gloomy sunday

Gloomy is the only word for today's weather. Cloudy and dark, with occasional bits of blue sky and sun. Gusts of wind. Continual threat of rain. I couldn't make up my mind to go for a long ride, partly because I couldn't decide what to wear. I hate being too cold, but I also hate being too hot.

Finally, after indecisively scanning the sky and skeptically eyeing my cycling wardrobe, I decided to just ride around town, using my red vintage 10-speed steel bike. I've ridden it around a few times and feel quite comfortable with it now, and each time I ride I am impressed with how fast it is and how easy to ride. I've never ridden a modern road bike, but if they really are an improvement over the old ten-speeds, I can only imagine what it must be like to ride one. I'm not a big fan of high speeds, so I'm not sure I want to go any faster, but maybe I'll get there. I am getting comfortable with the drop bars and braking, so that is one hurdle cleared.

I rode 24.88 km on both the trails and the streets. My average speed, including slowdowns at curves on the trails and stops at red lights, as well as a complete and exaggerated full stop at a stop sign where an RCMP SUV was making a u-turn, was almost 25 km/hour.



And, what is wrong with this picture? It's not that mine is the only bike parked at the bike racks -- this is a school, and as Alice Cooper would tell us, "School's out for summer."

But what I find objectionable is that this is the only bike parking I could see at a school built for 1,000-1,100 students. The bike racks are on the side of the school, not at the front. And look how few there are: I figure maybe 120-150 bikes could park here. This means that, at best, about 15% of the students are expected to ride their bikes to school.

Pondering this gave me an idea -- to ride from the school, which is at the far west end of town, to the residential area at the farthest east end of town, to see how long it takes. The answer: 15 minutes. I turned around and rode back in less than 15 minutes. This means that any students who live in town could ride to school in about 15-20 minutes. Why not encourage this by placing bike racks in a prominent place in front of the school, and by providing lots of bike parking -- enough for 400-500 bikes?

Each school year we give Teenage Son the same choice: he can have a bus pass, which costs $300, or he can have the $300 and get to school on his own steam. Each year he chooses to take the money and ride. Each year I feel a little sad when I see that his is often the only bike at the school bike racks.