Spontaneous non-Combustion

It was over before I could pull out my camera.

Perhaps there will come a day when this is commonplace -- it certainly felt commonplace judging from the complete lack of any reaction -- but at the corner of Peachtree and 5th ...

Rewind several months: In April of 2007, one block away, three cyclists spontaneously met at the stoplight. The following Spring, five cyclists' paths converged upon the intersection. This morning, I followed a pair of cyclists approaching a third cyclist waiting at the light. Before I clipped out, another approached from the left and then another from the right. Six simultaneous, independent bicycle commuters. No internal combustion required.

I like when the commute turns into a group ride.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 18.8
Number of Cyclists seen: 25 (9 inbound and 16 outbound)
In-bound Route: Goofin' 9.6
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Maybe I should have worn long pants. Fingers stiff with no gloves. Must have been closer to freezing than I thought.

After the party

It's late. The guests have all gone, the food's been put away and the empty glasses cleared. A quiet, nostalgic tune still plays on the stereo, but the party's over.

Atlanta's recent gas shortage got lots of people on bikes and talking about bikes, but now that gas is available, can the conversations about cycling continue? What will the morning after be like?

My daughter had come up with a saying for the Fortune Cookie link at the top of this page: Remember man that you are a cyclist and to cycling you shall return.

This evokes a time when oil won't be easy to come by, when the car isn't the easy choice, and when we will return to cycling. This recent shortage has been a sobering glimpse of what can happen.

I'm encouraged however, that even though my cycling counts have dropped some from their peak during the shortage, it appears some people introduced to cycling by the gas shortage have decided to stick with it.

Counting Cyclists in Downtown Atlanta

 

I spent rush hour guessing the age of cyclists as they whizzed by amongst cars, pedestrians, buses and each other.

The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign has been following a national program of counting cyclists and this is the second count this year. Volunteers stand at a street corner and gather data on cyclists passing through the intersection. The cyclist in the photo was recorded as a female between 19 and 39 years of age, turning from east to north through the intersection, wearing a helmet and riding in the street along with the flow of traffic. The timing suggested she had just finished classes at nearby Georgia State, but this wasn't part of the official tally.

The official tally did not specifically ask about police officers riding on the sidewalk, but I did make note of that. If we expect our officers to enforce this law, it would appear we would need to make them aware of this law.

Alicia, Crystal (in the photo below) and I counted 82 intersection crossings over the two hour period. We'd like to add more street corners next time. If you'd like to volunteer, sign up to receive ABC's newsletter. Or even better, you can become a member.

Sept. 19 is a good day for Cyclists - Two years running

It was one year ago today that I posted a record number of cyclists during my daily commute. I spotted 38 cyclists that day. Today was 39, 31 over the 9.1 miles I rode home this evening.

For those that enjoy numbers, the evening commute saw 3.4 cyclists per mile and nearly a cyclist per minute.

I knew it was going to be a good day when I had spotted the first six at Peachtree and 5th. Most were commuters but one young lady looked like she was headed out for a night on the town. In my earlier years, I would have followed. I need to start wearing my camera on top of my helmet.

Peachtree was one place the cyclists bunched up, but there was also a cluster coming through the intersection of the PATH trail and North Highland, and then as usual, a group around the Emory campus.

September 19 falls on a Saturday next year so I'm not sure what to do. Do I go to work that day?

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 18.7
Number of Cyclists seen: 39 - new record for a day's commute, breaking record set one year ago today.
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Maybe it is the weather. Delicious day: sunny with low breeze around 72 degrees and air you wanted to gulp.

It's Working

In April of 2000 I made my first trip to Europe. In London, they drive cars small enough to put on the back of your bike, so you knew their gas was expensive, but I wanted to do the math. Even my inexact conversion of gasoline prices from pounds per liter to dollars per gallon made it clear prices were low in the US.

My theory at the time was that if US gasoline prices came into line with the rest of the world, the US would become more pedestrian friendly and we could reduce sub-urban sprawl.

Now that gas prices are approaching the true cost of powering our lives -- to the point of poor health physically, socially, environmentally, and maybe even mentally -- we're seeing bicycle usage surge. It looks like my theory is working.

