The other half, however, was on a RAVeL path, on a stretch of paved-over railway track that took me through a thickly-wooded patch. I was usually alone in the morning, with the chirping of insects and birds, and the rustling leaves, and bits of sunlight breaking through the foliage now and then to touch my face. When I came to the roundabout at the end of the path, a patch of bright orange poppies greeted me.

I'm taking my camera with me the next time the sun's out, and retracing my old route.

As I note in the set this is really of historical interest only since I work from home these days.

In a month or so I may photograph the bike/roller blade commute I had when I lived in Tokyo as'll be staying in a hotel more or less on the way. It will be fascinating to see how the place has changed in the 18 years since I lived there...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36512564@N06/sets/72157615603267464/

That has indeed been known to happen. Though being en route to Rome was also convenient.

Sounds like a good idea. Pick an interval that feels about right, so you're neither taking photos every few steps nor missing huge bits.

After rhapsodizing about the joys of bike commuting in a previous post (in a previous thread), I have a rather miserable update. Yesterday, I had the dubious privilege of being the rare recipient of a hit and run. I do wear a helmet (it isn't the norm around here, but I'm a bit paranoid) and I'm meticulous about hand-signaling turns (again, not the norm, unless you're over 50.) A car comes up on me, I look over my shoulder (like you do) I see a blond head face down, a pale hand texting. She's coming up really *fast*. Thought one - She doesn't have any idea I'm here. Thought two - She will hit me if I don't do something. Thought three - I must (Black pause) why am I on my back and why do I smell of shit? My back tire is trashed, and I've got soft tissue damage. Let us be thankful for the softness of cow dung, it makes for a nicer impact for the human body than asphalt, apparently.

Dispatches from an unhappy camper.

/s/ Survivor of two bike/vehicle accidents that broke my precious bones.

Oh, no! How scary! When you say "soft tissue damage", do you mean bruising, or worse? How do you feel, now, the day after?

It does seem to be the week for it. I had my first near-miss on Monday while I was taking the pictures for this entry. Specifically, right after here. I turn left, and immediately afterward, there is a T-junction where a road hits mine on the right. Behind the van in the photo was a driver coming up that road, intending to turn right. She was looking down the road for traffic, but didn't expect me to have just turned left onto it. So she started pulling out just as I was right in front of her.

She was turning her head back from "check for traffic" mode to "look where the car is going" mode when she saw me. She slammed on her brakes, and there were a few inches between her bumper and my back wheel. I glanced back, and she had turned, as they say here, lijkbleek, pale as a corpse. She gave me the most horrified and apologetic wave of "OGodSorry" and, frankly, looked sick to her stomach. I gave her a "there, there" hands-down gesture; there is nothing I could have said that would add to the emotional impact the event already had for her.

Then I turned onto the footpath and took the next photo. Bet she does a better job looking now.

I'm glad to hear it's rare, because it is wildly reprehensible. Did you report this to the police, in case there's some way they can trace her?

I hope she gets intermittent, undetectable engine trouble and red lights at every intersection.

Keep us posted on your health, please. I'm going to worry now.

"What gets me is that the driver *left the scene*." That's why I wondered whether she even realised what she'd done. Texting like that, she may never have seen you at all (even when hitting you).

I had a hand injury (probably cracked bone, never bothered to get an x-ray since the treatment wouldn't differ) some years ago when a car swung into the bus lane while I was travelling down same, rapidly (downhill), and my rear brake cable snapped; the hand got mashed on railings as I struggled to stay upright and not go under car wheels. Driver never stopped and probably never realised what had happened.

The scariest one was coming out of a light-controlled T-junction, on green, and having a car drive straight through the junction in front of me. He'd just pulled away from the curb, or come out a side road, I think, and just never saw that his light was red. He did see me at the last moment, swerve, and wipe out his front tyres and radiator on the central island & bollard, while I came to a stop parallel to the car and about six inches away from it.

"...though my eccentric habit of actually stopping at red lights means I am frequently rear-ended by other cyclists who are expecting me simply to sail on through."

Well if you get hit by David Cameron, you could ask for a ride in the limousine that follows him to carry his bags (and presumably his valet and first footman.)

Every so often I try to explain to a fellow cyclist that not stopping pisses off the powered vehicle drivers and makes them less likely to treat cyclists with respect, thus putting us all in more danger They generally seem unable to comprehend - nor to realise why it's impolite to cycle through the pedestrians while they are crossing on their green light. Of course, the tendency for pedestrians to wander out into the road without looking is why I cycle down Charing Cross Road ringing my bell the whole way.

I was riding home through the center of the city late in the evening when I heard music, looked around, and saw a brass ensemble on a street corner. A little further, a couple more. There were brass groups all over the sidewalks.

A block of Main Street was closed off, so I stopped and asked one of the policemen manning the barricade. Apparently there was a big 'drum and bugle corp' competition taking place at the sports stadium that weekend; the closed off city block was to give the groups a space to practice marching, and all the groups up and down the sidewalks were warming up while waiting their turn.

A little further on, I hear some punchy music that sounded familiar. Then I recognized it.

Cool. I'm riding my bike to the accompaniment of a brass ensemble playing the theme song from 'Jonny Quest'.

Unfortunately for the purpose of a blog, this could not have been repeated.

My sympathies to those with the unfortunate car stories; oddly enough, however, my only bicycle vs car collision experience was an occasion of being hit by an incautious cyclist in my car. It was at a busy T intersection where a designated bike path paralleled the straight road. There were several cars lined up to turn off of the T road, effectively blocking visibility as I turned left onto the T, and the cyclist ran his stop sign and rolled out from between two of the line of cars in time to run straight into the side of my car. I pulled off into someone's driveway long enough to go back and make sure he wasn't horribly injured, but it was all I could do not to give him a lecture on why we have traffic laws at the top of my lungs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85428352@N00/3948669898/in/set-72157622317448645/

and will add 'To work' in October, which is just over a week from now. This set ends at the entrance to the Greenway, that being the bit that both halves of my circular commute have in common.

These have all been tagged 'bikecommute'.

I've been meaning to do this for a while, so thanks for the push.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85428352@N00/sets/72157622495174830/

Added. Thanks for it!

Crazy Guy on a Bike

(Yes, since you ask, location was one of my key considerations when I moved to this house.)

I'm thinking of trying again tomorrow with a 100-step interval.

“If you want to know if an urban environment supports cycling, you can forget about all the detailed ‘bikeability indexes’–just measure the proportion of cyclists who are female,”

All of the trip is on back roads, with only one major crossing. Yes, almost the entire trip is in the green tunnels of New England, those 90 year old oak trees have been reaching out over the road to get more sunlight their entire lives. My house is less than a eight of a mile from US Route 20* in Marlborough, MA, USA. The Hospital is the same distance from US Route 2.
This is actually less than a mile longer than the most direct way, which would have me on Rte. 20 for about three miles. Last time I rode Rte 20 during a rush hour, I ended up in a trauma center 20 miles away. That was also essentially the last time I rode a bike.
Now where are the slides I took in the Netherlands with a handlebar mounted camera?

I need to build a remote release, a better mount, a pan head, and do some script work in CHDK to get this to work the way I'd like.

*Alice's restaurant is about a mile off a Rte. 20. About a hundred miles west of here...

I've added your photoset to the post, but it's worth noting that the beginning of the set includes a number of duplicated images.

Both to and from work can be seen here.