for this last leg of my commute. My office is 4 miles from the station, three of which are false flat (see Sheldon Brown's definition of false flats to see why they are evil) and the other mile is a climb.

The trip home would sound good, what with the 4 miles of downhill cruising at the start, but there is often a pretty good onshore flow that becomes a headwind for me once on shore. This part of my ride might be my favorite however, because it is the first time I've commuted on a road that gets so backed up that I am going faster than the cars are going. There is something truly satisfying about that.

I jump on the Coaster home, where I discover that not only are you allowed to eat and drink (not allowed on trolley or buses) but you can enjoy and unwind with an alcoholic beverage. I was actually stunned at the number of people that stop at the liquor store on the way to the train station to pick up something to help them unwind. (Not to mention people headed to the baseball game getting some of their tailgate parties started).

Currently I'm taking the trolley home from the Coaster because my legs are pretty much destroyed from my morning climb and I'm often in a hurry to get home. But this can be augmented to a pretty nice tailwind of a ride along a route that I take sometimes just for fun.

As much as it kicks my a**, I love my new commute. I started bike commuting for two reasons: exercise and money. This commute costs the same as my old one as a percentage of what I would be paying for driving. The exercise is the kicker though. While I feel like I'm only barely going to make it to work, I know that in a month or two I will have gotten to the body I was looking at getting all along.

-Matt

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Super Late BTWD Wrap-up

This picture goes at the end, but I am dumb and lazy. These are the lovely people from the Sweetwater School District in Chula Vista along with a representative from Bike Warehouse. They talked me into entering their drawing. I suppose I didn't win.

This is the first stop from my trip at the San Diego Zoo. I apparently left too early for the Adams Ave. Bike Shop people. They weren't open yet. The Zoo had a pit stop open in their parking lot. this is Skink Floyd. He is a skink from Australia (I forget which type). These are the folks from the RECON Environmental sponsored pit stop. I believe they are dressed up as 4 of the threatened local species they are working to protect. Had a good time at this pit stop.
Even when they made me pose with them for a photo.
I didn't get any pictures from the Ridelink sponsored site. I did get to speak with someone from Ridelink about the new Sprinter service in north county. She told me that they have been overwhelmed with bicyclist and that they are working on figuring out how to have this brand new service work better for cyclists. That is the kind of thing I like to hear.

These great ladies work at the Hard Rock Hotel. They had a great spread and were real excited to be hosting this event. It was their first year doing it so hopefully they will do it again next year.

From there I got on the trolley and rode 4 stops into Chula Vista (since I was starting to run late to work). Went to the REI sponsored stop at the BFGoodwrench Aerospace complex. They had a mechanic out doing minor repairs and adjustments on bikes. Plus, free water bottles and tire levers. Good times.
Then I headed down to the first picture and then broke a spoke on my way to the bus (see Bike to Work Day Bummer).

All in all, I'd say the day went pretty well for the city. More sponsors it seems, now we just need more cyclists. Or I need to ride where the cyclists are riding. One of the two.

-Matt

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Bike to Work Day Bummer

Photo from Flickr

Late last night I changed my plan for Bike to Work Day. Since people actually read this blog now, I figured I should try to do you all a service and try to report how BTWD went in San Diego. I stayed up a little late mapping out a route that would take me past 7 different pit stops. This route was 27 miles one-way. No problem I figured, since I'd be getting my miles anyway, I'll substitute a short jaunt on the trolley between downtown and Chula Vista and a quick ride on the bus at the end of my trip.

Would this take longer? Sure. But I'll just get up and out a bit earlier than normal. Anything for my new found readers!

Let's just say that everything went very well early on. I'll post a better report and pictures later. But as time went on I knew I was going to be later and later to work. So I rushed to my bus stop, where there was a bus waiting. Not wanting the bus to leave without me, I rushed up onto the sidewalk so that I could be seen. At that point my back tire locked up. Didn't have a chance to look at it until now.

Broke a spoke.

I contend that no routine damage is so detrimental as a broken spoke. Does it kill your ride? No. You can still ride on it. But I know from experience that riding on a broken spoke only leads to breaking more spokes. I went through a month after I started riding where I broke 4 spokes. I asked what I was doing wrong and what I could do to stop it. I found out that any riding on a broken spoke weakens the other spokes. I had him rebuild the tire.

