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Spinning thoughts
May. 13th, 2005 09:52 amI'm looking at an postcard-sized announcement printed on stiff cardstock. One of the secretaries brought it to me. It's an announcement from ClevelandBikes.org announcing the kickoff of the Bike to Work Program next Friday, May 20. She picked it up at Starbuck's, which is co-sponsoring the event. Bikers will gather at designated Starbucks locations and bike into work en mass that day, in a show of solidarity for...something. Oh, commuting options. Pollution reduction. Bicycle awareness and commuter safety. All good things.
I think I'm going to attend, mostly to figure out how the heck to get downtown on a bike.
The most obvious and pleasant way to head toward Cleveland from the West Side is to ride down Clifton, a broad, tree-lined street with large houses and a couple small commercial districts. Beautiful riding, pleasant and flat.
But.
You get to 98th and the road funnels into The Shoreway. Which is a freeway. 60mph traffic, no bike lane, no shoulder, narrow bridges. Not bike friendly.
The other options are Detroit, which is a series of stop lights leading into some pretty sketchy neighborhoods, and Lorain, which is the same except much more out of my way.
It's about 11 miles to town, definitely a bike-able distance, but this lack of a good route has defeated my occasional thoughts of doing so. It appears that the leader of the group leaving from the Starbucks a mile from me is also leading the group leaving from the Starbucks on Clifton, which means that we will be riding on Clifton.
Maybe he knows a better way into town. And if so, maybe I will start riding in more often. riding both ways would be 22 miles of biking in a day. Good exercise.
And the other great thing is, if I rode in of a morning and then the weather turned really nasty or got super-hot, all the city buses are now equipped with bike racks, so I could put my bike on the front of the bus and just take the bus home.
Of course, none of this solves the other issues such as transporting my work clothes to and fro, finding someplace to change, needing a shower, or "helmet hair." I really don't want to cough up the cash for an athletic club membership, which would solve a lot of this but also ding our budget. But I think those are surmountable problems. I've been wanting to get a bike bag, I don't tend to get really sweaty, and chopping my hair short for the summer (sorry, honey) would make it easier to manage.
I'm looking forward to this.
I think I'm going to attend, mostly to figure out how the heck to get downtown on a bike.
The most obvious and pleasant way to head toward Cleveland from the West Side is to ride down Clifton, a broad, tree-lined street with large houses and a couple small commercial districts. Beautiful riding, pleasant and flat.
But.
You get to 98th and the road funnels into The Shoreway. Which is a freeway. 60mph traffic, no bike lane, no shoulder, narrow bridges. Not bike friendly.
The other options are Detroit, which is a series of stop lights leading into some pretty sketchy neighborhoods, and Lorain, which is the same except much more out of my way.
It's about 11 miles to town, definitely a bike-able distance, but this lack of a good route has defeated my occasional thoughts of doing so. It appears that the leader of the group leaving from the Starbucks a mile from me is also leading the group leaving from the Starbucks on Clifton, which means that we will be riding on Clifton.
Maybe he knows a better way into town. And if so, maybe I will start riding in more often. riding both ways would be 22 miles of biking in a day. Good exercise.
And the other great thing is, if I rode in of a morning and then the weather turned really nasty or got super-hot, all the city buses are now equipped with bike racks, so I could put my bike on the front of the bus and just take the bus home.
Of course, none of this solves the other issues such as transporting my work clothes to and fro, finding someplace to change, needing a shower, or "helmet hair." I really don't want to cough up the cash for an athletic club membership, which would solve a lot of this but also ding our budget. But I think those are surmountable problems. I've been wanting to get a bike bag, I don't tend to get really sweaty, and chopping my hair short for the summer (sorry, honey) would make it easier to manage.
I'm looking forward to this.
