Anyone else participate in National Ride to Work Day today?

[johnw]

I had my arm twisted by a colleague, so rode my older MTB into the office this morning.
It was an interesting exercise as I'm not keen on dealing with heavy traffic or aggressive drivers (outer Sydney can be really horrible at times). I also had to ride through some extensive roadworks, not easily avoided. I plotted a route that avoided the worst of it and actually went through a new cycleway in a NPWS managed regional park. That was the best part of the ride and I quite enjoyed that section. I also had to negotiate some very steep, wet grassy parkland in places (interesting with slick road tyres). Stopped to regroup a few times due to unfamiliar locations but arrived safely. Showered and changed at work so I felt refreshed. Took a bit over an hour to ride 15km. Now to get home tonight... I think I might stay a bit later and try to avoid the worst of the evening peak.

While parts of the ride were OK I'm not sure that I'd do it again.

http://ride2work.com.au/general/ride-to-work/93071/

[eggs]

I know someone who works in Paramatta who rides about 20km to work - mostly along bike ways. It sounds a better setup than you faced.
Here in Adelaide I rode but I've been a bit slack this year as I should ride most days.
Its about 14km - roughly 40 mins each way.

I agree that sharing the main roads is scary. Over time I have hit a pedestrian when braking from top speed as he put his head down and ran in front of me as fast as he could.
["I didn't see you!" was his response as I made off with my frame and wheel buckled from the impact]
I have braked hard as a car angled across 6 empty lanes into an offset side road - to pull up just hitting her door as she sped past. If I hadn't noticed out of the corner of the eye I would be dead.
I have had a near miss when a car went straight on through a left turn only lane at top speed to try and beat the normal traffic lanes when the light changed.
Again - if I had done the usual thing and moved across to the left hand side of the road there is no way he could have stopped before he killed me.
And on a more mundane note - I have hit the middle of the left door of a car which opened right in front of me as I was sidling up the left past stopped traffic.

So I am very conscious of having eyes everywhere. Of trying to catch the attention of pedestrians before they step straight out in front of the bike. The same with cars on the left.
You sit up, move about or wave - and it is common to see the eyes prick up as they just realise you are there.

There is a more protected section I could use for part of the way - but in terms of speed it would be a lot slower as it is a bit out of the way to get to, rougher, winds around and up and down a lot and is shared with pedestrians and dogs.

I am still OK and still happy to ride, but I try to stay super alert and am thankful for a safe ride.
One work compatriat started to ride off when a light went green and the next thing he remembers was waking up in hospital with broken bones.

[johnw]

You've described some of my worst nightmares about road cycling Brian . Which is why I prefer to go trail riding in NPs etc. Although I do some regular road training evenings and weekends, but stick to local back streets as far as possible. Yes, the Parramatta area is much better served with cycleways, lanes etc, as are some other parts of Sydney. Unfortunately our local council has a woeful record of (non) support of cycling . Where there are cycleways they're generally very short and/or disjointed. I don't think they even have anything that resembles a cycling plan.

I've had a few unnerving near misses with vehicles but fortunately no collsions to date (fingers crossed). Usually drivers who turn left straight front of you from a side street, when you're about 2 inches from them. I've ended up sideways across the road a couple times through extreme braking to avoid a bingle. One cab driver claimed he didn't see me (despite a myriad of flashing lights, high vis gear etc ). Some drivers have looked straight at me, made eye contact and still pulled out! Others simply refuse to obey the law and don't believe that cyclists have any rights. Where is the highway patrol when you need them ? I have as much visibility and safety gear as humanly possible and incidents still happen. I agree that you have to be eternally vigilant.

[Tony]

I do not commute by bike much these days and I did not ride to work today but I did 20k on cycle paths at lunchtime, Thursday lunchtimes we do a 34k ride to the top of Mt Stromlo and back, we ride as a group to the start of the Mt Stromlo road 13k and after that it is flat out to the top for 4 k to the top, a climb of around 150m, then on the way down we have a free wheel race to the main road, then ride back as a group until we hit a hill then a few of us sprint to the top, all in good fun, the fastest up Stromlo is a work colleague who was originally from Columbia, one of the riders who joined us earlier this year for a while was an ex junior world champ track cyclist who is currently doing a PhD, he was not the fastest up the hill as he is not built for hill climbing and is not that fit at the moment but in the sprints he was unchallenged, being a bit heavier and has much better down hill skills than the rest of us and he always won the free wheel race.

The cycle path network in Canberra is very good and is getting better, we also have a good on road network which is being upgraded all of the time. but as eggs and John have mentioned this does not stop driver/cyclists conflict, I have had a few close calls. A few years ago a beer truck missed me by a few mm, he was the only vehicle on the 4 lane road, I have had cars try to turn around me when I am half way through an intersection, I have had an empty beer bottle and cans thrown at me, yelled at more times than I can remember, I have had a car stop and a very big rough bloke get out chase me on foot and abuse me at the top of his voice, it was very early one Sunday Morning and I was on a remote road at the time, I was very scared that the driver was going turn around and run me off the road.

