honk! honk! (Year End Blog Clearance Sale #1)

It's that time of year again - time to reduce the inventory backlog of old, unfinished posts. These are all New Old Stock, maybe they have slight blemishes or missing parts but otherwise they are brand new!

Here's the first one, I think it was left unfinished due to a lack of interest and a good ending.  One of the work related personality tests I took once said, (besides confirming I was a space cadet), that my personality type (there were maybe 24 types comprised of 4 letters like JSNF) likes to leave things unfinished.  We don't like the finality of it, I guess, or it's just a good excuse to procrastinate.  Of course, maybe most tests of that sort you should take with a grain of salt.

If you would like, you could add an ending yourself.

Honk Honk!

I haven't been honked at yet this year.  Just writing that is probably a guarantee someone will honk at me tomorrow. (Edit: just a few more days to go!)

I was honked at probably 4 or 5 times last year.  I'm not riding any differently than I was last year, so I don't know what's up.  Maybe drivers are too distracted to honk.

Last year's honks I think were all for no reason at all, or so it seemed so to me.  The first time was kinda funny.  I was stopped at a red light on Broadway, heading west, at the intersection with Monroe.  I was over to the left a bit in case a vehicle came up behind me wanting to turn right.  Sometimes they do, sometimes they wait behind me.  There was a guy walking across the crosswalk in front of me carrying an old stereo component (I see this surprisingly often in town, they're usually heading to the pawn shop). There was a truck behind me. When the guy was about 3 feet from the curb, he turned around and said to me "the truck behind you wants to turn right".  In the 1/2 second it took me to process what he said and automatically half turn my head to look behind me, the light turned green.  The truck's horn honked.  Seriously, there's a guy still in the crosswalk, the light barely turned green, and you're honking?

I often ride home on Broadway in front of the Courthouse.  I try to ride to the left of the parked cars to stay out of the door zone.  I can keep up with the speed of traffic if I want, since everybody isn't going too fast here, and really shouldn't be.  There are a lot of pedestrians-soon-to-be-drivers-or-bus-riders crossing the street in the area.  If cars want to pass bikes here, they just move to the left into the center turn lane a little bit.  Oh but not one guy - he couldn't quite grasp the concept and laid on the horn.

Then there are times when I'm just biking along and a honk comes out of nowhere.  I rode from Aubrey White Pkwy to Gun Club Road to hook up with 7mile Rd and ride back to the Veterans hospital /old River Ridge shopping center area. 7-mile is a 4-lane road, and I'm in the right lane going east, sparse traffic.  A car in the left lane, one full lane over, honks. I thought maybe they knew me or were giving an encouraging honk - otherwise I don't know why they honked. It's not like I was in the way of anybody as traffic volume was low.  Heck, I'm not sure why it's a 4 lane road anyway, it seems to have the traffic volume of a two lane.

Threading the Needle

Part of my ride to work: from College St., right on Monroe to left on Bridge to cut over to Riverfront Park

North Monroe Street has the narrowest turn lanes in the known universe, so this can get a little unnerving when there's busy traffic going north and south.  A safe and sane way is probably to ditch Monroe and ride into the parking lot across the street (if it's not blocked by a line of cars as it is in this shot).  Another option is to cross one block north at Broadway, but it has one of those long red lights.   Sometimes I stay on Monroe and cross the bridge, especially if I have trouble getting over to the left lane, but it takes me a little out of my way.

(oh boy, youtube has found other videos to watch titled threading the needle. remind me not to use youtube again. although )

the Quick Way Home

- a long post about the quickest way home.

For my most usual way home from work downtown, I take a bit of a meandering ride down Broadway or College, up Elm, across NW Blvd, cut over to Nettleton for a few blocks, then over to and around Audubon Park, past the elementary school, then C Street to Driscoll. It's an easy paced after work ride.

