Wow. Rush hour can be fun
Finally. Out of Europe. Video evidence that rush hour traffic can actually be enjoyable! And a little less noisy too.
Am I invisible, or did you just not look long enough?
If you ride your bike on the public streets, it is inevitable that someone will pull out in front of you. Sooner or later, you’ll be forced to grab a handful of brake lever (or worse) as someone darts out of their driveway or turns in front of you into a parking lot.
Ever since my previous post on car/cyclist interactions, I’ve been thinking about this more and more. To be very honest, I ride in the flow of traffic quite a bit, and I’ve never really had any major troubles. I’ve had a few close calls, but nothing really more significant than the countless close calls I’ve had behind the wheel of a car. I did get into a tangle with a car that pulled a right turn directly in my path, but neither myself, my bike nor the car was significantly damaged, and the driver was apologetic and basically just made a mistake. In short – I’m not hostile to cars, nor do I feel particularly threatened while I ride on the roads (perhaps just my naivety.)
However, I had one of these near misses just the other day. I was traveling along (in a marked bike lane, for the record) when a driver approaching from the other direction turned on her left turn signal. She stopped, preparing to make her left turn into a parking lot, and clearly looked right at me. I continued at my current speed (maybe 15-18 MPH) Then … she turned right in front of me. It was when her car was completely blocking the bike lane that she again looked out of her passenger window and saw me. Unfortunately she did the absolute last thing I wanted her to do. She slammed on her brakes, completely blocking the bike lane I was riding in and stared at me with a completely startled and bewildered expression.
I managed to swerve around the back of her vehicle without incident, but I considered how this may have happened for the rest of the ride home. Coincidentally this general situation was brought up on episode #158 of The FredCast. In that podcast, David Bernstein describes “being invisible”, attributing situations like the one I experienced to motorists not even seeing cyclists.
However, I’m not so sure that is always the case. In my situation, I clearly saw her look right at me. Is it possible that she looked at me without actually seeing me? Did she just look right through me as David Bernstein suggests? Or is there possibly something else going on here.
Obviously we all (all of us that drive cars, that is) make turns in front of other cars. However, usually we do this in a way that ensures we’ve completed our turn before the other car comes anywhere near us. In other words, we look at oncoming traffic, judge their speed, and make a decision to proceed if we believe that we can complete our maneuver safely without getting in the way of the other car. Usually this is done automatically – watching the other car for a period of time long enough for us to determine the relative speed.
I propose that a good deal of these “invisible cyclist” incidents are actually more of a “poorly judged cyclist speed” situation. And why would drivers be prone to misjudge a cyclist’s speed? I think it may just be due to assumptions about how fast most folks ride their bikes. I don’t think that she didn’t see me – but rather she saw that I was on a bike and immediately made the assumption “slow” without taking the time to actually watch me and accurately judge my rate of speed. Maybe this woman’s only experiences with bikes include spinning along at 5MPH on her beach cruiser, or watching the grandkids riding circles in the driveway. Perhaps the possibility of a cyclist traveling at 15, 20, 30 or more miles per hour is just not within her realm of expectation.
Interestingly enough, I first came up with this idea not related to cycling – but rather while driving an old 1971 VW Bus. It seemed that folks tended to pull out in front of me a whole lot more driving that big green bus then they did any of my other cars. I couldn’t figure out why for the longest time – I mean, it is a lot easier to see a VW Bus that most sedans and sports cars. However, it occurred to me one day that those Volkswagens just look slow. They’re boxy and have a reputation for not going very fast. There are a lot of different inputs that us humans use to judge our environment – and many of them are based on past experiences and memories. If you are used to riding slowly on a bike, or seeing others ride slowly on a bike, you are more likely to assume that all bikes go slow.
Ultimately it really doesn’t make any difference why someone pulls directly into your path (either on a bicycle or in a classic VW) as the end result is the same – you’ve got to be ready to take some quick evasive actions. However, if there is any validity to this “y’all just think I’m slower than I am” theory, it can mean that you become more likely to run into these situations as you become a stronger and faster cyclist.
