You may remember how I switched jobs this winter, which resulted in me taking on a car commute (puke). Well, great news - I am officially back to bike commuting. I think this is a great example of how you can often bike commute to places that seem unbikeable with a bit of planning. Some backstory: The day I started my job was incredibly cold. So cold that the locks on my car malfunctioned. Bike commuting is obviously not an option when it's -30 outside, but the weather soon improved and I was itching to get out of the driver's seat. I had initial doubts. My work is in an industrial area of town that is decidedly not bike-friendly. Actually, there used to be bike lanes there, which the city decided to remove for incomprehensible reasons. Things weren't looking good, but Mr. Consumer of None and I did a lot of digging around on Google Maps and found what looked like a potential route. Then we did a test run. Side note - I always recommend doing a test run before your first commute to work, unless you work somewhere you're already familiar with biking to. On this test run I got totally lost and ended up wasting a good 20 minutes, which would have been really stressful if I was trying to get to work on time. Also, it's really nice to have time to wander a bit. You can often find a route that's way better than what Google sets up for you just by exploring. After some trial and error, it turns out there's a beautiful route that's mostly on protected lanes, and even takes me through 3 km of paved trail through a ravine. Unfortunately I do have to bike through the industrial area, but it's only about 1 km and the road is wide enough that cars tend to give me a large birth (tend to being the operative word. I'm talking to you, minivans that pass me with half a foot of space). The total route is 10 km, which was intimidating at first, but has turned out to be awesome. I've been absolutely loving my commute, and I can't believe anyone would choose driving over how fun this is. So, if you've been thinking about bike commuting, now is the time! We're at the peak of almost-summer-not-too-hot weather, so get out there and test out a route this weekend!
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