This conversation came up at a local water hole and seemed to resonate with my non cycling friends so I thought I would share. Commuting by car into the city there is nothing more maddening then congestion on the beltway. Try as you may to find alternate routes they are all slower then then beltway and not a whole lot less stressful. So basically commuting by bicycle always presents a way out of congested traffic, you are no longer stuck in traffic. Car accidents that once blocked traffic for miles and the bane of commuting by car now become something you look forward too (not to wish any thing bad on other people but life is life here in the City.) So while my 10 mile commute by bike may take an extra 10 minutes on the best of days on the worst of days I am faster then by car and with next to zero frustration.
With talk about cyclists slowing down traffic being bantered about on the Baltimore Sun blog I thought it might be worth wile pointing out that it is cars slowing down traffic that helped motivate me to ride a bike.
Funny… lately, I’ve been held up by cars during my bike commute to work. Some of the roads do not have much room, so a car backing out of their driveway may run into problems getting out. I witnessed this problem yesterday morning.
Yesterday afternoon, on my way home by bike, I was stuck behind traffic on Middle River Rd after turning on to it from Route 7. A line of traffic extended from Pulaski Hwy all of the way to Route 7. The snow was piled high along the sides of the road, so there was no escape, even by bicycle unless I wanted to march across 3 feet of snow risking falling off and back into the road.
iodaniell
OK, there is a severe winter storm exception. Are you happy now? 😉
(Thanks for the post.)