Life On Two Wheels

Another month

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.

A month or so in

I sold the car a little over a month ago and thought I would offer some reflection on the experience.

I've enjoyed the experience to this point. Is been relatively easy to get along without the car, but it comes with its challenges. One of the advantages, I am realizing, of having a car is time. It probably takes me, both by bus and bike, twice the time to get from my apartment to work. If I lived closer, I could cut this down. In the end, it comes down to what is more important: time or money?

For me, I can easily lose time. I am young and single, so I only have my own schedule to keep. I enjoy the less stressful commute, as I am not dealing with the same high volumes of traffic that I was in the car. IN some cases, I have found advantage in not having a car. The other day I headed over to Lennox via COTA to do some last minute Christmas shopping for my folks. A quick walk down the street got me to the bus stop, the ride over was all of about 10-12 minutes and I was dropped off practically in front of the door. Finished my shopping and spent a few minutes waiting for the return trip, which itself was just around 10-12 minutes and another short walk back to my place.

I've found myself connecting better to my commuting through the interactions on the bike and the bus. I've had some interesting conversations with fellow passengers and the drivers.

My parents have been a great support for me, even coming up at 5 am to drive me to work the day we hit -25. Despite my insistance that I would be fine, they still got me there. I have to admit the ride was nice.

Overall, I have tried to make this my own thing. I don't want to burden someone else with my decision. I met up with some of my co-workers at Easton a few weeks ago and enjoyed a nice ride home on the bike @ 2am. I was offered rides, but had brought my bike up just in case. One of the small, simple pleasures I get is the look on people's face when I tell them what I am doing. To them an 8 mile ride is some incomprehensibile, to me it's a quick trip. I've learned the time and distance are all realitive.

I would encourage anyone out there to get the bike ready for Bike to Work Week '09 in May. Dust it off and take it for a spin when we get these unseasonably warm days. Take the bus to work a few days a week or head out for a quick walk for those few groceries. It's a great way to see the world.

Home for the holidays

    Came home to be with the family over thanksgiving, so I'm off the bike for a few days. My legs and knees need the rest. I crapped out coming home yesterday from work and took the #2 home from Main Street. It was a happy accident since it gave me a chance to use the bus racks and found my bus route to get too and from work. I was pleased with the bike racks on the bus, very simple and idiot proof. As to the bus route, I had looked at several routes-all involving at least one transfer and a good 50-60 minutes. The only positive thing is the route would practically drop me off at the front door of work and my apartment.  Instead I think the days I decide to bus, I'll ride the 1/2 mile to King and High and pick up the #2 to the Main Street Alum Creek Path trail head. From there it will be an easy, scenic ride down to work.

    It's not that the ride is hard. I'm slowly learning which roads are working better, which have the insane hills that slow me up for the rest of the ride and other little tricks. I just want to make sure I don't tear or injure something again. The bus ride itself was interesting. Between blatant racism and xenophobia and random conversations with complete strangers, I got a very unique look at life outside of the car.

    Well I had the time today, I took a look at some of the documents on the COTA website. I knew some of the plans they have on paper address my (and others) concerns and criticisms. I can't say enough that COTA is moving forward in what seems to be a good direction. I just look at the work done lately on the various bicycle projects and it gives one something tangible to work with, something concrete and visible in the community. Maybe COTA can have one of it's marketing interns start a blog to help communicate with the public?

An Interesting Week

I'm sick of using the car as a crutch. We honestly need to start a Carholics Anonymous here in Columbus. The lure, the temptation of internal combustion laziness is, at times, too sweet to ignore. So the car is going. I've been holding out for a bigger check by selling on Craigslist, but no hits thus far. So off to Carmax first thing next week. 

Preparing for my liberation, I rode to work Monday. The ride at 4 am was actually pleasant. I think I had a total of 10 cars on the road the entire commute. Overall I had the run of the roads and was able to cut .5 mile off my commute in the morning since I was able to take main roads. That night, Consider Biking held a small gathering at Global Gallery in Clintonville. The ride was more than doable, but a severe lack of sleep and the 16 miles I had already put in had me looking at another option.

The last time I used COTA was about 2 years ago when I was living just south of the University District. Then, the bus was mainly used for short trips up High to avoid the bitter winter cold or to help me out while I was on crutches. Because of this, I never cared much for schedules or time tables, since I could be fairly certain a bus coming about every 10 minutes or so. Monday, the ride would take me a bit further so I hopped onto the recently added Google feature to route myself and find the best way. You simply type your two addresses like you would driving directions and select public transportation. The default is to route based on current time, but you have the option to set a departure time or an arrival time and get the closest match. 

I was presented several options and chose the easiest for me: walking up the street to one stop and transferring to a new bus for the majority of the trip. The only problem was that the bus stop they sent me to didn't exist. I kept walking further up the street and managed to find the correct stop, the bus was on time and off I went. I was dropped off at the next stop, further up the route and the next bus was just behind. All in all pretty impressive to see what amounted to an effective transit system-and here in Columbus no less. The return trip was easy as well. I chose to ride the one route and stop for groceries before walking back to my apartment. After not riding COTA for 2 years, I was pretty damn impressed to have such a great experience. Then there was today.

My phone needs some work done and the nearest store is at Henderson and Reed, about 8 miles. I got onto Google and found 3 options-a 3 bus transfer, or walking a .5 mile to a stop, boarding and then transferring to another bus. The shortest quoted ride was about 55 minutes. Unfortunately I just missed the bus and found, according to the time table, the next one was due an hour later. I decided to take care of another errand and rode the bus from 8th to Buttles for a haircut. Could I have biked it? No doubt, but I wanted a chance to ride the bus. Coming back was an issue. One of the severe shortfalls I am finding here in Columbus is trying to run any errands by bus. An inconsistent schedule with a 10 minute wait, at best, and an hour or more at worse is a massive failing. It's one thing to plan work schedules around a bus, but errands with no defined time or schedule leaves one at the mercy of COTA. Thankfully, I had grabbed a timetable and checked it as I stood in the rain for a bus. I had a 25 minute wait or a 1.5 mile walk. I walked. 

Tomorrow should be interesting. I am attempting to ride COTA to work and back, followed by a trip to Verizon later in the afternoon.