Motor Neuron Confusion

If you've ridden bikes for a while, you may have noticed yourself pulling up on the car's steering wheel before hitting a crack in the road. Tonight, chauffeuring my daughter to a birthday party, I found myself taking it easy going up hills because my legs were tired.

This is a good sign I am fully immersed in this experience we call cycling.

Stopping by Woods on my Way to Work

This park is a half-mile from my house. My daughters both learned sliding boards and swings here as well as practicing soccer skills and building sand castles. We've played chase, hide-and-seek, and stopped at the water fountain after running a few miles. It's been our neighborhood park.

This morning I saw it anew. The sun was just right. The air smelled just right. The stars were aligned.

My bicycle wheel just kept going around the park until the goodness had filled me to overflowing.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 24.8
Number of Cyclists seen: 5 inbound and 25 outbound.
In-bound Route: Orme Park then Lullwater/PATH Trail
Out-bound Route: Inman Park, Kirkwood, Oakhurst, Decatur then back through Emory Village.
Weather: whoa

Partaking of the Pedestrian Privilege

 

Where multi-use paths cross neighborhood streets, I've found motorists generally expect pedestrians to come right on into the crosswalk. The runner in the photo hardly broke stride crossing in front of the approaching car. There was a stop sign on his side just like the one you can see facing the camera.

I call this the Pedestrian Privilege.

For most intersections, regular rules apply, but for "recreational facilities", motorists will allow strollers, dog walkers, school children, little old ladies, and even runners to pretend the pedestrian STOP signs aren't there.

I often observe that this privilege is also extended to cyclists. I treat the stop sign as if I were a vehicle. When traffic has arrived at the intersection before me, I stop, put my foot down and shake my head "No" if someone offers me the right of way (particularly if they are on a cell phone). Other cyclists will proceed quickly through the intersection once they see the motorist has hesitated much the same as the runner in the photo.

There seems like there could be an educational opportunity here, but I'm not sure if these intersections make a good classroom. On the other hand, what does make a good classroom?

I'm interested to hear how others approach these motorist/cyclist interactions and whether this provides a good opportunity to socialize certain safe and courteous behaviors.

The following may make a separate post, but it's another angle on the Pedestrian Privilege:

On Monday, another family joined ours on a bicycle Treasure Hunt around Intown Atlanta. The less experienced cyclists behaved like pedestrians. They would stand on the sidewalk at the crosswalk and step into the crosswalk to get cars to stop. The more experienced cyclists would act more like a car, waiting at the intersection for an opening and then proceeding once traffic was clear.

If each of us had big thought balloons over our heads that read "Pedestrian Mode" or "Vehicular Mode", we would be more predictable. A motorist approaching 7 cyclists scattered all over the intersection is justifiably confused and probably feels put out that we can't get our act together. It's certainly not as impressive as a group of cyclists that blends in well with the other traffic making use of the street. And, it's not as impressive as a group of pedestrians taking advantage of the crosswalk.

This is another interaction between motorists and cyclists, another opportunity to socialize safe and courteous behavior and to foster goodwill between the two groups, but again, if this isn't the best classroom, then what is?

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 19.5
Number of Cyclists seen: 7 in the AM, 23 in the PM - large proportion of commuters both ways.
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail with extensions
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: We're getting back to the sweet weather. Mild and sunny with just a slight breeze.

GPS Games on a Bike

 

N 33.76220 W 84.36044

When I first learned of geocaching (an outdoor treasure-hunt using GPS co-ordinates), it occurred to me this would be fun on a bike. The distances between caches (treasures) are often walking distance, but a bike is really the ideal vehicle for getting from cache to cache.

A game we like to play to celebrate birthdays is a treasure-hunt with hidden clues. Each clue leads you to the location of the next clue until you finally arrive at a birthday present.

For my wife's birthday, we combined the two. I laid out a bicycle-friendly 12-mile course near the house that passed through or near various landmarks, some obvious and some subtle. I used photographs (like the one shown here) to indicate the destination, and when it wasn't recognized, provided GPS co-ordinates to get us close.

This has been a great way to

• Spend time outdoors on the bike
  
• Engage people in a fun game
  
• With kids, provide practice navigating a bicycle safely
  
• Share good bike routes with others.
  

It takes a while to create the route and take pictures for the clues, but the time spent is well worth it.

Where the Other Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak hooked me with his children's stories years before I had kids. I had picked up a copy of "Where the Wild Things Are" before I was seriously dating anyone and took great relish in sharing it with my kids once we began reading to them.

Today, Max's way of handling Wild Things appeals to my sense of playfulness in dealing with traffic while riding a bike. Sure, it's serious business trying to avoid a sudden conservation-of-momentum physics experiment with a fast moving vehicle, but if there's a light-hearted side, I'm looking for it, making sure others can see it and pointing it out to everyone I know.

My thanks to Mr. Sendak for his story. My apologies if my adaptation takes away from the original.

The day Max wore his bicycle helmet and made mischief of one kind and another his mother called him wild thing and Max said "I'll run you over!" so he was sent to bed without eating anything.

That very night in Max's room a city grew and grew - with streets and buildings until his ceiling hung with traffic lights and the walls became storefronts and sidewalks and a bike lane tumbled by with a bicycle just the right size for Max and he rode off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are.

And when he came to the place where the wild things are they honked their horrible horns and gnashed their terrible gears and gunned their terrible engines till Max said "GIVE ME THREE FEET!" and tamed them with the magic trick of looking them straight in the eyes without blinking and saying "Good Morning!" with a friendly smile and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all and made him king of all wild things.

"And now," cried Max, "let the bicycle riding start!"

 

"Now stop!" Max said and sent the wild things off without stopping for gas or oil. And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.

Then all around from far away across the world other cyclists started riding with him so he gave up being king of where the wild things are.

But the wild things cried, "Oh please don't go - we'll take you for a ride - we love you so!"

And Max said, "No!"

The wild things honked their horrible horns and gnashed their terrible gears and gunned their terrible engines but Max climbed on his bicycle and rode back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper was waiting for him and it was still hot.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 19.0
Number of Cyclists seen: 34
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Sunny, but not too warm

Beat the Heat? No Sweat

Although Tropical Storm Fay has brought some coolness, these are the Dog Days of Summer and we know the heat will be back.

But my back will be cool thanks to a new technique I've learned on my last trip to the grocery store.

What you do is put one of these on your back:

 

The gallon-size Chocolate Frozen Yogurt is about 6 pounds worth of ice-cold heat-absorbing material. Placed in a backpack on your back, you'll be chillin' on the hottest of days.

Plus, when you get done with your ride, your chocolate milk recovery beverage will be ready. (I'm thinking about how I can get a camelback straw attached.)

Fay-driven headwind on the way home

 

When the headwinds get too strong to ride a bike, sometimes the thing to do is go fly a kite.

Tropical Storm Fay made my morning ride in easy, but was still blowing strong out of the east on the way home.

The spot photographed here is where the wind blows me around the most. The Freedom Park Trail crosses open fields at a good elevation. This spot is just east of the intersection of the Freedom Parkway and Moreland Avenue, north of Little Five Points and east of the Carter Center (all of these are great bike destinations).

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 18.5
Number of Cyclists seen: 22
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton and the Kroger
Weather: Kite weather; overcast but dry and WinnnnnDEE.