Bike commuting to/from/across a college campus

I started bike commuting when I started my Master of Science degree out in Corvallis Oregon in Fall 1997.  Since then, with the exception of 6 months living in Delemont Switzerland, all my jobs have been on University Campuses. Thus the majority of my bike-as-transportation riding has been to and from a campus, and much of my race training riding has involved crossing campuses.  There are a few lessons to be learned.

First and foremost... know what times class changes occur and how long students are given between classes.  Once that information is in hand, NEVER ride across a campus during the class change times. Students seem to  be clueless.  That could be a bit harsh, it might be that they just can't see and hear traffic. Most students I have observed in the last four or five years are plugged into earbuds - playing their music/podcasts/listening to their friends on the phone at a high enough volume that I, as a passing cyclist, can clearly hear what they are listening to.  It does not matter if you have a bell or a car horn or an air horn. The plugged in student will not hear you. It also seems I have seen students at all times of day and in all weathers wearing dark sunglasses.  Students also seem to treat every inch of every road on campus as a cross walk. Stepping out from between parked cars and behind buses without looking. I can't tell you how many times I have had someone enter the street in the middle of a block less than a meter in front of me. Invariably I am the one they blame for their near miss. Thus far I have not hit a pedestrian, but I have gone down to avoid them twice - both times when the pedestrian came out from a concealed place did not look for traffic and stepped directly in front of me where there was no crosswalk.

Second: Bike lanes are not for bikes, they are extra sidewalks. The bike lane as sidewalk was a particular issue at Cornell and Oregon State. It is a bit ironic, getting dirty looks from drivers when riding in the car lanes instead of the bike lanes, and dirty looks from pedestrians when riding in the bike lanes rather than in the car lanes.

Third: at intersections with traffic signals and pedestrian signals, the moment the lights change and a pedestrian signal turns red, they cross.  This seems to be the modus operandi here at Rutgers Newark. Surprisingly this happens with cars as well as when I am the only vehicle waiting at the intersection. I have seen student and professorial types do this.

Forth: Although I have been told that bus drivers get training on looking for bikes, don't ever assume a bus driver has seen you, and use extreme caution around bus stops. This holds for city buses as well. I don't say this to be negative to the bus drivers. I have never been in the driver seat of a bus and thus have no idea where the blind spots are. For a bus taking on passengers, the driver is paying attention to a lot of things and may not have seen you come along side to pass.  Also, non cyclists seem to have no idea how fast a bike moves - they may think they have room to pull in after passing you but if you are moving faster than they realize their distance may not be adequate.

Fifth: Watch for bikes on the wrong side of the road and riders who pretend they are pedestrians to avoid stopping at red lights and stop signs. College campuses I have been on, with the exception of Rutgers-Newark, seem to be a hot spot for people riding their bikes on the wrong side of the road. Generally when I see it I call out that they are on the wrong side of the road, and usually I am met with blank looks.  This, and the habit some riders have of coming to a red light and riding through it on the pedestrian crosswalks, often times then turning left, are by biggest pet peeves regarding other riders. The turning left by first running a red light by riding in the crosswalk and then coming through the the green light of the cross street really frustrates me.  I have a spot on my commute where it does not feel safe to ride through and intersection. I would have to merge left out of a right turn only lane into a go strait lane at a spot where even at 6:45 AM there is lots and lots of traffic. I cross at the cross walk... but I get off my bike, wait for the pedestrian signal to say walk, and then I walk across the street and remount on the other side.  It is annoying and I would rather not have to get off my bike, but it is the safest way for everyone involved; motorists, pedestrians, and myself. I feel that every rider who disregards the rules of the road like this makes it more dangerous for me to ride my bike on the road. I don't own (and have never owned) a car, and many places I have lived, the bike has been my only option to run errands or to get to and from work in a timely fashion. I deal with the consequences of people's irresponsible actions leaving negative impressions on drivers every day.

Green means... hesitate?

I was reflecting this morning, on traffic lights... while on my commute (7 miles, 17 traffic lights, the 'burbs' to downtown Newark, NJ).

Most places I have ridden, a green traffic light is a non-item... just ride on through and enjoy the ride that little bit more for it not being interrupted by that light. Most places I have ridden are, however, rural. I could pick routes that had few if any traffic lights to get to most of my destinations.

Here though, in the outskirts of Newark riding into the city I was surprised to note that I feel differently about green lights once I cross over into the city proper. My commute starts in a town and 5 traffic lights and 2.5 miles later I am in a park that has only two lights. I enjoy the park for 3 or so miles and when I leave the park I am in the city and the remaining 10 lights await me in the last couple of miles.  Those lights are somehow different.  I have hit them all on red. I have hit half of them on red. I have never hit them all on green. I wonder if the later is somehow a subconscious thing. Today, when I did hit a couple on green... it felt shady, almost like I was doing something wrong, when riding on through.  It feels more natural to stop at them and wait. I have no idea why I feel this way. It feels quite absurd to not want to ride on through a green light. Yet I can't shake the feeling.

