City Coach | Green Light's Blog

"kinder gentler commuter": progress update

I recently discovered that I am not alone in keeping track of the "pass ratio" when travelling over the bridge.  Meaning, how many times I get passed vs. how many I pass.  I used to always come out ahead.  Now I'd be happy with flat.  This morning, I got passed by six SIX people just on the beginning approach.  Argh.  By the other side, the ratio was negative four (meaning, I passed a couple, but got passed by a couple more, then I passed a couple more, but got passed by a couple more, until the ratio added up to four people passed me).  At the bottom of the bridge, there was a cluster of cyclists waiting for the light to change.

If, theoretically, I sped past them and jumped the light, that counts as improving my pass ratio right?  But I think it demonstrates a colossal failure in the kinder, gentler, commuter goal. 

In more positive news, I've been taking great delight in the "eye contact / nod / yield / smile" approach when encountering pedestrians.  And I've added a little "wave" whenever a driver yields in a nice kind of way, or if I'm a jerk and cut one off.  That's something. 

Brooklyn biathlon report

I love this race.  I’ve done it and done pretty well, and I’ve done it when I knew I wouldn’t do well, and either way, it’s a fun race.  It’s short enough that pretty much anyone can do it, it's early in the season, and you never know who’s going to show up.  All that means that really, there’s no point in having any expectations, but it’s a good place to shake out cobwebs.  And oh, I got cobwebs.  In fact, I realized when I took my trusty tri bike outside for a test spin the weekend before the race, that the last time I’d ridden it outside was the Brooklyn Bi last year.   Hah!  So, I’m pretty much all cobweb.

While I’m fat and out of shape, I have been doing a bit more than I was last year at this time, so was pretty convinced that I could see some kind of improvement.  But I'm far from well trained, so that wasn’t my goal – my goal was to get out there, remember why I like racing, and get some motivation to keep it up – I’m still finding it really hard to squeeze everything all in.   And my race showed it – sure, I shaved a couple seconds off last year’s run and bike times, but nothing spectacular.  Wake up call!

 I did, however, get a chance to practice something I’ve been thinking about all winter:  a fancy bike-run dismount.  Last summer,  triathlete extraordinaire Terry Moore led a clinic on improving transitions, and we discussed a fun technique where you get out of your shoes on the approach to the transition area, swing a leg over the crossbar, coast into transition and then come off the bike running – the bike never stops moving.  At the time, I thought “hey I do that on my commuter after I’ve picked up my coffee in the morning and coast up the sidewalk to work.”  If I can do it in city traffic, I can do it in a race.  So that was my only goal.  I didn’t have a chance to practice , and so it was ‘do I dare try it during a race?’  And I did.  And nailed it.  I’d therefore like to think of it as “the Green Light Special”. 

Although, running my bike nimbly into transition, I had to come screeching to a halt so as not to run over the two guys fiddling with their bike shoes blocking the "bike in".  Argh.  So it goes.

Congrats to my teammates and friends who did so well, and my “Team 46” neighbors Bruce and Jamie in their first ever multisport event.  And see you all out there – hopefully before next year.

A kinder, gentler commuting Green Light?

 
I’ve been thinking a lot about bike lanes lately.  Who can help it?  It’s the “it” story of spring 2011 local press.  Outrage here, indignation there.  Mostly, I’ve been pretty ‘meh’.  Sure, I want the bike lanes to stay, but mostly because I like winning a fight.  I’ll keep riding my bike, even if they tear out every single bike lane in the city.

I feel bad about that.  I’m part of the problem.  I’m not a “good” cyclist.  I’m an asshole.  I’ve never obeyed the traffic rules, ever.  I run red lights.  I weave in and out of traffic.  I’ll “salmon” if it makes sense to me (go the wrong way down a one way street).   In sum, there are a couple principles that guide me: 

1)      the best route is the shortest distance between two points, even if it isn’t legal

2)      preserve forward motion, as opposed to foot down on pavement.

I admit all this not boastfully, not righteously, but truthfully.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time wondering why it is that I am completely incapable of obeying traffic laws.  I’m a 40-something mother, ferchrissake. Shouldn’t I be the one driving the SUV, not cutting it off?

It’s more than just 20-some years of habit.  The simple answer:  because I can.  Bicycles are nimble.  (And that little burst of adrenaline when you dash across an intersection is a little addictive, too).

Until now.

For the past couple months, I’ve found myself truly hating my bike, “Nimby”.  We had a great time for a couple years, dodging the double parked cars on Flatbush avenue, seeing how many fixed-gear hipsters we could pass on the Manhattan bridge.  But it all changed when I put the kid seat on the back. 

There is nothing badass about a hybrid with a kid seat.  It’s not just the slow.  I’m sure, come summer, that I’d be passing hipsters on fixies on the bridge once again.  It’s just .. it wasn’t that bike.   As I shopped for my new commuter, I kept finding myself in a web of contradictions, my new life as commuter-mom, vs my old life as kamikaze cycling asshole.  

My new bike is handsome – a steel three speed that’s – against expectations -- even heavier than “Nimby”.  And “Nimby” got sold to Waleed for $100 off Craigslist, and I'm sure is much, much happier in his rebirth as delivery bike. 

So I have a new bike.  A slower bike.  And I'm going to try, a new approach, because I’m part of the problem.  If I continue to be commuter-mom-kamikazi-cyclist, the bike lanes might just go, and then we lose.  And plus, I know people who really like those bike lanes.  So, my spring challenge:  I’m going to try to change my ways.  Be a little less aggressive.  See if I can turn down the adrenaline junkie a notch.  Try not to get involved in a “Cat 6” race with everyone on the bridge, or on Chrystie coming off the bridge.  Perhaps wait for the light at the Atlantic/Flatbush intersection.  Maybe obey a traffic law or two. 

I’ll chronicle it here.  This should be fun.