Preparing for Bike Week

Among work, my wife's medical problems and other stuff going on, I'm also preparing for Bike Week, specifically, the commuter convoy.

It looks like one or two of the convoys might even get a quick blurb (or something, maybe more) from a local news station. Although not a lot of people have actually RSVP'd for the convoys, Eric has been sending out mail to people who have signed up for our Kansas City Car-Free challenge. I'm hoping our volunteers get a few extra that just show up.

There are a multitude of reasons to commute by bike. Many of them you can't discover in a week of riding to work. Others, you can't discover for at least a month. To this day -- now almost 2 years into my adventures of bike commuting -- I still notice things and gain an appreciation for things that I wouldn't ever know of had it not been for riding a bike as much as I have.

So, do it for fun. Do it to stick it to the oil execs or terrorists. Do it for the environment. Do it for your health or for the air your childen breathe. Do it for being able to say "hi" to passersby on the sidewalk on their morning jog or dog walk, or even just to clear your mind a bit before and after work. Give it a shot next week, at least once.

And, if you're reading this, you're probably either a bicycle commuter or considering it. Tell your friends and co-workers. Offer to ride in with them.

It was a bit of a camera-free hammerfest on the way home, but here's some stuff from this morning.

Craziness

I have to go to the data center tomorrow morning. I already have a route picked out.

We're racing our pinewood derby cars. I spent a while with some of my cow-orkers doing final assembly.


This is one of our three cars. It adheres to all the BSA specifications, too. It's supposed to be the pacer from Wayne's World.


I took this over lunch. Yes, it's manipulated. I recently installed the CHDK Firmware Hack on my Canon PowerShot A530. This was originally shot in RAW. I'm loving the flexibility and clarity you get with RAW format. I also like the fine-tuning and on-camera scripting ability that the CHDK Allbest package affords the user.


More springtime evidence from the homeward. I racked up about 30 miles today.








We'll see how the weather holds up overnight. If it's nice enough, I'm riding the route to the data center. Otherwise, I need to use three different buses to get out there. I'm not looking forward to that.

Oh yeah. Not that it matters to anyone that reads, but I got my promotion today, after 1 year and exactly 4 months. I guess my commute isn't going to change any time soon. On a side note, I've never ever held the same position more than 2 years since I started working. I either get a promotion, quit, or get laid off before the two year point. At the college, I had 4 different titles over the course of eight years.

Faux Toes

Yesterday Morning





Standing room only. After I took this, one more person got on.


Lorin's bike. My Bike. Bob's bike (which is the same model as Lorin's but newer)


Lunch Yesterday:


The communal dog poop repository. It seems all the loft dwellers in the area come to this small patch of green space to let their dogs do their business. Mushrooms will be growing here in a few weeks.


Last night as I left, I saw... Another bicycle. A real bicycle. The first one I've ever seen other than one of my own. Occasionally, there's a 125cc scooter locked up, but this is the first time I've actually seen another bicycle. The Gas Crunch is on. I can smell it (isn't that called huffing?)

This is a Schwinn Point Beach. I'm still torn on what I think about it.


The following photos are from the ride home. I took the bus to 87th and Antioch. Karen was also on the bus. These are pictures of the most treacherous part of the newish Single Point Urban Interchange at 87th and US-69/I-35. Traffic is insanely fast through here, as people rush to zip through, often in excess of 55 MPH (45 MPH limit). This forces cyclists to the sidewalk for a brief stretch of road, as the outer lane is narrow, right turns are frequent and traffic is hurried. Anti-sidewalk people? You can bite me until you try to negotiate this yourselves in rush hour. You just have to be careful, and take a pedestrian mindset for a few blocks. There is an on-road route across the highway at the cost of about 2 miles. I'm just lazy.

The crosswalk is not visible to cars getting ready to enter the highway. It's around the curve a ways. Motorists cannot see pedestrians waiting to cross. Furthermore, no yellow crosswalk signage, traffic signals or any other hints of a crosswalk exist to raise the guard of motorists.


The crossing is perpendicular to traffic, which is why it goes around the corner. Unfortunately, this cloverleaf-style highway entrance ramp descends rapidly, so the crosswalk is also low.


As you can see, there are no traffic signals nor crosswalk lights here. This is a serious flaw of traffic engineering if you ask me.




As a pedestrian, you can't tell if a car is coming until it's too late because of the descent and blind curve. Motorists often negotiate this ramp at 50 miles per hour. Again, they have no clue a crosswalk awaits.


Ideally, this intersection would have a full red/yellow/green light activated by a crosswalk button (as seen in school zones), but this messy crosswalk should at least have a pentagon crosswalk sign and a yellow alternating flashing light to alert motorists to the potential of pedestrians. This is similar to how MUP crossings are handled in Merriam, KS at 67th street and on Merriam Lane.

This morning, I got to watch an awesome sunrise.








Hazy Crown Center skyline


The old building I still want to explore. No time this morning.




Downtown skyline at daybreak. It's getting brighter in the morning every day.


Random Tunage:
Peter Cetera - You're The Inspiration (solo cover - originally performed with Chicago)
Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

Mister Forgetful

I guess I can't go a week without forgetting something.  This morning was a bit on the crazy side, and I couldn't get out in time for a full commute.  It would have been a great morning for it, though.

I forgot my laptop power cord, so in the interest of saving some battery life, I'm posting this from email.  No pics or tunage this morning.

Gas prices must really be hitting people hard.  The first L bus out of town this morning was standing-room-only.  Usually, the bus would qualify as "full" with most bench seats holding two people.  A few of the bigger people usually get their own bench.  The back seat -- usually seating three -- had four occupants, and no one got their own bench.  No one.  Two riders were forced to stand. I haven't counted the number of seats on the 40" buses, but I am almost certain there were more than 50 people on the bus this morning, compared with an average of perhaps 35 a few months ago.

The nicest day this week

According to some, this will be the nicest day we see this week. It might be all downhill from here. We'll see.

I Got caught by a train on the way home.


On my way to the Monday night ride. 85th is still torn up.


Riders socialize while others gear up.


The last half of the Monday night riders.


Attack Of The Carneys.


It's not Cinco De Mayo without beer. Eeh. Corona is okay, I guess. Call it peer pressure. Oh, Hi Mark. And I think that's John hiding with the Colnago cap.


I haven't seen this house before.


It's got a built-in greenhouse. Not your usual suburban JoCo home.


I was losing serious daylight fast when I got home, so I played artsy fartsy photographer with what was left.






















Random Tunage:
Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko
Finger Eleven - One Thing