I have only been doing this commute for a few months. I moved to the Newark area in September and it took until January for me to get the nerve up to commute in such an urban area.  I was using the train from September through December - a very convenient, and for me relatively inexpensive transit option - but also one full of people sneezing and coughing and sniffling... and one which required me to adhere to a schedule that felt inflexible. I finally told myself to stop being a baby and just do it... and low and behold it was not as scary as I thought... but now I seem to fear the green lights.

Individual aesthetic

A few of the photos I have posted as part of my photo-a-day project and to the daily photo/fine art themes on Google+ have generated some good discussion. Many of the discussion points I have found most interesting center around what each individual looking at an image take away from it. What they like about it, what they would have liked to see done, and suggestions on how to improve/change the image.

As a photographer I am essentially self taught.  The only way for me to expand my comfort zone, grow my eye, and test my skills is to take lots and lots of pictures and to get feedback. I learned a lot with early feedback from college friend Dustin and his dad. I continue to learn with current feedback from the super active photographer and artist communities on Google+, and as I find my own personal aesthetic.  As a hobbiest, my own aesthetic is the only one I have to please. :-)

One of the things that initially really drew me to photography was the concept that 10 people looking at the same tableau will see 20 different views. And 10 people with cameras at the same spot will choose to take photos of different aspects of the spot, or shoot the same aspect in completely different ways. Then even if I take a few shots that are similar to those someone with me takes, how we post process those images further increases the variations that 10 people in one spot come up with.

I tend to try to keep post processing to a minimum, though in learning how to use my photo-processing software better, I do play with the extremes as well. I fairly frequently crop a given image in two different ways, "keeping" multiple crops. When I do play with extreme post processing, I sometimes keep several versions of an image as well.

Some examples of images that have generated some commentary and have been processed in more than one way are below.  In two examples below, the more heavily processed image went into my photo a day album, but I kept a minimally processed version as well.

This first image is the original of the business end of Fred. This is slightly cropped and very slightly edited for tone - fairly typical of how I typically post process images.  

In processing, I decided I preferred the square crop and slid the clarity slider all the way to the -100. I liked how it softened the edges on the leaf litter and the colors a little. 

With the one on the bottom I played with the the curves and liked the splash of larger than life color and how it brought out the spokes to me. The center image is my favorite and is the one I used for photo of the day.

This photo on the right  is close to original. I increased the blacks a little bit to obscure some of the detail in the reflection but otherwise it is pretty true to what I saw on that bridge.  The image on the right, I am not quite sure how I achieved that. I like how it turned the dark parts on the bridge - the reflected branches, the ends of the boards where the water wasn't pooling to gold, and added some color to reflected railings and completely flattened out the reflection of me. I like both: the organic simplicity of the almost monochrome original version, as well as the somewhat colorized and metallicized version. I like them for different reasons. 

The top one is the original image not even cropped (I forgot in my cold induced haze), just turned to black and white and posted as my photo of the day.

One of the comments I got on the image was a suggestion to crop it closer and maybe make it a little grainier.  I am not sure the best way to get the exact graininess I was hoping for (a task for the future to be sure) but I did make it a little grainier and I cropped it close.

The response to the second image was mixed. One person commented that they like the original better, and the person who suggested the close crop thought the foliage took away from message in the graffiti, and thought the second image worked better for him.

In all honesty, if I had cropped the image when I was initially working on it, I would not have cropped quite as close as in the second image. I like the implied line of rocks leading to the left corner of the bench as seen in the top photo. I am also not quite comfortable with the message so close to the top of the image. I guess I really need to do a take three on this image to see what I end up with.  I do like the graniness and the slight brightening. Adding grain is not something I would have thought of without a suggestion from others.

I love the discussion some photos generate, I love the post processing suggestions, I love the individuality of what each person sees in a given photo.

Keep it coming.

Help me keep on learning.

Singing rails

I have heard the expression "singing rails" but I hadn't really considered what it meant.  One part of my daily bike commute parallels a light rail line. The light rail cars are all electric and are fairly short and quite quiet. However, as one approaches, or after one has passed, the rails... sing.

Even if you can't see the train, you can hear the proximity of it. I assume it is a vibration travelling down the rails themselves. I would love to feel the rail after a train passes as well...  but I spent a formative year in England when young and they showed all sorts of nightmare inducing horror films about playing/hanging out/being near active rail lines... so I shall just enjoy the singing as I ride to and from work.

