by Ethan Johnson
August 22, 2008

This article is potentially extremely image intensive, but I am going to compromise and have some inline photos interspersed with hyperlinks to supporting images, okay? Onward.

I have been reading a few cycling blogs lately, and thinking that I should get more serious about bike commuting. Of course, I can hop in the minivan as needed to buy ice cream or other perishable items for speedy transport. But frankly, a trip to the corner bank or the library doesn't involve refrigerated/frozen items, other than my bottle of water. As gas prices rose this year to record levels, I saw more people hauling out the old 10-speed and trying to recapture former glory. It's not that simple when we get older. And, as this article will explain, there are other factors in play that make bike travel a bit daunting. Not impossible, but daunting.

One of the many Holy Wars of the cyclist crowd is the issue of sidewalk riding. "Thin-tire" bikers generally do not ride on the sidewalks. From what I gather, the political issue (besides whatever cliquey "cred" is to be won or lost) is that cyclists want to share the roads, with the slogan "I am traffic too." Looking at North Texas, I suspect that Driver's Ed is an elective, so good luck with a deep understanding of coexisting with bicycles, if stop signs 101 is an epic fail. As for the assertions that the law favors wronged cyclists, I say, that's a small comfort when you're dead. I saw this struggle termed "pedal vs metal" and I think it says it all.

For the purposes of this article, I decided to use my would-be straight-shot commute to/from the community rec center as a launch pad for discussion about the challenges cyclists face getting from A to B and back again. North Texas favors motor vehicle traffic outright, no bones about it. I am not in the "stay off the sidewalks" camp. In math class we learned long ago that the shortest distance is between two points. nevertheless, let's pretend that I'm on the side of the elites, who abhor sidewalk riding. Okay, here is my official route to the gym:

And here is the official one-way mileage count (exactly and approximately):

Officially, I take back roads, side streets, and designated bike paths all the way to the gym. This is official. Got it?

My official route starts out well enough. We live in a sleepy subdivision (knock wood) chock full of quiet side streets. No need to ride on the sidewalks, as the streets are wide and relatively clear of motor vehicle traffic. That gets me to problem #1: Crossing Independence Parkway. Fortunately, the "walk" button works on contact, so you have to be ready to peel across the intersection immediately after pressing it. No heartburn there, except I will note that this part involves - gasp - sidewalk biking for a short duration. Enough so that the city decided to post a warning sign. Not many people walk in our neighborhood, so yielding to pedestrians isn't usually an issue.

A big upside to the officially official route is that I have a shade pavilion I can stop at to/from the gym to cool off and mooch city water from the fountain. If I travel any other way, that's not an option.

After the shade pavilion, I have to travel through part of the massive soccer field complex and onward to another residential side street. If you look closely at the linked photo, our residential streets do not have lines on them. I try to stay as close to the curb as possible. Motorists tend to swing wide around me anyway, and when parked cars narrow the street I can pull over and wait as need be. This sort of road cycling is preferable (to me) over main streets. Much less traffic, and motorists can generally work around you with minimal fuss.

After the residential strip, we come to Heavy Decision Time. If I were to be a rebel who plays by his own rules, I could turn left and take a straight shot down Coit to the gym. But that would involve - gasp - sidewalk riding, and we can't have that, officially. So I'll go straight across Coit until I get to the city-supplied bike path.

A big upside to the official bike path is that it's just you and the other cyclists and joggers. And since summer is hot, and man is mortal, I can clearly not choose the wine in front of... I mean, usually the path is sparsely populated. This isn't like Lake Michigan in the summer. Not just a tiny bit. Bonus: The city has provided drinking fountains along the path. No shade, but water and a hot metal bench. I [heart] the city planners.

On down the path we go, until, whoops, we reach a major road. And not just a major road, one where NO protection is afforded to bike path traffic. Look both ways, and make a break for it.

Whew, made it. Alright, we'll pedal along a while longer, until, wait, uh-oh, another major road. And this one is more major than the last one. You can't "just" cross the street. This time the town elders have decided that survival rests upon the decision to - wait for it - cross at the nearest stoplight. But wait! This means you have to - gasp! - bike on the sidewalk. And worse, someone decided to make the route a real obstacle course, with stabilizing wires for the telephone poles, which are conveniently planted in the middle of the sidewalk. Anyway, if you navigate this correctly and cross at the light, it's back on the - gasp! - sidewalk until the bike path can be rejoined. Here is the photo from the return angle, showing that the town elders are mandating that bike traffic - and this is official, now - ride against the flow of traffic. That's another Cycle Crowd holy war, if you're keeping track.

