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Two wheels/Weather Blesses Bike Commuters
Published August 23, 2005 by StarTribune.com
There are times when coincidence smiles upon the bike commuter, and this is such a time. Alongside excruciating gasoline prices (and the recent fine-tuning of the bus system, which provided service cuts in exchange for higher fares), good pedaling weather has settled over the metro area.
And after a generally beastly summer, it's about time.
We know a fellow whose strong preference is to bike to work when he can, take the bus when he can't, and drive when he must. He rides partly for the exercise, partly to atone for his offenses against the environment, but mostly for how the morning ride leaves him feeling as he takes up his chores: alive, alert, appreciative of residing where such a commute is possible. It's only a seven-mile trip, but an especially good one can leave him invigorated till midafternoon.
This summer he has been out of the saddle more days than not. When the temperature has hung near 80 overnight, a morning ride can leave him sweaty for an hour after showering, pondering the possibilities of heatstroke, hungering for a nap instead of lunch, dreading the worse ride home.
Occasionally the heat waves have been punctuated, but chiefly by drenching rains and threats of a thunderstorm. Have there been five consecutive workdays of good biking weather, or even three or four? If so, he must have been out of town.
So Monday was a reunion, of sorts, with the green and leafy city of summers past. The morning air was cool and fresh, almost crisp, and though the sun was well up into a cloudless sky, sunglasses were strictly optional.
The streets along his route were virtually dust-free, having been swept of sand and sealcoating debris. Even the pools of busted auto glass that menace urban cyclists were unusually few and far apart.
At one intersection after another, motorists offered right-of-way with a wave and a smile, their windows open to the world. Traffic was light and seemed to move more gently, unfreighted with the frenzied sense of scurrying from one air-conditioned room to another.
It may have been the best cycling day of the year. Or tomorrow may be even better. In any case the heat seems to be at bay for the better part of the week, maybe more -- here and there, yellow maple leaves are signaling that autumn is no longer distant.
Not until he had locked up his wheels and unshouldered his pack did our friend consider that this lovely commute held one more dividend. Come lunchtime, his savings at the gas pump would cover a cup of fancy coffee at some table on a downtown sidewalk, selected for exposure to a breeze.
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