"Bike to Work Week" - Well Sorta

Every Spring, Flagstaff has an official "Bike to Work Week". That's a great idea, and last year I managed to participate (on one day), but there's one little problem with it. The way you can tell it is Spring in Flagstaff is that it is windy. I'm talking 40mph with higher gusts kinda windy.

When the wind finally slows down, we have summer, and it's great except for the beastly hot days we get in June because there is no wind. (Yes, I know it sounds like I'm whining.)

So then July gets here and brings with it cooler temperatures from the monsoons... and rain. Oh, the rain is just a glorious thing, but not necessarily for bicycling. (And this July had over 5 inches above normal for rainfall, and just .01 inch less than the record for the month.)

So today, finally, everything cooperated and I was able to bike to work. It was a lovely 61F this morning with light winds and a predicted high of 81F with only a 10% chance of precipitation. So here's what I managed to do:

This morning's ride brought back memories of riding around Zevenhuizen last year. As beautiful a day as it was for riding, it really brought home how unfriendly Flagstaff is for bicyclists compared to the Netherlands. This is a town that is clearly built for cars compared to bicycles. The bike paths that have been built are a much needed improvement, but they are not nearly as good as you'll find in the Netherlands (or the ones we have experienced in Oregon). Intersections are particularly bad.

After we were in the Netherlands on our last trip, I ran across this video on how the Dutch make their intersections so friendly for bicycles as well as autos. I sent an e-mail about it to our mayor and the city traffic engineer - not one response was received. Considering how easy it is to implement what the Dutch have done, I'm pretty appalled that it didn't even get an acknowledgment.

Oh, in case you are wondering, my "Bike to Work Week" will probably end up being just one day again this year. Between weather and my schedule, that's probably all I can fit in this week. But we'll see about next week...

POD

Seen in the lunchroom when I arrived at work this morning.
Or is it?
Scene in the lunchroom when I arrived at work this morning.

POD

Writing a blog post takes more time than I often find that I have in a given day. I've also heard that to improve your photography it helps to force yourself to take photos on a schedule. So I decided that it would be a good thing to just post photos sometimes instead of always writing something to go with them.

So here goes. My first POD (photo of the day). I'm hoping to post at least once a week.

If This, Then That

If This, Then That is a great tool that I've taken too little advantage of. So I've activated a recipe to post to Facebook whenever I add a new post to this blog. It sounds better than the delivery tool I've been using so I figured I'd give it a try. We'll see just how this one works out.