Anyone know any info that could help this guy out?
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hi, I am a longtime area resident but new to biking.
I ride in from the south with MIT as my destination. This morning I came in on the Washington St. bike lane to the Pierre Lallement trail and then to Columbus Street. I turned left on Mass Ave and crossed the bridge. All was wonderful except for Mass Ave, which was somewhat terrifying for a first-timer like me.
On the way home I instead crossed the Longfellow Park bridge, and then took Charles St. to Dartmouth and then back to the Columbus Street bike lane. Neither Charles nor Dartmouth was as scary as Mass Ave but still not great.
I’m wondering, are there other/better ways to get from Columbus to the bridges? Alternatively, I could come up the Jamaicaway bike path and try to get to the B.U. bridge (once it reopens) though I don’t know the best connection to do that.
Everyone’s heard of the old person that got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of milk, fell down some stairs, and croaked.
I feel like I’m dangerously close to actually being that person. Except I’m not old [in the relative scheme of things] and this is all going to happen on a bike.
Because while it’s only the second week of school, last night I found myself half groping through my usual commute, squinting in the dark as if that’s going to somehow fix my 0/0 vision. It didn’t, obviously, but feet fueled by hunger bordering on starvation and getting crowded out of the lane by impatient cars, it did help that I knew my route well.
Newton likes to keep things dark, but even along Comm Ave – which actually has functioning street lights – the shadows of trees like to hide all the sneaky potholes that are just deep enough to fall into. My trusty Knog light kept the more attentive drivers at bay but I’d still need one of those intense headlights [the kind you actually strap around your head] to actually illuminate the street.
Because I’m as blind as a bat. The only thing keeping me from eating shit on the way home was the fact that I knew what to avoid and where. But cutting across the Boston College undergrad campus, and hopping onto Beacon, I discovered something new.
A bike lane…! Marked off on both sides of the street in bold white lines that I could see even without the aid of sunlight. And while I know the bumps and cracks on that stretch of road nearly by heart, it’s reassuring to know that a couple feet of asphalt have officially been sectioned off for my personal use.
Of course, this has the potential to put me right back into that dangerous old-person-dying-in-her-house scenario. Because the whole assumption behind that is that you know your house well enough to get around with no lights on. But of course you’re wrong and you end up paying the consequences. Which sucks when you have to die for it.
Maybe I’ll stick to taking my chances on Comm Ave…
I wanted to come up with a metric for the transportation energy use associated with buildings that was parallel to the metric used to measure the energy intensity of a building–for heating, cooling, lighting, computers and other uses. This is commonly reported in thousands of British Thermal Units, or Btus, of energy per square foot per year (kBtu/sf-yr). The U.S. Department of Energy reports that the average energy intensity of office buildings in the U.S. is 93 kBtu/sf-yr. If I could calculate the average energy consumption for commuting using this same metric, I’d be able to show how the commuting energy use compared with the direct building energy use. I called this value “transportation energy intensity.”
How Americans Get to Work
The results were really interesting. Using these admittedly crude assumptions, I found that office building energy use for commuting averages 121 kBtu/sf-yr. That’s 30% more energy than an average office building uses itself. So it takes more energy to get to and from our office buildings than those buildings use directly!
So, buildings are supposed to be more efficient, but we spend off so much energy getting to these buildings that even the most noble attempt to “green” a living or office space may be countermanded by our transportation expenditures. This is definitely something to consider for improved sustainability.
Alex concluded brilliantly:
For me, even though I live in a rural area, seven miles from my office, this understanding of transportation energy intensity inspires me to get on my bike and enjoy that invigorating (and sometimes mentally productive) ride to work.
Here, here! Riding a bike to/from home/work is an excellent move towards improving one’s own energy intensity – and you’ll develop some fantastic leg muscles in the process.
I hate the whole concept of playing hard to get, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a good chase.
Because you want the potential significant other to match you in terms of wits, humor, and even style. And if you’re as neurotic as I am and you go so far as to check out another person’s gruppo, you want them to at least match – if not exceed – your power to weight ratio too.
Too bad there’s another mantra that also says, “when you decide to start looking, there will be nothing to look at.” I dusted everything in my path on the way to school and back. On one gear. They had quite a few.
Of course, I paid the price later, embarrassing rivers of sweat erupting all over my body as I bought my case books. The worst part being that it didn’t even seem worth it; I wasn’t hurting enough. My lungs didn’t feel like they were going to collapse. My throat wasn’t trying to vomit out my heart. I wasn’t sucking in air so hard my eyeballs hurt. That spark just wasn’t there.
Resigned at the outcome of my boring commute, I dragged my pedals to Kinko’s after class. But as I unlocked my bike, I saw him. Mystery IBC kit guy. Very cute, very fit, and very very married. I knew I wasn’t going to catch him, and that totally turned me on.
My womanly resolve of “I WILL NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!!!!111!1″ kicked in and I chased. And chased and chased and chased. He easily slid away, and caught at a red light I couldn’t possibly run, I watched him disappear. Sigh.
If only I had gears. But then again, maybe I shouldn’t be considering trying to wreck a happy home.
Ever since I’ve added Claritin to my midnight routine, I now consider my commute to be among the best in America. Driving would take fifteen minutes; it takes twenty-five if biking briskly.
Views from the recently (re)opened Washington Bridge sidewalk. It’s a bit tight for two-way traffic, but I think I’m leaving early enough to not run into anybody coming the other (normal) direction.
Moving shot from the East Bay Bike Path, a path that only kinda sorta follows the main road. Yay rails-to-trails!
And views from further down the path into the lagoon zone:
And perhaps the best part is the return: catching and passing dudes on carbon fiber bikes on my beater with my tie flapping in my wake. Unfortunately, too tired to snap those photos.
Very excited about my commute to my new temp job: four-and-a-half miles along shoreline, then a mad dash trespassing shortcut across a members-only country club to get to a 50-ft climb into work. I think a pool is in order: how soon will I get banned? (I start May 11). Question: will I get banned more quickly wearing a cycling kit or a doctor outfit? Or TWEED?
This is also the first time I have biked a significant distance (>3 miles) to a job at which I have to be dressed nicely. Decisions to make (interim decisions in bold):
1) Bike: Road bike speedy overkill? Beater undercranked unstealability? Slick-shod hardtail?
2) Shoes: Cheap but acceptable loafers with flats/loops? MTB SPDs? Race SPD-SLs? Dress shoes?
3) Clothing: Wear tie and mentally suppress sweat? Dress in gym stuff and change at work?
I’ve been told there are bike racks at work. Unfortunately, I got kicked out by staff on Saturday while biking around the facility looking for them. This may spawn an interesting series of events.
