Yee Haw! Winters Here!!

It's not enough that it is cold outside,  but dealing with the low temperature is compounded by a huge dump of snow we had last week - a month's worth of snow in one day!  It was so bad that enlightened employers let their staffs leave for home early that particular day.  What this means for cyclists is that their winter commute will be lengthened considerably by slogging through thick snow.

Bike lane all pretty

Just recently, the city added bike lanes to a nearby street which motorists have been using all to themselves, and is now divided up into one parking lane, one bus/bike lane, two automobile lanes and one single bike lane.  To remind drivers of this change, a large sign has been erected indicating one of the bike lanes which you now can't see because of all the snow the city has dumped on said bike lane.

It makes no difference to me since I ride on the sidewalks in winter.  I don't have the co-hoenees to ride on the street like the hardcore cyclists I know and the many I see but don't know.  In fact, one pulled up beside me yesterday and thinking it was my friend the Raving Bike Fiend, I struck up a short conversation with him.  I admired his Surly Pugsley and noticed that the searchlight sized light on his helmet cast its beam way across the intersection and the law enforcement Maglight on his handlebars made my puny 2 watt light pale in comparison.  I was especially impressed with his nerves of steel when a transit bus pulled to a stop just inches away from his rear fender and he didn't bat an eye.

In real life it is really big!

Our city just hosted the Canadian Finals Rodeo and I can tell you that if this snow keeps up and the humps and hills on the sidewalks harden, I might just enter the rodeo myself since in winter I ride a bucking, squirming steed that seems determined to throw me off - 8 second horn blowing or not.

Courtesy of EBC