A few thoughts on commuting

To bike commute in the Newark area is many things:

It is 10 minutes of time stopped due to traffic lights.

It is afternoon sirens every day with the exception of this week Tuesday.  I start hearing them as I approach the 280 crossing and they seem to wail up and down both sides of Branch Brook Park until I cross under Bloomfield Ave and then things get quiet.  I have bike commuted every weekday I have been in NJ since January (with three exceptions) and this week Tuesday was the first time I have not heard sirens in the afternoon/evening on my way home.

With the exception of this week, mornings tend to be siren free.  Generally quite peaceful until I cross 280 and then it is city riding.  This morning, however, there was a moment of profound silence in the city.  It was deafening in it's utter lack of sound.

It is not necessarily a breath of fresh air.  I have had more second hand cigarette smoke while stopped at lights near cars where the driver/passengers are smoking with the windows open than ever before whilst riding.  Even when passing cars parked along side the road in Branch Brook.

It is not faster than the train, nor more relaxing for the first bit and last bit each way.

It does, however, make a huge difference in my daily outlook. I took the train yesterday out of pure laziness and I really missed the morning chill and the glow of the evening sun.

Tuesday was a bit of an odd day... Apart from the lack of sirens in the evening, the morning had two odd incidents. First, I came to a light that was red and stopped. Traffic on the cross street was moving normally and as expected their light turned orange, and one more truck turned left, and then the light turned red for the cross street and my light turned green. An ambulance, with no lights flashing or sirens on, stopped at the red light, watched me enter the intersection on my green light and then turned left (on red, on a two way street) across me. Again, no lights flashing or siren on.  The driver was looking me in the eye as he completely cut me off and made his illegal left turn.  The second was a police truck (around Newark there are cars and what look like armored trucks) came to a red light behind a car. The driver of the car was going strait, the police vehicle had no turn signals on... but went into the oncoming lane, went around the car, and turned right (on red at an intersection with a no turn on red sign) and again did not have emergency lights flashing or a siren on.  It reinforces being a defensive rider.

The closer to 5 o'clock I am on the road on my way home, the more encounters I have with impatient drivers honking at me or cutting me off or not acknowledging my presence.

Photo-a-day 2012 Week 2

I've noticed why going through the day's pictures, that I seem to take a bunch that try to capture something artistically and some which capture something I found interesting or intriguing or amusing, but are not really very artistic.  I may have to start my Things-i-saw-that-amused-me almost daily picture as well.

Anyway onto week 2:

Jan 8: There is nothing really to add to the photo from Jan. 8.  As a whole, people tend not to look up enough, and often miss what goes on right overhead.  I am fascinated by clouds and how to capture sky in photos. This was with the little point and shoot, as I was coming out of the grocery store.







Jan 9: The 9th was the day I bit the bullet and tried one of the several potential bike commute routes I had mapped out.  I have been a bit nervous of trying the commute since the overwhelming response I was getting from people around here was horror at the idea of going through this or that neighborhood. Anyway, the morning route was an exercise in roads I was not enamored of. The revised route home was much more promising and I was really happy to see it go close to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. This was a spur of the moment shot I took after a slightly hairy left turn into Brook Tree Park.  This will offer a lot of opportunities for photography.

Jan 10: The fax machine at work betrayed me and the department photocopier is not set up to scan to a PDF so I ventured forth to the library on campus to search for a scanner. I am embarrassed it took me so long to go. A nice building and the 4th floor, where media services was, also houses the Center for Jazz Studies. There was a display of mobiles hanging up inspired by jazz, and this photo is of a few of those mobiles.  I liked this as the photo of the day becuase of the combination of the lines and circles and shadows.

Jan 11: The 11th was a fairly gray day, and as the lighting wasn't great for a lot of what I had hoped to try to capture, so I explored around the Cathedral some more, going right around it. This is one of the resulting pictures. It does not capture exactly what I had hoped to, but I like the small bit with the cross on the right of the image. There are two of the large towers, but the one shown is different from the one on the right side of the building. I can't wait to shoot more of the building. I will have to put together an album of just the Cathedral.








Thursday the 12th dawned with a downpour, and it felt like it was night well into the afternoon. It was way too soggy to get the camera out on the way in to work, and pretty much too dark to take pictures anyway.  On the way home it was merely drizzling and with the dark sky and the dark water in the park, the reflections were really vivid.  I stopped in several places along the water to take photos. It was a tough to decide which reflection to use. I debated between a few and ultimately decided on the bridge. I can't say why, besides that I liked the effect of the sports field lighting on the water.