I've been counting cyclists for about 18 months now. There's been a steady increase in the number of both rec cyclists and commuters. The number of cyclists per mile has more than doubled over that time frame. I used to see less than one cyclist per mile. Today there were 36 across 17.4 miles.

Mike Goodman of Intown Bicycles recently wrote in his newsletter about the surge of new cyclists:

Customers are asking us, "How is the bike business these days, what with gas pricing being so high and all? The answer is, "It's good!"

Indeed, more and more people are coming in and saying, "I'm thinking about biking to work. I only live a mile or two from work, and it doesn't make sense to start my car to drive that distance." They're also saying they'd like to use their bikes to pick up a few things at the grocery store.

In 2000, I would have been happy if gas got to $3/gallon. I'm smiling broadly now as I ride my bike into the office.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 17.4
Number of Cyclists seen: 36
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Squirts of rain in the morning. Nearly hot in the afternoon.

Put a Smile on my Face

As if everyone realized Earth Day means get up the next day and get on your bikes and ride, the cyclists were out everywhere today. I counted 47 cyclists today over 29.6 miles (average of 1.6 cyclists/mile) which is a new record.

I felt like I had been dropped into the future when I stopped at an intersection that already had one cyclist waiting and two pulled up behind me, while another crossed our path in front of us.

Five random bikes at a location I'm used to only seeing the occasional cyclist. It was an impromptu bike party, but we acted like it should happen all the time.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 29.6
Number of Cyclists seen: 47 - new record
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail (with extensions)
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton (also with extensions)
Weather: The best.

Tracking Bikes

 

Last year I posted about how you could count the number of cyclists by the tracks they left in the pollen. We haven't had quite the same weather this year -- cooler and cloudier -- so we haven't gotten the pollen quite as thick yet.

This image above is on the PATH trail next to the Carter Center. Here's what my tire is picking up:




Here's one of the commuters I came across this morning.

New Record for number of Cyclists Observed

I knew this was going to be a good day when I had spotted 12 riders within the first 3 miles. The ride into the office brought me past 16 riders, most of whom were clearly commuting. In the afternoon there were a good number of rec riders, but still a strong showing from the commuters. 22 riders over 9.3 miles is about double what I usually see.

Intown Atlanta, we are getting on our bikes and riding.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 21.7
Number of Cyclists seen: 38 - a new record
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH (stretched out a bit)
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Slap your head silly gorgeous. Everyone is outside today.

Great Streets

This post falls under the "help lights shine brighter" category.

On the blog Bike Year, I ran across an architect's view of streets. What caught my attention was the term "pedestrian nostalgia", loosely defined as that good feeling we remember about being able to walk everywhere. What kept my attention (besides the 47 comments) was getting into the head of someone who designs these spaces for a living.

The author describes a meeting held to discuss the importance of green spaces and how bureaucracies can be worked to make the green space a reality. It turned into a disappointing meeting, but several good points were brought out:

• Are streets for people or for cars?
  
• College campuses as the ultimate human-scaled living spaces.
  
• What makes a great street, and especially, how is community fostered?
  

The article takes a pedestrian's perspective, but the discussion is completely appropriate for cyclists as well. The comments move the discussion forward into other interesting nooks and crannies.

This is my photo offering for the day. This is the entrance to the Lullwater Conservation Park. It makes a good example of a space with human scale.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 15.0
Number of Cyclists seen: 13
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH
Out-bound Route: Highland Automotive to pick up the car
Weather: Sunny, dry, warm

I got a kick out of showing up at the automotive shop on a bike. The car needed some work and my wife was busy so I picked up the car on my way home. Reminds me of the days when I kept a bike in the back of the car in case the car broke down.

This morning before I left the house, I kept getting calls that kept me near the home computer. It was getting close to lunch time and I was considering just working from home, but I really wanted to get outside on my bike. I should probably post this separately: a guy who could have been working from home, but decided to go into the office because he enjoys his commute so much.