On the cycle paths or community paths as they are now called, the danger is dogs, people walking dog on leads, dog one side the owner the other side, people using ear phones, walkers, cyclists day dreaming etc, most people are good but some do not give a damn, one thing that gets me angry are groups of lunchtime walkers walking on the paths 3 and 4 abreast and refuse to move over even though you are riding toward them, being on skinny road tires I refuse to leave the path and force my way through usually with a few words to say.

Another problem is that the on road cycle lanes are littered with glass, rocks, wood and other road litter as are parts of the cycle path network which are near roads and over passes, I did a tire in last Sunday another $70.

I am thinking about getting one of those little DV cameras to put on my bike or helmet.

Tony

[Macca81]

I stayed home and tried not to die... Sometimes I hate having an aggressive immune system...

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Puddle Duck]

Rode today, as I usually do 3-4 days per week, I few extra riders perhaps on my route (Moonee Ponds to Melbourne CBD).
Grabbed a few of the free snacks etc available

Lucky that most of my 14km ride is along the Maribynong river and then bike path so only ~2ks are actually on the raod

[jez_au]

....

[Tofu_Imprint]

I'm not riding a road bike (cycling)) until we have as good as system as Denmark, and other Scandinavian countries.
I didn't feel like I was going to die every time I went for a ride there, because they have bike lanes almost everywhere and cars respect bikes.
In Australia cars practically swerve at bikes deliberately!

[Tony]

I'm not riding a road bike (cycling)) until we have as good as system as Denmark, and other Scandinavian countries.
I didn't feel like I was going to die every time I went for a ride there, because they have bike lanes almost everywhere and cars respect bikes.
In Australia cars practically swerve at bikes deliberately!

I student from Holland was telling me that Holland have bike only road networks and that where the bike roads cross car roads the bikes have right of way (in my dreams).

I think you will be waiting a long time for Australia to catchup with Europe, Pedal Power and Amy Gillett Foundation are working hard to change driver attitude but we do have along way to go here in Australia.

Tony

[michael_p]

Working from home defeats the idea of "ride to work". Thankfully I get to ride my mtb 3-4 times a week.

I really dislike riding on the road. When I have to hit the bitumen I have found car drivers to be fairly good but you always get one idiot who does the wrong thing. Only real near miss was with a glass truck. The clown driving the truck came so close to my leg that I could feel the bottom of the frame on the side of his truck just pass within a few millimetres of my right calf.

[johnw]

I am thinking about getting one of those little DV cameras to put on my bike or helmet.

Hi Tony,
I can relate to just about all of your comments about conflicts with cars and other road/shared path users. Fortunately I haven't had as many or as extreme incidents. One evening a few weeks ago I did encounter one moron on green P plates driving a V8 Commodore. I was riding on the shoulder, well away from the traffic, so not impeding anyone's progress at all. He decided to slow down, blast the car's horn as loudly as possible in my right ear, then his passengers screamed verbal abuse through the window. Actions designed purely to intimidate. Unfortunately the mentality of some of the younger people in my local area leaves a lot to be desired. However I got revenge to some extent. Some time ago I bought one of those Airzound 115 decibel air horns for bicycles (http://deltacycle.com/Airzound-Bike-Horn). I gave him a solid blast with it. It is quite ear splitting and it seemed to give him a shock. He slowed then waved meekly out of the window before driving off (oddly not a rude gesture either).

About the DV camera, I've been looking at those little MD80 camcorders for as little as about $12 from places like dealextreme or ebay. I thought it might also be useful for recording MTB rides as well as keeping an eye on traffic behaviour. Not a huge investment so might be worth a try.

[nina]

Oh I hear you guys!

I have no idea how Australians manage to get their license, but I do know that where I come from not even half of them would be allowed to drive. But in addition to car drivers not knowing how to obey the rules, there's these horrible people who constructed so dangerous bike paths.
On my way to work I go on a bike path which is that narrow, that not even the bike symbol fits on it but is cut off by the pavement. Most of the width is taken up by gutters... how on earth are you supposed to fit on that? And please WHY would you make a bike path stop right in front of a crossing? That's exactly the most dangerous point where it's needed most!

Only last week I rode into an opening door. Usually one can foresee that, but this time the driver was sitting in his dark car (yes it was dark outside and yes, I have bright flashing lights!) for a while as I thought it was just an empty parked vehicle.
Oh and how I hate those drivers who believe that they are allowed to cross a bike path without looking, who believe that they can just go on the bike path as well and block your way, .......

I really do not understand why Australian car drivers do not get taught how to behave in traffic. Not even the police obeys the rules, a few months ago I saw this police car almost crashing into cyclists because he was not capable of looking before turning left... and no, he had neither siren nor any other signal on, just driving along in the traffic.

[Tofu_Imprint]

This morning I was riding my bike home down a steep hill (car being serviced).
This road actually had a bike lane which I was in when all of a sudden I notice the 50km/h sign had being pushed over across the bike lane!
I could have seriously injured myself as it was quite the incline!