On the 13th the weather was equally stormy. I decided to take the train in because I wanted another go at some railings between the railroad station and campus. Before taking the train though, I had to stop at the post office and take care of a little laundry. On the way to the post office I noticed some fun reflections in the puddles along the way. By the time I was on the way back, the sky was leaden and the reflection lost the brilliance and interest.  The sun was out again on my way to the train and I snapped a few pictures, and only just barely made the train.

Today, the 14th is another day of tough decisions.  I started the day with a few shots of the bark on a sycamore outside my window. Then I went for a walk in the graveyard near the house and saw a lot of birds. Lots of material to choose from. I ended up choosing this male downy woodpecker. The graveyard was quiet when I walked in, but I began to notice movement as I slowly ambled through. I walked as close as I dared and sat down on a tree root and just leaned back and looked up. People do not look up nearly enough. Eventually the chirps and teaks and peeps resolved from sound into specific individuals. This fellow was almost directly above me. I also like how the branches draw the eye. Not a "pretty picture" per se, but a good reminder to broaden your gaze.

Photo-a-day 2012, week 1

Last spring and summer, despite doing several bike races, I failed to actually write most of them up.  In the fall I changed jobs and moved to a new state and did a fair bit of travel for work.  All that meant very little time on the bike. The work travel will continue, and the time on the bike will therefore continue to be curtailed.  I did start bike commuting again this past week and hope to make that a regular thing when I am not travelling.

Due to the lack of training time, I don't think I will race as full a schedule, or do as many "big" races. The work travel has broadened my photographic canvas though, and recent participation in #birdpoker and other daily photographic themes on Google+ has reignited my photographer bug.

As part of that, I have challenged myself to post one "artistic" photo a day in 2012. To date the vast majority of my photography has been natural landscapes and wildlife. The new job is in an urban setting and the photo-a-day will hopefully help me refine my urban eye and refine an urban style.

New years day found me in Upstate NY for the Ithaca count circle's Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I saw a fair number of birds, but I was counting mainly with binocs rather than my camera, and thus the photo from the first was not bird related, but rather a photo of some fungus on a tree.

I chose this image because I found the texture interesting to me.
Both the finer texture within each "lobe" of the fungus as well as the broader texture of all the lobes on the tree itself.

January 2nd found me and dad on our way to Waterloo NY to look for a snowy owl that had been hanging out on the buildings of the outlet mall up there, and hunting in the median of the highway.  We did not see the owl (the last time it was seen there was the day before we looked), but I did see this farm, that appealed to me. I am not sure how much I like the photo, or how well it captured the landscape, but I decided to use it anyway, because of the interesting sky.

On the 3rd, it was back to work. I had to return the rental car before heading in.  The rental place is near the Walnut Street Station in Upper Montclair.  I had about 20 minute to wait for the next train so spent my time looking around for some interesting things to snap pictures of. I noticed a few of the benches had interesting iron work.  None of the benches were placed against compelling backgrounds, so I had to crop. Aesthetically I found the antique coloration more compelling than the full color image.

Jan 4: I was not inspired by anything on my walk from the train station to work, but did explore some of the settings on my little point-and-shoot in the greenhouse at work. The manager has a large cactus collection as well as several orchids. I was playing with the macro settings on the camera and ended up liking one of them more than any of the other pictures I took that day. In post processing, I darkened the background a bit to really help the orchid pop.

January 5: Since starting my position with Rutgers-Newark, I have noticed a lot of interesting iron work on railings and balconies and fire escapes. Given the area I walk in, I have not wanted to carry the big camera around to take pictures, but I have been keeping a mental list of railings I wanted to come back to with a little camera. This is one of them. I will probably end up with enough railings to do a series on just them. ;-). I liked how the antique finish really focuses the image on the near railing, but this post processing did wash out the depth the original photo has. I may process this image a few different ways as part of an ironwork/railing series. Once I have managed captures of other bits of iron work I like, I will have to post a blog with a series.

January 6: I am the only person from my lab who comes in on Fridays. I like to leave a little earlier than strictly necessary to catch the train so I can explore the areas around campus a little. On the 6th I tried to capture buildings, or architectural components of buildings. For my photo of the day I decided to use this image of the public library. My next mission with regards to the library is to explore the inside. I love libraries! This photo was taken on a fairly overcast day.

January 7: last day of the week and I have managed to find one "share-worthy" photo each day :-) My goal this morning was to sleep in a bit. That didn't happen on account of a tree full of sparrows and starlings singing away outside my window.  I figured if they were going to wake me up they had to pay the price and become subjects for the camera.  The starlings proved a bit camera shy, but the house sparrow stood his ground and sang away. I do kind of wonder what any neighbors might have thought had they looked up and seen a zoom lens sticking out the bedroom window... Just spying on birds! I swear it! I did post this image a bit early in the day and thus didn't give myself a chance to consider photos I took later in the day at the beach.