Happy Commuting Moment(s)

[TimB]

I've been sharing my Happy Commuting Moments over the last couple years. With all the apparent hostility on the roads toward bicyclists, it always is good for me to realize that most of the drivers are not overtly hostile - they may be inept - but are generally not really trying to run me off the road or kill me.

So, yesterday morning I had another unusual interaction. My commute takes me through a very quiet residential area where there are no sidewalks. Up ahead of me, on the other side of the street is a woman walking her dog. The dog is obviously well-trained, staying at heel without the woman needing to do anything. As I approach, the woman stops, and the dog immediately sits. The woman smiles as I ride by, I let out a "Good doggie!" as I pass. It was not as if the dog had made any move to bark or chase me or had paid much of any attention to me at all. It just seemed a nice gesture though - getting chased by ill-trained dogs is generally no fun.

What's your most recent Happy Commuting Moment?

[znfdl]

Seeing that the joggers on the W&OD start to be more scantily clad this time of year. :banana:

[taylorj]

Cycling in Reno is pretty easy. Roads either have a bike lane or there is tons of room on most roads---and there just aren't that many people here (compared to the SF Bay Area or Watertown..Boston). My route to work includes a maybe a mile long bike-path (where the cars have to use the freeway) and during the winter---when there is snow, it can be over-looked for clearing. But there is this old guy, who shovels the bike path (out of the kindness of his heart) so that the few cyclists who choose to ride year-around have a safe path to ride.

[fiamme red]

What's your most recent Happy Commuting Moment?Passing a tandem (a man and his 8-year old daughter) in Hoboken at 8:30 on a Tuesday morning.

It made my day!

[WadePatton]

Not commuting but--Sunday was a great dry warm day here and folks were out in droves. I saw two different folks "sneak up" on their dogs to restrain them while I rode by. The dogs were loose in the yard and just happened to not see me first.

Lots of drivers and yardlings waved.

Monday was another sweet day and while most autos are pretty good--we had one car give FULL berth and then SIGNAL to come back onto the right side of the road. And this is out were there are no lines on the road.

Road manners are pretty good around here so long as you miss the go-to-workers, the get-outta-churchers, and the Friday/Saturday evening-buzzers.

clean pavement and tailwinds to all.

[jthurow]

Waving back at all the kiddies waiting at the bus stop always makes me smile... like this... :)

jimi

[Fixed]

bro riding with some little kids that wait for me everyday to race one block
they think I'm somebody ....they beat me everyday i say wow you cats are fast :)
cheers

[bigbill]

I commuted yesterday. My happy moment was the entire trip to work in clean, crisp, and cold air. I use the 1:20 to clear my head and organize my day. I have come up with so many solutions to problems at work while barrelling through the darkness and focussing on the lit road ahead. My most productive days at work are when I commute.

The ride home was in 40 degree temps with sleet. That sucked. 1:20 of suck.

Still beats driving.

[staggerwing]

On the commute home, I generally take a hill climb, through a ritzy subdivision. A good 5 minute stand and grind on the way up, followed by a short, steep drop, crossing a main thoroughfare at the bottom. I had just taken the drop at a pretty good clip, pulling away from the following car, but missed the light. At the bottom, some teenagers, in a newer Jetta pull up alongside. The driver rolls the window down, smiled, and said, "that's a cool bike." It was just an older, lugged steel, Allez, setup with mustache bars.

Maybe some of our following generations will see the bicycle as a viable form of transportation; especially for 'short haul', urban applications. Looking around Cincinnati, it is certainly obvious that most adults don't.

Any commute on my bike makes for a better day than a commute in my car.

[bhungerford]

My favorite commutes so far this year have been the few times when it snowed just enough that it was actually safer to ride into work than drive :beer: this is east side cincy, and for whatever reason cincy doesn't know how to plow...oh well, good excuse to ride.

it's really cool to be cutting a path in fresh snow on the streets, no car tracks, no foot prints, just clean white snow and the sound of the chain, just very peaceful, of course i obviously get to wake up very early for this :)

no real interactions with cars or people as early as i get into work, on the ride home, i have a nice 2.5 mile climb (only about 3-4%) right through a fairly busy section of town, but the streets have 2 lanes going each way and i've never had cars not give me the full right hand lane when passing, so that's pretty cool.

if any of you have never commuted into work by bike, give it a try just once this summer, it just makes your day so much nicer, gives you that nice energy for the morning, and even if your actual work day is terrible, you always have a ride to look forward to at the end of it, so you never really have a bad day at work when you ride there :D

[Kevan]

Not today.

[Too Tall]

Kev., stand by help is on the way. I'm overnighting Sandy and King. Both might be a little hungry so you should get a bag of kibble n' bits. Thank me later ;)


Tim., nice thread :) Two days of commutes and two stories. First, Monday I saw a fast guy commuting very near my starting point. Caught him (yeah yeah I chase stuff) after a few miles and it was my sometimes commuting partner. I hate him, not really, because his daily commute is 12 miles longer than mine hehe. The guy is 5 yrs. older than me and has finished IM "the big show" many times. We caught up on life and hammered out some hills. It's an affirmation that the world is full of good folks who walk similar paths at times. Second story, today I commuted in fog so heavy at times water was streaming off my eyelashes!!!! What a blast. Everyday an adventure.

