Well I made it through the first part of the bike commute. I had a hard time sleeping last night. I’m not sure what it was – maybe some combination of being sore from basketball and just worrying about the bus ride this morning. I was worried that maybe not ALL of the buses would have bike racks and this one just wouldn’t happen to have one, or there would be some rule about bikes couldn’t go on buses that would go on the Interstates. I wasn’t really worried about there already being 2 bikes on the rack (each rack can only carry 2), since I doubted many people would be taking buses on this route.
I was also concerned about just being able to get my bike on the rack. Since I’d never seen one before, there’s always the nervousness of trying to figure it out on the fly. This morning though I was able to print out an instruction brochure (pdf) from their website and run through it.
I got to my parking location over at Montgomery and Kenwood roads about 7:15 or so. The bus was supposed to get there at 7:30, but I wanted some extra time just to make sure I was there. I unhooked the bike, stowed the rack in my trunk, and stood waiting for the bus, reading my book. 2 other people got there right when the bus got there, shockingly on time! I got the bike on without too much delay, though I did get a friendly honk from the driver when I was putting the bike on wrong. It’s $2.25 for the bus, which I think is somewhat strange that it costs $2.25 if you ride from downtown up to Mason, and $2.25 for me too, even though I’m catching the bus 12 miles or so north of downtown.
Bus ride was uneventful. I read my book and just road-watched, which I also find fun. The bus route is pretty windy, hitting various places of employment. My stop is almost right at the end (it then continues down the road over to Kings Island). Total time on the bus was about 35 minutes. I got the bike off the rack without a problem, but then I forgot to fold the rack back up to its upright position (you’re supposed to do that if there are no more bikes on the rack), and the driver had to get out of the bus and fold it up. I apologized. Then I rode through the parking lot, chained up my bike and walked in.
More tonight!
2 responses to “Bike commute, part 1”
Dan Miller environment saver. And all around guy of good health. My hero!
When we lived in Bountiful about 10 years ago, they had racks on the buses, which i used a couple of times. In their program you had to go for a 20 minute orientation/rack demo, and get a biker ID card. Anyway, since the 8 mile ride from downtown SLC to Bountiful was mostly uphill, there were a couple of times where I took the easy way out, put the bike on the rack and rode the bus home. Going in to work was fun though (being a fast downhill run) – a couple of times I beat my fellow bus-riders.
ride safe. Assume the cars can’t see you. Most of them don’t.
Dad G.