Building Communities Less Dependent on the Car

Much industrial land in Intown Atlanta is currently being converted to multi-unit residential. Although Atlantic Station has grabbed Atlanta's spotlight for being a converted steel mill property, there are several smaller tracts that are turning residential. The pictured construction is along the planned Beltline. You can see the vine-covered abandoned rail running from bottom center upward to the right which is planned to become an alternative transportation corridor.

I don't know if this property is billed as less car-intensive, but it's close to downtown, and close to the PATH Foundation's Freedom Park Trail (I'm standing on the trail to take these photos). Restaurants are a short stroll away and you're within a couple of miles of most things you would shop for.

Many residents of single-family housing fear the number of cars higher-density might bring, but our mass transit needs this density to work efficiently. We're moving over the hump with this new development.

I was also standing on the trail to take this photo alongside Candler Park Golf Course's 9th tee box.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 17.9
Number of Cyclists seen: 19
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Beautiful Morning, Warm and Hazy afternoon

Commuter Survey develops another Hyphothesis

When counting the cyclists during my commute, I sometimes get the opportunity to chat with my fellow commuters and ask about their ride. Destination is often a topic of conversation, and many of the commuters teach at either Georgia Tech or Emory. Since my routes lie with 2-3 miles of either campus, this probably should be expected.

What I'm finding interesting is how many of these professors teach Math. I haven't been counting this, but I ran into two Math professors today, neither of which I had seen before today.

Now, for most folks, this could exceed the level of boredom obtained by counting the number of truck commercials during a televised sporting event, but I'm running along at a scientific level of interest.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 17.7
Number of Cyclists seen: 18
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Sunny, mild and stiff wind out of the west.

Not sure if the dip in numbers could be explained by the slightly cooler weather today or if everyone is saving up for tonight's CM ride.

Adding variations to the commuting routes

I've wanted a few more miles during the week so I decided to expand my commute routes to include a little more distance. In-bound, I added the big hill that approaches the Centers for Disease Control along Clifton Road from the west. It's a bigger hill than I remember. I think I've only climbed it once or twice before. It rises 175 feet over half a mile for a 7% grade. It's nice and steady though so other than the length, it wasn't too bad. Working hard early in the ride did mess me up for the rest of the ride. Hill profile shown here:



On the way back, I swung south to Grant Park home of the Zoo and Cyclorama. I had never taken the Cherokee Road crossing of I-20, and wanted to see it's attraction to other cyclists. It's not a bad route for those coming from Grant Park up to downtown and midtown.

Breathed in another insect on the way home in about the same spot as before. This one got swallowed, but only after scratching around my throat for a few miles. I'd been wanting to add a little variety to my diet.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 20.5
Number of Cyclists seen: 27 (new record)
In-bound Route: Emory/PATH
Out-bound Route: Grant Park
Weather: Sunny warmth seems to bring the people out.

We interrupt this bike commute for the following paid advertisement

Last Friday, I got stuck in traffic. Today, I was blocked from crossing a bridge because they were filming a commercial. On the bridge. It was a pick-up truck commercial with several over-sized black trucks parked on a diagonal, with downtown Atlanta in the background.

I despise TV commercials in general, but there's a special place at the very bottom of my list for truck commercials.

I can however, appreciate the view this bridge affords. I've got a print (shown here) that my wife and I made more than 20 years ago from that same spot. More recently, I appreciate that bridge because it gets me across a busy street when I ride my PATH route.

It's ironic that the bike route was chosen for a truck commercial.

I asked the guy if I could sneak through during a break. He said he'd be dead if he let me through. At first, this sounded like a fair trade, but I don't want to give anyone an unfavorable impression of cyclists. I wasn't going to foster goodwill if I dashed through their set.

Although I was bummed I had to cross that street using a busy four lane -- especially since I was complicitly supporting an industry that influences people to waste their money on conspicuously consumptive vehicles -- I consoled myself with the happy thought of being treated more like a vehicle than a pedestrian.

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 17.9
Number of Cyclists seen: 24 (record so far)
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH Detour was to cross Freedom Parkway at Boulevard instead of Jackson.
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Substantially warmer. Less than half-way in, sweat dripped off my brow while waiting at a light.