This means that my trip home, the first time I was going to ride all the way home without using the transit system, is going to be strictly by transit. And what is worse is that I will likely have to wait for a bus that doesn't already have too many bikes on it.

Bummer.

-Matt

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Trip on the Coaster

For those of you who don't know, in San Diego County we have 5 different, interconnected, transit systems. MTS bus is the main bus system, the Breeze is the north county bus system, the Trolley is the light rail that services downtown to the Mexican border and east to Santee, the Sprinter is the brand new light rail that runs east-west in north county from Escondido to Oceanside along the 78 corridor.

This leaves the Coaster. Coaster is not light rail. It is heavy rail, regular rail. I don't know what to call it. It's basically a train. It runs from downtown only making 6 other stops on it's way to Oceanside. Coaster is the most expensive form of public transportation (short of some of the DART vans or pick-up style transport) but it is perhaps the most glorious.

My Coaster ride started at the second stop in Old Town. When I boarded I made special note of where the bike parking was and headed upstairs(!) found a nice seat with a table where I could do some brainstorming.

At this point I should mention that I was on my way to an interview. So that explains the lack of bicycle and why I needed to brainstorm questions I needed answered and what I might be asked during the interview.

Out the window from Old Town you get to see Mission Bay for a bit before the train ducks into a canyon. Then you are, it seems, miles from civilization - in a canyon with no view of man-made structures. You come out of the canyon and you are at the Sorrento Valley stop. From there you continue along the bottom of the valley where you can only see the business buildings at the top of the hills (this area is where most of tech work is done in San Diego, including most of the Qualcomm campus).

From there you come out of the valley and cross a field then back to the beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. You pass right between the beach and the west side of the Del Mar Racetrack. Nothing but beautiful views all the way up to Oceanside.

I am very hopeful to get the job I interviewed with. Aside from it getting me back into my field, the owners are really great and the environment seems to be excellent. While it may be a paycut for me (very slight and made up for once benefits kick in) and a much longer commute (in miles anyway), any loss of income is amply paid for by a daily trip on the wonderful Coaster.




Direct link to REI Cycling store

Street Parking?

Photo courtesy of Flickr

I've been mulling over the idea of cities making street parking illegal. It think it would make people rethink driving everywhere they go and owning more vehicles than they need (since they would need to park on their own property at home. It would also add space for cars and bikes to use the roadways, adding at least a lane if not two to each road, without any cost to the city.

The actual act of traveling down these roads will also be safer and faster. Cyclists won't have to worry about parked cars opening their doors in front of them (a major cause of bicycle accidents). Drivers could count on not getting stuck behind a driver trying to parallel park and is blocking the entire right lane, or worry about the daredevil driver who thinks they can get out of their parking spot, up to speed and into traffic in the 4 car length space between them and the driver in front of them.

Sure, this plan will likely mean that more real estate in urban areas will be devoted to parking structures and many metropolitan areas are not designed to park the number of cars that would be required initially while people get used to not driving. (Although based on some mid-day trips through downtown San Diego I would say there are enough empty spots in pay lots to make a dent in the number of cars coming off the streets.

Turns out that a city is considering doing this, but only on selected streets. The Sentinel in Woodbridge, NJ reports that their township council is considering it and the mayor hopes to have it in place by July 1st. Of course, their concern is more about people parking in front of residences (I'm guessing the locale isn't very urban), but could still give evidence to whether this is a good idea.

I know where I stand as a biker and someone who dislikes vehicle traffic but I can't decide which side I come down on as a taxpayer and citizen. On one hand, I don't think that my tax dollars should be subsidizing storage of personal property, which, let's be honest, isn't really all that great for the city anyway. (Imagine a car-less city...heaven.) People should be required to keep their vehicles on their own property and if someone (person or business) wants them to visit by auto, they should find a place for them to put that car. (Supermarkets and malls already do this.)

On the other hand, I recognize that the government is a representation of the people. If people want to have cars and store cars on the road, the government should honor that desire.

Clearly it would take great foresight from a city council or mayor to get this even onto a ballot much less passed. I do believe, however, that while there would be complaining on the outset (quite a bit of complaining actually) that people would be quick to adapt and find other, better ways to travel in urban areas.

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Snarky Responses to News Stories

The Warwick Beacon, of Warwick, Rhode Island has a story (here) about how escalating gas prices aren't keeping high school kids from driving to school. My favorite bits:

Vets cheerleader Rachel Ferrara thinks she knows why. The junior said her mother
would be driving her around if she didn’t have a car and in the end no gasoline
would have been saved. So, in Ferrara’s case, mom has increased her gas
allowance.

