The daily commute

As I mentioned in my goals post on New Year’s Day, I aim to ride 250 miles a month, or 3,000 miles this year, on my bicycle. The core place I get miles in is during my commute to and from work. Which means I ride whenever it is plausible, and don’t get deterred by the weather overmuch.

Which is why I rode into work this week every day that I worked at the office (I also work some days at home). And every day I commuted I ended up with a small story event to share.

Monday the temperature was in the 20s but the wind was calm and the roads were clear, so I bundled up and biked to work. On the way through North Kansas City I saw a light flashing behind me, and when I pulled over further (already being to the far right of the lane, I saw a North Kansas City police cruiser (they have some sort of SUV) pull up beside me. It had flashed its lights, but hadn’t turned on its siren.

The officer told me I wasn’t supposed to be riding on the highway. I asked the officer where I was supposed to be riding, and said I was riding where the other police officer told me to. She said I should be on the sidewalk. I said the other officer said I wasn’t supposed to use the sidewalks, especially in the downtown district. I mentioned I was told to use the road, but act as if there was a bicycle lane and stay in the right third of the lane. The officer asked me if I knew the name of the other officer, and gave me a name. I didn’t know the name, just that he had introduced himself as the bicycle liasion officer, or some such.

The issue, of course, is that where she pulled me over there are three lanes headed west, but the right lane is dedicated to the interstate entrance ramp northbound — they put in this big concrete abutment so you can’t go straight through to the southbound ramp. To go southbound you have to be in the middle lane, and then pull over to the right real fast. So I have to use that middle lane, and then go straight through and pull to the right after the southbound entrance ramp is gone. This puts me in the middle of traffic, and gets me honked at alot. It also got the officer confused about where I should be.

The officer was pleasant, and took my explanation of where I was supposed to be riding, but I called the police headquarters for NKC and talked to a Major Freeman (?) just to be certain.  He confirmed that I was supposed to act like a bicycle for city streets and state highways, but of course couldn’t ride on the interstates (which I knew). He also gave me a link to the municipal codes governing bicycles.

That was Monday. Tuesday I was riding along the same stretch, and had gotten past the interstate when I noticed that my rear tire seemed funny. When i pulled over I verified that I had a flat rear tire. Fortunately it was just a couple of blocks to the NKC YMCA, so I pulled the bike inside there to change the tire in the warmth, before heading on to work. While changing the tire I actually found the nail that had given me the flat. Of the probably 10 flat tires I have changed in the past two years, that is the first time I have been able to find the culprit. I had left home 15 minutes early, and ended up getting to work 30 minutes late.

And finally Wednesday. Woke up that morning to the sound of snow starting to fall. Checked the weather forecast, and it predicted a wintry mix in them morning, and rain in the afternoon. Temperature as 31 and should get up to 40. So I decided to ride in.  The rode wasn’t bad, though I took the hills and turns easily. It was quite a pleasant, quite ride in. When crossing the Heart of America Bridge, and using the separated bicycle/walking lane, I noticed that I was not the first person to cross on a bicycle — the tread of the other bicycle was marked in the snow. Which also meant the other person couldn’t have crossed much  more than 30 minutes ahead of me, since the snow hadn’t been falling that long, and the tread still hadn’t been obscured by the still-falling snow.

If I had commuted today, the condition would have been rain. My current hope is that I don’t get such story-worthy commutes every day this year, but the occasional story can make things worthwhile.