The price of Gas: Commuters GALORE!

[Too Tall]

Over the last 8 yrs. or so of commuting into town I take note of new "faces in the crowd" and often slow down or speed up to chat. Not often mind you, new commuters are pretty rare. HOWEVER, today I encountered three new riders and none traveling together. Three new commuters in one day on an 8 mile piece of rails to trails where I almost never see a soul and I know the "regulars".

The first rider was a middle age woman who passed me 20 min.s previous while I was getting a morning espresso. I noticed she had no lights at all...not good. After a little chit chat I told her "I am your mom today" and "you need to go buy some lights!!!" She laughed and promised she would. It was her first commute EVER and she was riding 12 miles each way!!! Wow. Also, she indicated the price of driving and a good excuse for better health. How cool is that?

The other two new commuters had similar stories. Price of gas gave them a push to commit and today was the DAY for them to do their first commute.

I hope the price of gas goes sky frickin' high.

[Ray]

I don't commute to work anymore because I don't work. But I ride around town doing errands all the time and I've seen a lot more people doing functional biking (as opposed to recreational) around here in the past couple of months. I even encountered a small traffic jam of bikes at one four way stop intersection the other day. Cyclists coming from three different directions, falling all over ourselves to let the other ones go through first. It was great!

Too bad it took a hurricane to do it, but high gas prices have a big upside in addition to the obvious short term downsides.

-Ray

[Fixed]

Bro ,Ive never owned a car I ride the same route everyday for 15 years and I never see another rider. Fla. pretty much sucks for cyclist .Given the warm temps you would think it to be bike friendly it is not ,one the most dangerous places to ride in the U.S. Few if any bike lanes and bad drivers,but I would still rather bike than drive any day. be safe my Bros. Cheers :beer:

[flydhest]

TT,

That's splendiferous, especially for this area. I don't think I've noticed a change, but our commutes are quite different, as you know. Anybody on my commute probably wasn't driving to begin with.

Will you by my mommy, too?

p.s. Who's your daddy, who's your daddy, who's your daddy?

[scrooge]

My wife noticed the same thing--she started commuting to her new job (as she did to her old one) and apparently some of her co-workers thought that was a great idea. Now at least one other commutes too. I guess its easy for me to say since I never have to drive anywhere, but I'm hopeful that higher gas prices will bring about a few changes for the better in our car-happy society... more mass transit, more biking, less driving...if only for a littel while.

[pjm]

I don't see any difference around here, yet. I think its because its much harder to dial their cell phones on a bicycle and they would feel silly at the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru. :rolleyes:

[saab2000]

I know that I, for one, have made a few changes in my own plans due to gas prices. I have definitely driven less.

I don't commute by car much, so it is less an issue for me. But I have not taken one or two trips by car which I had planned on because of the price of gas.

[znfdl]

TT:

I have noticed that on the other side of the potomac river that the W&OD and Custis trails have many more bicycles than I have ever seen since at 5:30 in the morning. I think that Virginia has gotten more hard core commuters since the Hurricane. One guy that I rode with yesterday had the legs of a track sprinter and could not climb hills which was expected. But he could really hammer the flats.

[Tailwinds]

Denver has bicycle commuters everywhere, but then again, we have the road/bike path infrastructure to support that. It is very common to find yourself in a bicycle traffic jam at an intersection or to have to avoid becoming part of someone else's paceline.

For all you commuters that have to carry a laptop, what is your favorite messenger bag? My husband has been talking about commuting, and his birthday is tomorrow.

[Fixed]

Hi, T.W. timbuk2 makes a small bag that just fits a laptop, larger bag have sections in the bags for laptops I take mine every day and use airport Like now I'm in a nice city park it's great.I can.t wait to see that Kirk pics.Cheers :beer:

[PanTerra]

I hope the price of gas goes sky frickin' high.

Well, unfortunately produce, etc. is not brought to grocery stores by bicycle, so it would be sky high prices for everything. Although I have been told that if I wanted to get back into oil exploration that opportunities abound. You may just have a point. Let's see now, if I had a 2% overriding royalty on a 100 bbl/d well at $65/bbl., WOOHOO, that is almost $4000 a month. :beer:

[Ginger]

I loaned my daily rider to a guy in the office so he could "try it before he buys a bike to commute on." Sometime this week or next I'm stopping by a buddy's house and riding in with him on his very first commute, it's on my way. I rode to work today on my mtb. It adds time to the ride, but it's a long, grinding, dead false flat (yep, uphill all the way) on the way in to work so it's good for me. On the positive side I get in 40 miles a day when I commute by bike. Free training miles.
I saw two "new faces" on my route and a couple familiar ones, and tapped on one tail gate and a passenger side window (the express route to work involves a lot of sidewalks...people park in the cross walks...) and made comment to two other drivers about staying out of the cross walks. I usually ride in an hour earlier so I miss most of these brain dead box jockies waiting to make right hand turns.

[Too Tall]

Ginger - You are a "commuter mentor"....nice. Well gee wiz Fly who wouldn't want to be YOUR mommmy? You cook, make great coffee, ain't half bad looking and you wash up real nice. Agree that the Timbuk2 bags are flawless. Esp. like the build it on line deal. I had one done in Rastafarian Colors in memory of Bob Marley :) OK OK I'll admit I've got three not that there is anything wrong with that.

I was thinking of advertising in the local bicycle club magazine....kind of what Ginger is doing but as a small informal class. Sometimes I think folks just get stuck over simple stuff like what is a safe route, how do I deal with cloths, how do you put your bike on the subway etc. Hmmm. Yeah why not?

Krikey, I have not driven my hot rod since prices went nuts. At 8 mpg in the city it is an ugly proposition to even warm it up!!!

[Ginger]

I'd rather be flydhests mommy. ;)

TT, I find it easier to convert the world one person at a time. Find someone "on the ledge" then push them off. :-)

[Ginger]

I want stickers.
Black
About 4x4 inches
A picture of a big pink cartoon hog on the top 2/3 and below the pig in bright yellow letters:

CROSSWALK
HOG

So I can slap one on the bumper of every car that pulls into the crosswalk and blocks my right of way. (My ride in the am is fairly dangerous territory and I stick to sidewalks...sad but true)

[Tom]

http://www.blindpigrecords.com/images/gateway-logo.gif

A good starting point?

[flydhest]

I'd rather be flydhests mommy. ;)



hellllloooooooooooo, nurse!

As it turns out, I'm not fully weaned, so . . .

[Russ]

Well, unfortunately produce, etc. is not brought to grocery stores by bicycle, so it would be sky high prices for everything.


Yeap, especially in our oil-enslaved country/society... Perhaps high oil prices will also teach a lesson to those H2/Expedition/etc. drivers!

Although I have been told that if I wanted to get back into oil exploration that opportunities abound....

I have also been told there is something called "Peak-Oil". Based on this theory, I bet it would be cheaper and faster to develop alternative solutions to oil dependencies than to find new oil, which no matter how you look at it is a temporary solution.....

Cheers! ;)

[The Spider]

Whoa, not only do we have the drivers throwing legs over there rusted crapers..but all the sloths have removed themselves from the couch (just because it turned September the 1st) and have decided to get there 'summer bodies' (technically they are in there somewhere, just under the 40kg of fat!) ready.

Seriously, some folks are great (you can tell from the smile!) but others should have stayed in the car...I expect ALL drivers to drive eratically and expect better from cyclists (vulnerability = responsibility etc).

Wish me luck.