Bicycle commuting in Spokane
I have been riding bikes to work since the spring of 2008. And the thing I think most people are curious about is this: Is it dangerous?
They don’t always word it quite like that. But I can tell that’s what they’re getting at.
It’s a fair question. And while I’m no expert, I’m always willing to share my experience.
There is risk involved, of course. A bike rider is vulnerable.
But my only commuting wreck (quite minor) occurred when I was all by myself on 29th before dawn.
It happened on this day in 2009. (Not sure why I remember, but I do.)
I wiped out on some black ice. It happened so fast that the mishap didn’t really register until after I had slid a fair distance.
I was wearing a brand new pair of pants. The keys in my against-the-pavement pocket wore a hole in these slacks as my bike and I experienced horizontal travel.
Except for a scuffed pedal edge, my rugged bike was fine.
It’s not like I was unmindful of the possibility of icy streets. But I had not had to call it quits the previous year until early December when a major “snow event” emphatically concluded my riding season. So I must have persuaded myself that Nov. 9 was simply too early for truly treacherous conditions.
I’m smarter about this now. I rode the bus last Friday because it had rained Thursday night and, with the streets still wet, the temperature hovered near freezing when I got up the next morning.
In all honesty, though, I should have known better back in ‘09. Years of walking to work — sometimes in those pull-over cleats — had schooled me in the fact that streets and sidewalks can start getting icy at 5:30 a.m. as early as October.
So, to answer the question. I don’t think too much about the possibility of a pickup driver maniacally running into me because he doesn’t like hippies. But when the streets are wet at night, I do take a keen interest in what the thermometer has to say in the morning.
* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "The Slice." Read all stories from this blog