Alright, we're almost to the gym. Just over the rise, then we turn left at the residential side street, and straight on to the gym. Hooray!

Okay, come back. Here's the problem: When I get to the gym, I have no choice but to ride on the sidewalk for a short time, because there is no sneaky back way into the lot.

Of course, I could ride on the shoulder down Coit road until I got to the driveway and went from there, right? Oh, except there is no shoulder on most if not all Plano streets. And the posted speed limit is 45mph. The theoretical top-end on my bike is 25mph. If we want to get nitpicky about traffic laws, I'd have to wear that "slow moving vehicle" triangle on my back to warn other motorists. I have only seen ONE cyclist do that locally, and he rode a recumbent bike on the bike path. I have seen ZERO cyclists (even the fancy-pants "thin tire" crowd) use hand signals in lieu of turn signals. I don't use them either, mostly because I am unconvinced that 99.99999% of area motorists know what it means when someone on a bike cocks his/her arm up at a 90-degree angle.

Anyway, as seen in the linked photo (you are clicking the photo links, right?), there is a wide buffer zone between the road and the sidewalk. My contention is, if motorists are having apoplexy because a BICYCLE was on the SIDEWALK, they probably have other equally petty problems, none of which need to be shared with me. Anyway, then I roll into the circle drive and hook my hoopty up to one of the many bike racks. Excelsior!

Whew. According to my even more official on-board computer, the official route was more like 6.10 miles. One way, officially took me about 35 minutes. I'm not too concerned about how long it took one-way, because I count time spent on the bike as exercise. On hot days like today, however, less is more. Which brings us to... dun dun DUNNNNNN... unofficial shortcuts that I would never take, because I always take the official route.

But if I turned bad, I could supposedly shave a mile off of the route one-way by riding on the sidewalks (!!!), against traffic (!!!), in a straight shot to the gym.

And if I really wanted to rebel against society and everything right and good in this world, I could go home taking an even more direct route, against traffic (!!!), on the sidewalk (!!!) and still get the benefit of the shade pavilion:

Plus, I could hit the grocery store for non-perishable items on the way home (not an option, officially). On the down side, if you decide to say, compromise and ride on the sidewalks with the flow of traffic, this puts you in the path of frazzled strip mall traffic that really has no patience for other motorists, let alone your bike-ridin' azz. I would have been better off riding against traffic because that side is all residential, and therefore less traveled. Just sayin'.

The sidewalks up Coit road aren't the world's greatest. They're placed arbitrarily (at least they exist, granted), and as this photo shows, telephone poles are liable to sprout up anywhere, and subdivision walls tightly flank the sidewalk. No pressure.

A big downside to sidewalk riding, besides getting smacked by low-hanging tree branches, is clusters of gnats have decided that the sidewalk is the place to be. You don't get these gnat balls on the streets. Ick.

There has been unseasonable amounts of rain lately, which means the sidewalk is streaked with mud from the flower beds. The street doesn't have this problem, as a rule. I wiped out once in the mud (pre-storms) and it was so not fun. Should have taken a side street, but noooo, I thought it was dark dirt. No problem! (Sliiiiiiide)

Okay, time to land this plane. Your takeaways from this article are as follows:

• I'm such a smartass, you don't think it's funny, and you're never coming back.
• Officially, it makes a world of sense to bike past your destination, then bake in the full Sun down a designated bike path that routes you temporarily down the much shadier sidewalks anyway. Against the flow of traffic, which is an alleged no-no. Not enough to make the city planners stop and think, "hmmm, we're forcing bikers to break the law over here", but hey.
• Officially, it makes too much sense to travel further by bike to get from A to B than you would have had to do with an eeeevil, evil planet-ruining car.
• Plano is trying to be more bike-friendly, but another Holy War takes the form of recreational vs practical cycling. Plano went down the "recreational" path on the flowchart, leaving bike commuters in the lurch. What this means, for practical intents and purposes, is that I consider myself to be a "fast pedestrian" when biking. If I'm on a busy street, then sure, I'm "traffic" and should be so regarded. On sidewalks and side streets, I put the onus on myself to be mindful of others and not get killed. And of course, to be courteous. having a bike isn't a license to be an ass.
• Always wear a helmet, safety clothing, a seat belt, make sure there's metal around you, with air bags, and you'll probably want at least a V6 with good pickup.

Biking can be challenging but fun. I wish that "thick tire" biking was more realistic in these here parts, but sadly, I think I'll have to resort to minivan driving for the bulk of my transportation, but keep chipping away with tenable bike routes. Every little bit counts! <EM>