Salty Besos: My commute

Recently, I realized that in order to get to and from my office, I was spending nearly an hour and fifteen minutes in my car: to commute a round trip of 14 miles. Often, I’d get home and head out to the gym or get in a run at lunch time. Meanwhile, my bike collected dust in the basement, and I felt guilty for burning fossil fuels to idle in a line of hundreds of red tail lights. But like most of us, I’m busy. Driving to work just made sense, because I am busy! Crazy busy! I can’t afford to spend time biking, because I have stuff to do! Driving allows me the freedom to zip off to a doctor’s appointment midday (once or twice a year) or pick up milk and flour on my way home (once or twice a month) or get home faster so that I can do other stuff that is way, super, important. Like, really important. I’m not going to give you any examples here, because you can imagine all of the things that a super busy person— like me— might have to do in the time I save by driving my car to work… Like… uh... Huh.

If I were telling you this in person, I would put that bit about getting home faster in air quotes anyway, as in, “get home faster.” Because when I really started to look at the numbers, driving my car doesn’t really get me to and from work faster. It just doesn’t. The bike ride tacks on an extra ten minutes each way, approximately. And that gain from driving is easily lost on days when I am stuck waiting for a train to pass or road work clogs up the main thoroughfare.

Then there’s the whole question of whether getting home or to the office ten minutes sooner is really as important as I think it is. Could it be that the fastest commute possible isn’t the *best* commute possible? Is sitting in a line of other commuters waiting for a green light really worth my time? Sure, I get caught up on the news via public radio, but that's pretty much the only good thing the drive has going for it. Otherwise it’s a whole lot of sitting and fuming. Fuming that is done by both my car and me, because while my car burns fossil fuels, I smolder over the fact that I have to sit in traffic. Traffic!

By the way, other people are traffic. Not me. I am just trying to get home. If they would just get out of the way and let me get to where I'm going, things would be much better. They probably don't mind sitting in their cars, waiting to drive. In fact, I bet they even enjoy mucking up the roads. Those other people! *Shakes fist*

Then it dawned on me that maybe there was a better way. Maybe *I* should get out of the way. Maybe, maybe I, too, am traffic. Could this be?

That's enough philosophizing. I pulled out my bike this week (o.k., let’s be honest. Chris pulled out my bike and checked my air pressure and made sure it looked road ready. I debated whether I could wear a skirt while biking and how I’d pack all of my gear into a small backpack. Because Chris is an awesome husband and best friend and I have yet to work out the kinks of commuting by bike.)

I biked in that first day and got to the office positively joyful. The sun was shining, I felt good from the endorphins and I felt connected to my city. I was going slower and seeing things I didn't get to see in my car like the community gardens bursting with raspberries and lettuce glistening with dew. And the variety of people biking. So fun to see! People in suits, people in racing jerseys, people pulling trailers with kids, people who were skinny, people who were sinewy, people who were fleshy, people in overalls, people pulling trailers with dogs, people who were decades older than me, people who were decades younger than me. And I didn't shake my fist at any of them.

This morning I biked in and took some time to really appreciate my commute, something I have never, ever done while driving my car. I only started taking pictures half way through the ride, so I may add pictures to this post later, but here are some of my favorite parts of the ride.

So, first there's this, a bike repair station. It features a bike pump and pressure gauge as well as tools for fixing your bike. It's about halfway through my commute and I used it yesterday to re-inflate my front tire which had a slow leak:

Bike aid station off of Willy Street, Madison, WI.

This bike aid station features all kinds of important and useful looking gadgets.

Then there's this: miles and miles of dedicated, safe and protected bike trails. Approximately 75 percent of my commute is on trails like this:

Capital City Trail, Madison, WI

Then, there's this. Signage clarifying for car drivers that this road is heavily trafficked by bikers, earning it the moniker Bicycle Boulevard:

Bicycles are legit here. Don't forget it.

When I do have to hop off a bike trail and on to a road, many of them have this symbol painted on the pavement, again clarifying that this is a bike friendly road. So far, I have resisted the urge to paint a tassel on any of them but they look more like graduation caps than helmets to me:

Caution: Graduates crossing.

This was just awesome and I wanted to take a picture of it. The Old Sugar Distillery is housed in an old sugar factory and now makes whiskey and rum from local ingredients. That's pretty cool, but their truck is even cooler:

Old Sugar Distillery's clever advertisement

The bike trail I use is flanked by wildflower plantings. Because I was perilously biking and photographing, I didn't get any pictures of those flowers, but imagine if I did. Wouldn't that have been nice?

The side of the bike trail, where many wildflowers grow, but not here.

One of my favorite things about Madison is this. This is what is called a "Little Free Library." They are all over town: in school yards, parks, front lawns, and as shown here, along path trails. Take a book, leave a book or just take a picture and put it on your blog.

Little Library on the corner of the Capital City Bike Trail and a cross street I didn't get the name of.

Along my ride there is also this. Giant metal sculptures of bird-like creatures. Because, hey. Giant metal sculptures of bird-like creatures. Awesome, right?

Giant metal bird sculptures in Madison, WI

This is me.On a bike.

Let's pretend that this is artsy and not an accidental photo taken while I was fumbling with my camera.

Six miles into my commute, I get here. Monona Terrace was designed by acclaimed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and overlooks Lake Monona which is beautiful and blue and sparkly at 8:53 am.

Monona Terrace, Madison, WI

If you forgot your bike and need to rent one, Madison has you covered with its B-Cycle program. Throw your credit card in that bad boy and bam, you've got your very own red commuter bike to tool around town on for a few hours. Best of all, you can return it to any B-Cycle station in town and there are dozens of them.

B-Cycle Station on Monona Bay, WI

This is just a picture of a fellow commuter which I took because she put a license plate on her bike, and really? That's just fun.

She doesn't have me fooled. She is not a car.

And here is my office, a mere 45 minutes of riding later.

Clean Wisconsin's office in downtown Madison, WI.

Thanks, Bikey, for making that all possible.

My bike taking a breather after the ride into the office.

Post script: my ride home this afternoon was just as awesome.

For example, when I'm in my car, can I stop and smell the roses? (proverbially or otherwise?) No. No, I cannot.