Though I don't think this one counts as much. Due to a number of things, I have been home in suburbia with my parents and back in the car over most of January. Partly due to a nasty flu bug, my mothers surgery and the recent cold snap and my early morning work hours we felt it better for me to stay home. I should qualify that. My parents are great, they just tend to think and react to things with a little hype. I really have no issue with the weather, though I need to fix the bike up to better handle conditions and keep adding to my gear. The good thing is that all my work hours are now during COTA service hour, so when I head back to my place I do have that option.
Sadly my car-free days will be coming to an end sometime in June or July. Due to a number of things I have decided to move home when my lease is up. Which of course leads to my parents forcing me back into the cage. I think I have been bitten by the bug enough to still make cycling work, however. I can easily drive to Groveport and park at the southern end of the Alum Creek Trail. Depending on my work or school schedule I will either bike to work (about the same distance I currently ride) from Three Creeks park or I will cycle the 2 miles to the Groveport COTA stop and ride the express bus to town and use the bike from there. Parking at Three Creeks gives me a doable and safe way to ride home so I won't have to rely on the meger options from COTA. I can potentialy take one of the number 8s down to Hamilton and come across the roads and back to the park, but I don't think this will be a good option. I should be able to get my Schwinn (might consider looking for a hardtail mountain bike over the summer as well) up to snuff for the winter ride to make the trails bikeable. If the weather looks terribly bad I can just drive to work and cycle to class following or park at Franklin Park and use the connecting roads to Campus.
One silver lining to living at home will be the ability to build up a brand new bike for myself as part of my future graduation present. I'll tell more later, but trust me-it's crazy.
Several things have been happening of late in Columbus:
The Tracey Corbin case has been closed and charges filed. Mr. Corbin was the cyclist killed last year on Alum Creek Drive. At the same time this has been wrapping up, another cyclist was struck and killed. This time on Karl Road. No details yet. Stay safe.
Columbus is also gearing up for another mass transit push. This time with an expanded light rail corridor. Ohio is also pushing to begin work on the 3C. Both of those projects would serve us well over the coming years. I will write my thoughts in future posts. Both of these are part of the proposed federal stimulus plan. Also included in the Columbus request (and thankfully very little has been said at the moment) is the complete funding for the completion of the Alum Creek Trail. This, if passed, would give us two significant length trails running N-S.
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