[saab2000]

When I lived in Lugano my commute to the airport consisted of a walk about 1/3 of a mile from my apartment to the airport. It just don't get any better than that. 'Cept that I could hear them doing the Prop Overspeed Test at 0600 every morning I didn't fly.

Anyway, I am jealous of you folks who commute by bike. I have one buddy in Switzerland who does it to the airport as a pilot. Cool thing about ZRH airport is that there is a huge bike parking area for airport workers. More than one actually. Here in the US it is not even possible to ride a bike to most airports because the only road leading into them is limited access.

DCA is bike accessible, but you have to know where. And there is only really parking for a few bikes.

Cultural differences I guess.

My commute last night was a flight leaving DCA at 8:05 PM and getting to Michigan about 9:45.

[sg8357]

Saab reminds me of my first trip to Switzerland.

Riding by the train station and seeing hundreds of bikes parked out front.

Helping an older lady in long skirt and bike helmet load her bike on the
baggage car, she then goes and sits down, still wearing the helmet,
and its all normal.

Parking the bike in 1st class on the train, then walking up stairs to the
seating area and being served refreshments, thinking so this is was
a civilized country is like, 1st and 2nd class bike parking on the trains. :)

[Fixed]

Saab reminds me of my first trip to Switzerland.

Riding by the train station and seeing hundreds of bikes parked out front.

Helping an older lady in long skirt and bike helmet load her bike on the
baggage car, she then goes and sits down, still wearing the helmet,
and its all normal.

Parking the bike in 1st class on the train, then walking up stairs to the
seating area and being served refreshments, thinking so this is was
a civilized country is like, 1st and 2nd class bike parking on the trains. :)
bro maybe our grandkids can have that
cheers
yeah today was bliss if we take time to look the world is beautiful
imho cheers

[spiderman]

at a four way stop this morning
in the pouring...very cold rain...
being the second one to come to a stop
and having the guy in the van
put his window down and motion for me to go ahead
with a thumbs up and friendly toot on the horn
as i crossed the intersection!

which was much nicer than the previous morning
when a woman aggressively passed me on the left
with oncoming traffic
as i was signalling to move over
and turn left
at the same intersection...

[NateM]

My 9 yr old daughter and I descended down the hill in the fog to the Hudson River on our tandem this morning, hit a cool 35 mph according to her.Pedaled along the white shrouded river,the long route to her school in Hoboken,geese honking somewhere.Cant remember being passed on Tuesday (FiammeRed?) my girl always makes me put up a fight, we race busses...uphill! Switched bikes to the Serotta Ti and rode into NYC over the GW bridge as the sun broke through. Had to peel off some layers,our first warm spring day.Nice thread.

[fiamme red]

My 9 yr old daughter and I descended down the hill in the fog to the Hudson River on our tandem this morning, hit a cool 35 mph according to her.Pedaled along the white shrouded river,the long route to her school in Hoboken,geese honking somewhere.Cant remember being passed on Tuesday (FiammeRed?) my girl always makes me put up a fight, we race busses...uphill! Switched bikes to the Serotta Ti and rode into NYC over the GW bridge as the sun broke through. Had to peel off some layers,our first warm spring day.Nice thread.NateM,

Wow! So that was you and your daughter! It wasn't this Tuesday, it was a few weeks ago; not even sure if it was on a Tuesday or at 8:30 a.m. But it was definitely on a weekday morning while I was on my way to work in Jersey City (I commute from Manhattan). I passed you on Park Ave/Willow Ave just before the bridge at 19th St into Hoboken. I'm on a gray fixed-gear with Ortlieb panniers.

I've encountered you and your daughter on your tandem a few times before. It always makes my day. Next time I'll wave and say "Hi."

[Too Tall]

My 9 yr old daughter and I descended down the hill in the fog to the Hudson River on our tandem this morning, hit a cool 35 mph according to her.Pedaled along the white shrouded river,the long route to her school in Hoboken,geese honking somewhere.Cant remember being passed on Tuesday (FiammeRed?) my girl always makes me put up a fight, we race busses...uphill! Switched bikes to the Serotta Ti and rode into NYC over the GW bridge as the sun broke through. Had to peel off some layers,our first warm spring day.Nice thread.
??? Same Nate who I used to see at MD Brevets yrs. ago?

[Dekonick]

bro riding with some little kids that wait for me everyday to race one block
they think I'm somebody ....they beat me everyday i say wow you cats are fast :)
cheers

This is why you are one of my Hero's!

Fixed is da man!

Kids rule.

[OtayBW]

Not today.
Nope. Me neither. Not today.

Nearly got T-Boned by some bonehead who thought his right turn had the right-of-way over my straight through traffic. ***!?! And he's rolling down the window to explain (in French) why he is correct. Not being fluent in French, I was forced to communicate non-verbally in a language that I think he understood clearly....

Will report back on a better day.

[TimB]

I found a $5 on the road on my ride home tonight.

Keep up the good karma!

[taylorj]

I took a year and a half and rode my bike from Washington to Chile then up through argentina and into Brazil. I was pretty tired of riding. I was in Recife and needed to fly home from Rio and so when I went to catch my flight I was late. They just rolled my bike on last (no box, no nothing) and secured it in the baggage area and when I got off the plane, it was the first thing they rolled out and hand delivered it to me.

Foreign bike travel used to really be first class. It has changed though. Including train/bike travel in Europe. But those were the days!