Comments on: CBB Poll: Route Choice

By: Mike Myers

Mike Myers — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:12:12 +0000

I have read all the comments from riders who ride in heavy traffic and chalk their failure to be run over to “riding predictably” or being a skilled rider. That’s what I thought, too, before I was hit from behind while taking the lane AND wearing a brightly colored jersey in broad daylight. You only have to bounce off a truck once to have a change of attitude. I actively avoid heavily trafficked roads now unless I have a wide shoulder or a bike lane. I still take the route I was hit while riding, except now I’m reduced to riding offroad for a quarter of a mile to avoid traffic. Riding on a 55mph 2 lane with curves and hills is unsafe, even if you’re John Forester. Drivers are distracted, incompetent, and dangerous. The requirements to get a driver’s license in the US are woefully inadequate.

By: kaz_kougar

kaz_kougar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:50:32 +0000

Ummm, my route rules? I have about 5 miles of city streets, all marked with bike lanes with the exception of about .5 mile of side streets. 3 miles are paved wooded trail. I have no major inclines and maybe 2 very minor inclines. I really can’t complain, guess I’m pretty fortunate.

By: Brent Shultz

Brent Shultz — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:22:06 +0000

Work is a 3 mile ride in, and while I live in a pretty small town (~17k), I’ve manged to tailor the ride to residential side streets for the majority. After a month of tinkering, I whittled it down to just 6 stop signs and one traffic signal. And now that winter’s over, the roads have shoulders again, making the busy parts a *lot* less scary.

By: Fritz

Fritz — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:49:36 +0000

Warren, how about none of the above? My every day route has all of those features. Other routes are available that have bike lanes, pedestrian bridges and so on, and I'll use them occasionally just to mix things up, but usually I just pick the shortest route from point A to B. If there are different routes that are almost equidistant, sure I'll pick the more pleasant road, but I'm not going to go miles out of my way just to avoid traffic. The things I and many other bike commuters look for -- I want to minimize stop signs and red lights. I can see avoiding an especially steep hill if a way around it is possible, but I've never had to make that choice. This is me in traffic.

By: Idbob

Idbob — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:35:45 +0000

I use to ride on a high traffic road. my reasons were, the route was a couple minutes quicker, more traffic meant more people may get the idea that commuting on a bike can be done and the road was wider with a bike lane 50% of the ride. Then some nut ran me down on purpose, broke some things and my bike, then drove off. Most of the time now I take a different route, which is still fast, has less traffic but more cross streets. Higher traffic drives the odds up, of running into that one guy who is pissed off at the world. I’m still waiting for my turn at getting creamed on “accident” this time. By a driver who did’nt see me. Sometimes I take my original route, only to show this guy I’m not intimidated.

By: Quinn

Quinn — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:08:23 +0000

Totally agree Steve- I actually find myself zoning out/ totally bored if I take the same route every day.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:04:19 +0000

Another barrier: boredom. Some days I can’t bear the thought of taking the same old route to work even though it’s better by all the quantifiable criteria.

By: Ed W

Ed W — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:51:35 +0000

My commute has ALL of these: high traffic count, high speed, narrow lanes, grades, railroad crossings, no off-road path, no bike lanes, yet I still manage to get to work and back. Why is that? Could I be some sort of superman – though a middle-aged, slightly pudgy one? Or could it be that by riding predictably, taking the lane when necessary, and behaving as merely another vehicle (albeit a slow one) on the road, I’m just another guy on his way to work every day? Nothing special or remarkable about it. Just another commuter.

By: Quinn

Quinn — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:49:06 +0000

For me the shortest route home has a hill about 2/3 the way home that is a 150 ft elevation climb, where if I take a slightly longer route that last climb is only 100 ft.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:30:56 +0000

I have recently re-adjusted my route to work, and am still in the midst of putting the final touches on it. Going from Boston to Cambridge, I am at the mercy of the few bridges of the Charles River. The narrow one ways to get to the river from my apartment have proven to be a bit tricky, and I’m left with the choice of powering over a HUGE hill, or jumping onto Storrow, one of the main arteries in the city. I don’t know if it’s youthful foolishness or laziness, but more often than not I find myself jumping onto Storrow in the morning rather than face that climb.