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.
These people...it's astonishing how important those 10 seconds are, those 10 seconds that they might lose if they don't cut you off. I'd love to talk to them, and find out exactly what it was that was so important about those ten seconds.
ReplyDeleteAnd then maybe waterboard them for a while.
Second hand cigarette smoke? Where I ride in California it's like biking through a giant bong.
ReplyDelete