Searching for spring

I don't know about you, but I very much welcome the fact that the second half of March this year doesn't feel much like winter anymore. As I mentioned before, March isn't my favorite month. Typically, winter just drags for too long in March and excitement over a few warmer days here and there adds to the general impatience of spring time to come.

Last Sunday was one of those days - sunny and warm, it really felt like spring. Only a few remaining patches of ice and snow reminded me of the past season, soon to end.

I decided to do a quick recon in my neighborhood and see if spring was really on the way. Apparently, it's still too early for any signs of new leaves on trees or bushes but you can certainly hear more birds out there - a sign that nature is about to wake up from the long winter hibernation.

One thing that quickly reminded me of the snowy winter days was water. Lots of water. The entire area along Sudbury River was heavily flooded with trees sticking out like in a wooden breakwater.

 

It's clearly the wet winter after-season. Despite a full week of sun and very mild temperatures, not all snow is gone, not all ice is melted and trails are still soggy and muddy. It will probably take another week or two to for a real spring to arrive.

Nevertheless, it's great to have more sunlight available in the late afternoon. Time for some longer rides - into the unknown.

Icy roads and intimate drivers

It's finally getting warmer. Everything's melting. Unfortunately, it's also re-freezing overnight. This is the part of the year that I once referred to as the "muddy mess of March". It's also one of the reasons why March is the worst month for bike riding in New England.

Ice-skates anyone? (This is not a new picture but it illustrates what we have to deal with on the Minuteman Bikeway).

Anyway, I had an accident some time ago. No, not a close encounter with a car or anything like that. I was on the way to work when I realized that my rear tire rubs against the brake. It turned out that the steel wire in the tire bead broke and as a result the tire lost its shape. It came off the rim and there was no way I could push it back on. The tire was trashed. Unfortunately, that was a studded tire, which I could really use right now.

The Minuteman Bikeway is currently covered in ice on early mornings. Not having studded tires to my disposal, I had to adjust my commuting schedule. I take main roads now in the morning and return by the Bikeway in the evening, when all ice melts during the day.

The vehicular cycling is not my favorite part of the day. "Sharing" the road with speeding cars and trucks isn't what I would really like to do. Judging form the behavior of some drivers they don't like to see me there either.

#Idaho pic.twitter.com/SYJNkrY1Jy

— Jim Edwards (@JimEdwardsnyc) March 13, 2019

I read an interesting article recently (I won't give a link here since it wasn't written in English) that could be described as "what to do in order to make driving better". Just from the tone of that article it was very obvious that it was written by a driver with total disregard of the less-protected road users. You probably have heard many such opinions already.

My favorite part was about requiring bicyclists to ride "as close as possible to the right edge of the road" and banning riding two abreast. It's because "only then it's feasible to pass a cyclist while maintaining enough distance". It's pretty clear this means passing a cyclist without the need of crossing the centerline.

After this week's commute on our suburban roads and "sharing" the space with cars I can tell that only someone who drives everywhere and never rides a bike could write something like this. Taking the lane or riding two abreast is the best "weapon" we have against those too-intimate drivers who get too close. If you only drive, you will never understand the feeling of a 2-tonne truck trying to "hug" your left shoulder when passing you at high speed.

At this point I really don't care if I'm inconveniencing drivers too much by delaying them by several seconds when I ride 2-3ft away from the curb. In fact, this is exactly why cyclists can be safer when taking the lane. It forces drivers to put down their phones for a while, slow down, look around, check if they can cross the centerline safely and then proceed if allowed. Riding too close to the road's edge gives drivers a chance to ignore cyclists completely, not even imaging a possibility of side-sweeping them.

I'm impatiently waiting for all the snow to finally melt. I want to move back to the bike path so I don't have to "share the road" anymore.