Note to Rachel, it doesn't count as independence if it goes away without a car. That is just conditional dependance. Learn to get around on your own.

A random poll of Vets students at lunch Friday found them paying $25 to $60
a week for gasoline.
Vets junior Stephanie Gilman, who drives a 97 Volvo and works at Inskip
Motors, couldn’t imagine at what cost gasoline would have to climb before she
gives up driving. As it is now, her mother is helping with a weekly $40 gas
allowance.

Are you kidding me?!? Where are these kids driving? Even when I was driving full-time, my wife and I combined for less than $50 a week and we each were driving 30 miles a day to and from work with the occasional weekend trip to visit the folks (between 60 and 120 miles each way). I want to rail against the idea of a gas allowance, but looking back, it probably would have been better if my parents had me on one when I was growing up.

Mark Rossi, who lives within a mile of Vets and said he could easily walk or
ride his bicycle, still drives his 97 Toyota Camry. He believes he could rally a
few friends to help share the cost but prefers the independence and the latitude
to sleep just a bit later and still make it to class on time.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you with the current American mentality. Within a mile? Really? How much sleep is that really saving?

Fox11AZ.com has a story that has been on numerous other news websites about how the most dangerous part of the commute isn't the chance of an accident, but rather breathing the exhaust from the cars in front of you:

"The air coming into your car is the worst air in the whole city," said
Scott Fruin, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at USC Keck School of
Medicine.

This is news?

So how can you make your commute safer? Drive with the windows up and set
the air on re-circulate. But the best way to survive your commute is to cut your
commute.

Or, not use a car. That way you not only lower the danger for yourself, but also for everyone else.

-Matt




Direct link to REI Cycling store

Wallet lost...and found!

If this is going to sound a little like a bus driver and transit person lovefest, so be it.

I need to say a great big THANK YOU! to people involved in San Diego and Chula Vista Transit.

Back story:
Yesterday I mentioned that when I tried to get on the bus yesterday I couldn't find my wallet. The driver of that bus let me ride anyway (thank you). I got home, hoping that it had never made it into my bag (and would be somewhere in my apartment), which it was not. I called the country transit info line where a very friendly and helpful Victoria gave me the numbers I would need to call to get ahold of the people who would know if my wallet had been found (thank you). I called the trolley 'emergency' line (which is number I was told to call) to ask if it had been found yet. After giving me a little bit of grief (which I deserved) for taking so long to report it the operator there said she would look into it and call me back. She actually called me twice (my phone was on vibrate) which was very helpful, although my wallet hadn't been found. She gave me the number for the transit store, which is where the general lost and found is for all of the county's trasit (thank you).
Apparently, I had dropped my wallet somewhere between the trolley and the bus that morning and some unknown person (thank you!) gave it to a bus driver to have him take it to the lost and found. Later that afternoon that bus driver and one of the supervisors (whose name I believe was Christina) looked through my wallet to try and find some way to contact me. Luckily, my sister-in-law had written me a check this weekend and that was still in my wallet with her phone number, which they called (thank you). My mother-in-law called me and gave me their number and the good news that my wallet was found (thanks!). So today I rode my bike to the Chula Vista Transit office to pick it up from where they were holding it. (Thanks to the supervisor working there this morning.)

Wonderfully, it appears that everything in my wallet is still there. We only cancelled one credit card, ironically because it is the one we use the most and wanted to have it available the soonest.

So the big news in all of this is that for the first time I rode my bike the entire distance to work! A little over 19 miles plus the big hill in the last mile (nearly 400 ft in elevation game). And it was wet too, not actually raining, but the kick up from the tires of my bike and the cars was pretty good.

Today is already looking much better than yesterday!

Matt





Direct link to REI Cycling store

My enjoyable public transportation adventure!

Last Saturday I did something I hadn't done before. I know this will come as a surprise, but it was biking to the store. Despite all my preaching about commuting by bicycle and how I dislike cars, I had never ridden to a store that was not within 2 miles of my residence. Sure, I had ridden to restaurants and attractions that were farther than that; and I ride or bus at least 4 times a week to work. But I hadn't been able to get over the last hurdle that would make not owning a car even possible, getting to and from a big box store in Mission Valley.

