Commuting To Work In C-Bus

A shot of the Leveque Tower from street level. I could spend all day in this amazing building.















In Los Angeles, those brave enough to commute by bicycle have a death wish...unless they can commute frome the Valley to Santa Monica via Caballero Canyon and/or the slot canyons in Brentwood on the West side. Everywhere else is scary at best, with Hollywood's elite driving Bentley's still hung over/heroined out from the night before or commuters driving with their knees while talking on the cel, working on the laptop and drinking a Vanilla non-fat-mocha-latte-java-chip-frappe-breve-Americano-with-light-foam thingy. Oh, and they probably have a small, rat-like pet of some kind running amok in the driver's seat. The odds are not in your favor. I know so many people who have been hit and/or killed in the few years I lived there, it's reasonably scary. That's not to say it doesn't happen here. Last weekend during the TOSRV ride (a two day, 220 miler that traverses a great section of Ohio), a man was plowed down and killed on his way from his hotel to the ride route. He was killed by a woman in an SUV that she could barely climb into. She "thought she hit a sign or something" until she got home. She saw the damage to the vehicle, and returned to the scene.....two hours later. The man was dead. in the 17 year history of this ride, he was the first casualty.
















German Village store front, where the century old brick streets make full suspension commuter bikes a viable thought.







The commuting here by bike is still better, by a lot. The city has invested millions in paved bike paths along the city's two great waterways. They both lead to downtown from the outskirts of the greater metropolitan area, and are impeccably maintained. They actually typically get plowed in the winter before the streets and highways do! Scenic, windy, and with new asphalt the lack of stops and starts make getting that twenty miles to downtown a breeze, and times well under an hour make for a quick run.















Luka on his morning commute to Giggles and Grins daycare. Pop-Tarts are an amazing energy source for cyclists apparently.





With the bike paths being almost entirely separated from vehicle traffic, the numbers of people hit and killed are almost non-existant. Here in C-Bus, as in EVERY major city, the driving population is woefully (and murderously) unaware of the very basic laws regarding bicycles. Most think we are to be relegated to sidewalks, and often display their longest finger in an attempt to show their anger at someone actually doing 25 mph in a 25 mph neighborhood.













The bike path into downtown rolls along the river, alongside the replica of the Santa Maria. It is beautiful here in the early morning.






Still, it is safer and better thought out here. The local government sponsors ride to work programs, and encourages large corporations like the genetic research facility Battelle to establish bike commuter programs. I have been teaching bike commuting classes all month, and the turnout has been better and better each week. I am actually meeting a guy tomorrow on my ride home to show him the route south along the Olentangy River into downtown! One less car is a good thing, and C-Bus residents will be surprised in the coming few years how bad the traffic will get on the local freeways. Expansion is a bitch, and nobody knows that better than the folks who bought land in Temecula, CA in the 70's. Now the ONE exit from the 15 freeway in their metroplitan mecca has back-ups of two and three hours just to exit the freeway..cars backed up all the way to Lake Elsinore.












Luka and Lyd on one of the many bridges along the Olentangy River Trail.







I will be riding to work every day possible for the remainder of the summer (40 miles a day), and that makes me happy. Less gas, fewer oil changes, fewer maintenance costs for tires, brakes etc....and I will be in great shape to race with Tookie in a couple of months. Hopefully L.A. will wake up and build a safe corridor from the Valley to the West side soon. The path from Chatsworth to NoHo is great, but serves very little in the work day commute. Maybe a chairlfift from Balboa Park to Will Rogers Park would be a great option!


People could walk to work, and take their bikes for an evening run along Santa Monica beach before taking a leisurely chairlift ride over the stellar Santa Monica's on the way home....




















My old commute to Santa Monica from Sherman Oaks took me over the mountains and down some sweet singletrack to the beach. The KENDA Klimax Lite was a great tire for the mixture of street and trail.





The bike path here that I use isn't without it's problems. Here we have TONS of Tri-Geeks who like to run seven abreast across both lanes of traffic. They also love to wear headphones. That is bad. Leaving absolutely not an inch of BIKE LANE to work with, and no way for them to hear you announce you desire to pass, it usually ends in me arm-barring several of them in my lane at 20 mph to get them to realize that may not be the smartest idea on a "Multi-Use" path. There are also the newbie bikers who like to give the no-warning, no-look stoppy manuever right in front of you...OR the U-Turn maneuver, which is equally as bad. Dog walkers are surprisingly good here, unlike the Santa Monica's. People from the West side who walk up the Westridge fireroad leading to the Missile Station are amongst the dumbest humans on the planet. No leashes, no clue that it's a very frequently travelled mountain bike route (one of the most used in the entire range), and ONE MORE THING that makes me crazy. They take plastic bags for their dog's crap. That would be GREAT if they would actually bag it up and throw it in one of the MANY trash bins along the road. What they LIKE to do is take a waste product that would dissolve in a day or two on it's own.....and BAG IT UP, then LEAVE IT ON THE ROAD. Now you just made it completely non-biodegradeable, didn't throw it out, and left it for some coyote or bird to eat thinking it's food waste and dying from the plastic bits. Well done, elitist bastards!













Lyd along the bike path on a perfectly cool summer morning, Luka yelling "On you'r left!"






Every place has it's issues, but places like C-Bus and Portland are trying. Trying is better than doing nothing, since you will never please everyone. You can make a difference though, so let's try, o.k.?











The bike path from hwy 270 into downtown looks like this for about 20 miles!