Bike ta Work, ya Bastids!

Since May is Bike to Work Month, I thought I'd write about my bike commuting, even though the month is almost over.


I've been largely biking to the office for the past month; 9 out of 10 trips this week were done via cycle. The title of the post comes from my occasionally bitter reaction to my coworkers. Out of the five of us at the Somerville office, three drive in every day--and they live in Somerville, Allston, and Winter Hill respectively. Grr. I bike, or take the bus when the weather is too sloppy. As for my final coworker: he is a hard-core cyclist who bikes in from Sudbury, rain or shine. Yow.

In general, I have to say I am pretty fortunate to be in a life situation where I can bike in to the office, the town is set up reasonably well for it, and I have the luxury of hopping on the bus if the return trip looks sloppy. I'll admit to being a fair-weather bike commuter.

I have tried several routes (Arlington Center to a location just outside Porter Square). I think it's about the right length of a ride to do day-in and day-out, although a longer ride (e.g., half hour) might be nice at times. The options I have tried are:

Minuteman bike trail to Elm 4.05 miles
Straight run down Mass Ave 3.13 miles
Broadway to Elm 3.23 miles


The Minuteman trail ride is the nicest, for the most part, in terms of traffic and scenery. However, the Mass Ave route cuts off 10 minutes relative to the Minuteman Trail--it's not just the length, but dealing with various jogs, curb cuts, dodging pedestrians, etc., compared to just bombing straight down the road. However, when I'm biking in Boston traffic, it always feels like my life is getting statistically shorter as I'm riding. The Broadway route works, but traffic is not arguably that much better than Mass Ave.

To wrap up, a few equipment notes:

I recently bought myself a long-sleeve jersey--it is breathable, reflective, and day-glo yellow (i.e., "don't run me over yellow"). However, I sometimes worry that it makes me look marginally more hard-core than I actually am; as a reference point, I'm a toe clip kinda guy--not clipless pedals. Also, given that bicycle clothing is cut for physically fit people, I worry that the jacket makes me look like a giant fluorescent sweet potato. On that note, I will point out that I wear baggy bike shorts--every day that I go out and nobody has to see my butt in spandex, I make the world a more beautiful place.


I consider the following items important for bike commuting: lights (both front & rear--reflectors are not enough), a bell (it can get tiring to keep yelling, "On your left," and also, you sometimes want to give a quick 'ding' while passing a pedestrian, to let them know you're coming), a rear view mirror, and a fender (only put on the rear one for now--we'll see how successfully it prevents "butt stripe").