I didn't actually do that this weekend. What I did is prove that I could.

I happen to be into home brewing. I've been brewing for a few years. I enjoy the beer I make (actually more than most commercial beers) and I enjoy the process of making it. When my little brother turned 21 this year, I got him set up to brew as well. This included giving him my brew kettle (a very large pot) because I was going to replace mine. Needless to say, I haven't yet and if I was going to brew I was going to need to borrow 'his.' So that meant a trip up to his house.

His house is just a mile or so south of UCSD, while I live a mile or so west of SDSU. Usually it is about a 20 minute drive to his place, but like I mentioned, I'm not real big on driving right now. So I headed out to the trolley on my bike (stupidly forgetting my water bottle) and learned about public tranportation on the weekends. First, the trains and busses don't come as often and all the routes aren't running, which I expected. The trolley, which I didn't expect but do understand, runs with less cars (2-3 instead of 4). What I didn't expect was the large amount of people on the trolley. I'm talking about having to discuss with people where you are going so that while the trolley is moving you could shift people around towards the door crowded.

Anyway, got to my stop, got down to my bus and rode the bus up to his place. Sat and talked with him for a bit, met the new kittens, picked up the large pot and headed out. Things I learned there were, that I can fit the pot on my rack and that a 22 oz. beer bottle fits perfectly in my bottle cage. (He had made a beer that I hadn't tried yet and I needed to get it home.)

From there I bussed over to the home brew store to get my ingredients. Put them inside the pot and rode back over to the trolley. At this point with nine pounds of syrup in the pot the ride started to get a little rough. Fortunately, there is only about 4 blocks of riding between the store and my place (not counting trolley and bus rides).

All in all it was a great trip and I am confident that I can get to and from Costco or Target when I need to without driving.

What are your big hurdles to riding everywhere you go?






Cycling

Back in the Saddle

Got my bike out of the shop this weekend. I love how it rides right out of the shop, so smooth and quick braking. The wife and I rode what will become her route to work so that she could get a feel for it, find out how long it takes, etc. Pretty good ride, similar to the route I took last year when I was working in the same area. Stopped at Jamba Juice before turning and coming back and generaly just enjoyed the sunshine and company.

We also stopped at Home Depot and picked up some seeds for our container garden. So far we have a standard tomato plant some sage seeds planted and some strawberry seeds planted. We picked up some basil, thyme and cherry tomato seeds. The basil we’ll be planting in shifts so that we have some all summer long. The cherry tomatos we’re going to plant in a hanging container and have the vines and tomatoes hang from the pot instead of needing to cage them.

Got to ride to work again today, felt pretty good, although I was still a little saddle sore from yesterday’s ride. Made much better time than I expected too, so that’s fun. Also, I might have convinced the new guy at work to give our transit system a try.




Cycling

Two Stories from SignonSanDiego.com

Two news articles pulled from the local paper's website (Union-Tribune's signonsandiego.com).

The first is a story about a new commuter light rail in north San Diego County:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080310/news_1m10sprint.html

The second is a Reuters article that talks about how public transit numbers are going up:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080310-0847-us-gasoline-mass-transit.html

Both are good news. Enjoy.

A note on Sustainability

There are three main reasons I have started to cyclocommute (a word I just made up): financial, physiological and ideological. Financially, I was spending $4.50 each day in gas on my commute. That is at least $90 a month, before you figure in wear and tear on my car. A bus pass only costs me $64 each month. Physiologically, getting on my bike several times a week is good for my health. I’ve started stretching again and I have more energy throughout the day.

The most important reason, however, is ideology. Driving myself by car is not a sustainable exercise. What I do at work in no way equals the resources it takes to get there. Sustainability is about doing things in a way that does not leave a debt behind you (in this case, an environmental debt). Eventually all the chemicals and fuels we use are going to make the world unlivable. So I ride my bike to cut down the amount of chemicals and fuels.

There is something that happens when you get out on your bike; you become part of the community. No longer encased by metal, glass and plastic, you no longer shy away from conversations with neighbors and other commuters. You learn more about the area and more about where you fit.

There are many other areas where sustainability matters. One of the biggest (and most written about) is food. Learning how much of the food in this country is grown will destroy your childhood ideas of farms and farmers. Sustainable food is organic, free from pesticides and naturally fertilized. It is also tastes better and has more nutrients.