One of my alternate routes is through Riverfront Park, up Howard and Post Streets, to Garland and then Driscoll. It's a quick route because there's a bike lane on Howard and there are long stretches of unbroken straightaway riding with no uncontrolled intersections. You can keep a fast pace if you want.  There's no waiting for traffic to clear to cross NW Blvd, because you cross Indiana instead which has a stoplight. The streets are wide, and I can ride further away from the curb for better visibility.  But the streets are also busier and one has to stay alert.

There are a few intersections I don't like, Garland/Belt and Driscoll/A Street, where there's heavy right turn traffic when I'm going straight.  I find at these intersections it helps do do a lot of checking behind - turning my head and looking behind - to hopefully let drivers know of my intentions or make sure there's not someone about to pass me and then turn right in front of me.

Here's a ride-along, a little tour of North Spokane:

Howard Street just after Riverfront Park.  I have a list of intersections in my head where drivers are most likely to run the stop sign as I'm approaching, and this is one of them.

Howard Street and Boone. The bike lane is a little sketchy here and jumps around for the next few blocks as it disappears, then it's next to the curb, then it's to the left of the parking lane.

North Central High School, before Indiana

After Indiana. Not real fond of this section, as the parked cars block your view of cars crossing at the intersections, and vice versa.  Best to keep the speed down here.

The Post Street Hill.  It sure looks and feels steeper and longer in real life.

After reading about an off-road option up Post in Stine'sWorld-Stine'sWorld, I searched for a shortcut up to Garland and found instead a longcut.  Halfway up the hill, there's a switchback that cuts out about a block's length of Post and is about 4 times as long and just about as steep.  It gets you out of traffic, at least.

Back on Post.

After the above, there's a right turn, a left, and then left on to Garland. The intersections are incredibly bumpy and rough.  It's narrow, traffic is busy but slow, so I stick to the middle of the lane.  It almost feels like riding in a big city.  Luckily, I've read The Art of Urban Biking, by Robert Hurst.

another thing about Garland - there's some spots to stop and get an after work refreshment - milkshake, beer, caffeine, fancy cocktail. Or catch an early movie.

Just before the aforementioned Garland/Belt intersection.  I go straight, a lot of vehicles turn right to go up Belt.

Then it's straight past Alberta, taking Garland all the way to Driscoll.

 Driscoll - there's a lot of cars turning right onto A Street here, and it'd probably be best for me to do the same but I usually go straight to C Street.

Driscoll and C Street. Almost home.

I take this route when I need a change of scenery or want to ride faster.  Today I took my usual way home and it was a nice relaxing ride.  Now that it's staying light out longer, I'm looking forward to taking some other alternate routes home - like the River Trail to get some off-roading in.

Last Winter Whine of the Season

"Aren't you cold?" "Sure must've been freezing on your way in today."

It was funny when it warmed up to the 30's in the morning and I was just thinking it felt good not to have to wear another layer and then I was asked these questions. Most people are just being friendly, but after a while I get tired of the comments.  Do skiers and snowboarders get asked this after every run down the mountain?

I try to be friendly and wave off the comments with a joke, or "felt good".  But seriously, you just have to dress for the weather.  And it does seem real cold outside to people who go from their house to the garage to the car to the parking garage to the skywalk to the office.

Maybe I just have a good internal heat machine, but I've found just a few layers - t-shirt, long sleeved lightweight pullover and light jacket is all that's needed when the temps are in the 30's. Depends on the moisture content in the air.  I'll pull on another  woolish long sleeve if needed and for temps in the 20's and teens.

There. I'm done, feel better.

Here's looking forward to summer.

"isn't it awful hot to be riding?"

Whoa! What's this? Daylight!! 4:33pm

I get off work at 4:15pm and got out the door a few minutes later than usual today.  I usually ride north on Post Street but instead went through Riverfront Park. Mixing it up. But something didn't seem quite right.  I stopped on the pedestrian bridge north of Post Street and looked around.  Hey, it's still light out!  The cloud cover that has hung over Spokane for the last 2 months had thinned out and combined with the later sunset left me some daylight to ride home in. Woo hoo!

