Monday, January 3, 2011

Bike Traffic in Winter

After a unseasonably warm weekend (highs at almost 50!) melted away some but not all of the snowbanks,  it was back to a crisp 29 degrees when I set out this morning,  and the edges of the road glittered with frozen melt puddles.  But immediately I found myself in "bike traffic"  and had to wait to merge into the bike lane while two people passed.

In total I saw 15 other bikers on my commute in this morning- three on the Longfellow alone.  So much for "no one will ride in the winter".  If there were three bikes every 5 minutes for an hour between 8 and 9 that would be 60 bikes an hour,  not too shabby for January.

Amazing! Warms the cockles of my heart. Now if it could just warm my toes, which were a little chilly-should have worn my wool tights.

Something to get even more excited about- the days are appreciably getting longer.  I'm still biking home in the dark, but at least it's not dark at 4pm anymore...  It's all uphill from the solstice!
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3 comments:

  1. Steve AJanuary 3, 2011 at 6:11 PM

    Things are getting brighter in the afternoon down here, too. I think a trend is developing, though there's not a lot of bike traffic here.

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  2. AnonymousJanuary 3, 2011 at 6:22 PM

    Thats great regarding the busy bike lanes - Its great to be on them and know that others are too!

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  3. somervillainJanuary 3, 2011 at 7:21 PM

    Today was our second day back from two weeks away, and our kids' first day back at school. We got right back into the cycling routine, and the kids got bundled up and rode on our tandems to school. The roads in Somerville were in surprisingly good shape, with very few puddles (perhaps because of all the hills?). Interestingly, after drop-off and my next leg from school to work in Cambridge, I noticed that the streets of Cambridge had more frozen puddles, and higher mounds of snow scattered along the curbs. I wonder why? I think Somerville is more aggressive with their salting and trucking away of snow, so that might be an explanation, but I'm not certain.

    I was also pleasantly surprised to find that our secure bike cage at work received a thoughtful Christmas upgrade: the iron fencing that forms the exterior walls now have a wind-resistant mesh covering. The cage is within a covered parking structure, but had been exposed to wind, and blowing snow and rain would come in. No more!

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