Take some time to look at your life; the things you use that you don’t really need, the things you waste and the things you throw away. Try to eliminate those things; (I know this will sound cliché) reduce, reuse and recycle (in that order).

Learning My Lesson

Yesterday’s ride was a doozy. I left work with high hopes of a great ride and got home four hours later tired and cranky. My plan was to ride to Imperial Beach up the Silver Stand to the Coronado Ferry and then catch the bus home from downtown. Unfortunately, I did several things wrong which made the ride more difficult than it should have been.

What I did wrong
My first mistake was made in the morning when I forgot to grab a packet of GU to use as back up food. I’ve found that lately I’ve underestimated how much food I will want to eat during the ride and have been fortunate that I generally pack some extra, ‘just in case.’ This time I did not. I also decided to try out an ‘energy’ drink mix that a good friend gave me. This mix created a caffeine based energy drink, and I wanted to see how caffeine would affect my riding. (Some cyclists use caffeine to help keep them alert and focused.) Also, because I was auditioning this caffeine beverage, I did not have a place for my usual Gatorade bottle, so I did not have that source of calories either. Finally, I failed to check the bus and ferry schedules so that I could ensure a minimum of waiting.

What went wrong
The main thing that went wrong was that the caffeine beverage failed the audition. Miserably. On top of not actually providing any energy that I could use to power my bike, it interfered with the digestion of the one source of calories I did have (a fantastically delicious peanut butter granola bar). Once I ate the granola bar, my stomach knotted up around it and I had to ride the rest of the route with a cramp that impeded my breathing. As if only to top that, the ferry left the dock while I was purchasing my ticket. This left me with an hour to sit on dock waiting for the ferry to return. Once I disembarked downtown (at 8pm) I stopped at the first stop where I could get on a #15 bus. After a 20 minute wait, I jumped on the #2 bus which would get me within 10 blocks of home. Had I been more patient, the #15 was just a few more minutes and would have gotten me home quicker with less cycling.

The good news from all of this is that I learned a lot about riding and commuting. First, caffeine is not good for me so I will just stay away from it. Second, always check to see when busses and ferries run. And finally, even if I’m dead tired, sporting a stomach cramp and not really feeling that great, I can still finish my planned ride, which will be useful knowledge when I ride my first century.

Despite the seemingly bad experience I did enjoy myself and plan on making the ride again. I achieved my mini-goal of getting to the strand before sunset so that I could watch the setting sun as I rode along the beach. I got in a total of 27 miles on the day and I got to catch up with an old friend on the phone while I waited for the ferry. Looking at it from that angle, it wasn’t a bad commute at all.

Rain Day

Wet one today in San Diego. I am pleasantly surprised at how well SD transit did today in the rain (at least as far as my commute was concerned). Both the busses I used were pretty much on time. Also, I got to break out my Driza-Bone australian rain coat, which is rare in SD.

I am a little disappointed about my bike being in the shop still. I haven't ever ridden in a heavy rain and I'm interested in how my gear will hold up and what equipment I need to get to make it comfortable. I'm sure we'll get at least one more decent storm this year, so I guess I'll try it out then.

Also, to add to the money I'm saving by not driving, I never bought windshield wipers this year, so that is another $15 in the bank.

Google Transit Helps with Finding Public Transportation Routes

This news isn't really new, but it might be responsible for keeping me out of my car most of the last few weeks. Google Transit (http://www.google.com/transit or you can just access it through Google Maps) was a project that came out of Google Labs at the end of 2005. Here is their blog post about it:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/public-transit-via-google.html
In October 2007 it graduated from Google Labs to a full fledged Google service and was integrated with Google Maps. Blog Post:
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/10/google-transit-graduates-from-labs.html

Google Transit is great because it allows you to get directions in Google Maps just like driving directions, but instead it tells you which busses or light rail to take (in some cases it will even tell you how much you would save over driving). You can choose a start time or an arrival time and which day you want to travel. It then gives you 3 different options of routes and times. It also accounts for walking times to and from the transit stops (although I've found that I walk faster than their estimation).

This service is not currently available everywhere. To see if your community is covered check the Google Transit page. If you are not covered by this service yet, I suggest badgering your local transit authority to put together the files needed. Send them a well reasoned letter explaining how this would be good for the community along with this link:
http://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.html
Or, better yet, write a form letter and distribute it so that your trasit authority gets many letters asking them to join Google Transit. Remember the easier it is to use, the more likely one is to use it.