Riding in January's snow has been challenging at times.  We had a good 7" or more snowfall early on.  That snow wasn't too bad because after a couple days it packed down, but the dry couple inches that fell on the 11th or 12th wore me out.  That snow just refused to pack over the previous snow, and it was tough to get any traction.  It was like riding through dry ice slush.  Couldn't decide if mountain bike tires or the studs were the way to go.  This went on for a week or so, till this lucky dog got to accompany his wife down to Disneyland, where she and a friend did the Tinkerbell Half Marathon on the 20th.  Oh man I love the blue skies of Southern California! Between that excursion and the flu, I only slogged my way to work and back one day last week.

The last few days we've had light snowfall that packs down and riding has been a little easier, but I'm getting real tired of it.  Have to be careful of the hidden ruts under the fresh snow.

And why does it always have to snow overnight? I wish it would wait until after I left for work so I wouldn't have to scurry around getting ready for work and shovel. It hasn't even been a harsh winter around these parts, and we're probably due for a blizzard or two still, but with the little bit of sunshine behind the clouds today, I hope we've turned the corner on this winter.

I can ride on the sidewalk if I want to...

...neener neener, so there.  I usually don't want to because turning vehicles don't expect to see bicyclists there coming off the sidewalk to enter the crosswalk area, but sometimes it's convenient to hop on the sidewalk.  Sometimes people complain about cyclists on the sidewalk, but it's legal in Spokane except for an area in downtown that is shown on a map somewhere.  You don't even have to be on the right side of the street.  If I'm faced with heavy traffic trying to cross NW Boulevard, I'll sometimes head west on the sidewalk on the eastbound lanes while I wait for traffic to clear.

On my usual bike to work route, I ride east on Maxwell and then turn right southbound onto Ash at the corner where the Maxwell House Tavern is.  When the light is red, there'll be cars waiting to turn right onto Ash.  Ash is a 3 lane one-way street, but the drivers don't want to turn into the right lane when it's clear because that lane doesn't lead to the Maple Street Bridge like the center and left lanes.  They want to get into the left or center lane.  So the right lane will be all clear but they won't turn because the two other lanes are busy.  Me, that's the lane I want - it's wide, not too much traffic on it and it leads to Broadway where I turn left.  I don't think it's a smart idea to ride by these cars waiting to turn right, so sometimes I hop onto the sidewalk to get by a couple cars,  make my right turn and be on my merry way.  I did this once to get by a woman in a convertible and she cranked her head around in an exaggerated owl like motion watching me ride by.  I try to be patient riding out on the streets, but sometimes I'm in a hurry.

Every once in a while someone writes in to the paper or maybe writes a Jeers in the Inlander complaining about cyclists riding on the sidewalk. A month or so ago a woman wrote a letter to the editor complaining about a cyclist jumping the curb to ride though the crosswalk, and said it's not fair, why can't she jump the curb in her Subaru and get around traffic?  We're supposed to all follow the same rules of the road. I feel for her, because being on a bike, I like having the freedom to hop onto the sidewalk and take a shortcut.   Does come in handy when you're stuck behind some cars that refuse to turn.

On a related note, one of my general biking rules is Rule #7 from BicycleSafe's How to Not Get Hit by Cars is: Don't pass vehicles on the right. I usually follow this advice except when I'm faced with a long line of cars stopped at a stop light, and the street has a wide shoulder. I'll sneak by carefully if I'm reasonably sure none of the drivers is going to crack and suddenly make a turn to the right and jump the curb.

What I haven't figured out is half the people complain about bikes on sidewalks, and then others wonder what we're doing on the road and why aren't we on the sidewalk?

I wish people would make up their mind.

(apologies if this seems like a little disjointed post, it's about 2 or 3 thoughts rolled onto one and I've given up on trying to make it any more coherent.)

This has been another January Blog Clearance post.