Just something to think about as you’re spinning along our highways and byways.
Addendum: Now I’m not so arrogant as to assume I’m the first person to think of this, but it was interesting that almost as soon as I’d saved this post I ran across a mention of a similar idea on http://bicyclesafe.com/ in their description of the “right hook” car/bike accident:
A car passes you and then tries to make a right turn directly in front of you, or right into you. They think you’re not going very fast just because you’re on a bicycle, so it never occurs to them that they can’t pass you in time.
Not riding is spurring our economy
Wow… Who’d have thought that me taking a day off of my bike for the daily commute could be such a huge boon to the economies of the areas that I travel through? The lack of a bicycle, coupled with delays a getting out of the office has pushed my normal transit agency up 100%.
Normally, I use both Amtrak and Capitol Corridor trains – coupled with my bike – to deal with my commute. Well, technically speaking I think that even both of those two servers are technically Amtrak, but we’ll consider them two for the time being.
Today, however, without the bike I actually used 4 distinct transit agencies. Here’s the lowdown:
Departure
- Leave house to bus top. Unfortunately, at the bus stop I realize that I forgot something and go back to the house, missing the bus. Beg the wife (who was happily snoozing in bed until my rude interruption) for a ride to the train station instead.
- Board Amtrak capitol corridor bound for Emeryville
- Transfer to bus, across the Bay Bridge to the Caltrain station
- Caltrain to Palo Alto
Going Home (this is where things get more interesting)
- Meeting at the office runs a little longer than hoped. Catch a later Caltrain that wanted at Palo Alto
- Since I won’t make the Amtrak connecting bus leaving Palo Alto at this time, and missing that bus would result in me getting home about 90 minutes or so later, I start to scheme and plan. I could take a taxi from the Caltrain station to the Ferry building and catch a different Amtrak bus ($10-$12 with tip) However, I’ve got some Bart tickets in my wallet with balances left on them. After a whole bunch of time schedule cross-referencing between Caltrain, Bart and Amtrak, I opt to get off of Caltrain at Milbrae and take Bart out to the Richmond Amtrak stop. Haven’t been on Bart in a while, otta be fun…
- Get off Bart, stand around for 20 minutes waiting for Amtrak
- Get off Amtrak in Sacramento, walk 3 blocks to bus stop
- Take Sacramento RT home
I think I may have been less complicated for me to cross three or four countries in Europe compared to this. However, I did get to catch up on a bunch of podcasts during my little experiment in mass transit.
New chainrings and a new rack in the rain
It wasn’t exactly cold, but it was a little chilly. And there was a constant drizzle that was just on the borderline of being called rain. The weather report said the gusts were in the 15-20 mph range. Generally not the ideal riding conditions.
And I was loving every minute of riding in it.
Why stop at just stealing a bike.
Apparently for some simply stealing a guys bike isn’t enough. Instead of stopping there, let’s beat him unconscious too. At least that’s what a SacBee article is reporting.
That actually raises an interesting point that has always bothered me. Historically we’ve had much higher legal penalties for stealing primary transportation – first horses and now cars. These penalties have been (and are) higher than the simple financial value of the stolen property. Why? A big reason is that stealing someone’s primary transportation can leave a person stranded in a way that can potentially be dangerous for them. Well, what about those of us that use bikes as our primary transportation? What happens when I am 30, 40, 50 miles or more from home and get my bike stolen? Where’s my “Grand Theft Bicycle” statute?
All that aside, I wish this cyclist a speedy recovery. I’m still feeling the mental effects of the theft of my bike, and I didn’t have the added insult of a physical assault to go along with it.
Tips for bicycle security on Caltrain
After the recent theft of my bike off of Caltrain, I started thinking a little more about bicycle security on the bike cars. I come from an InfoSec background, and a large part of being successful in that field involves understanding how “the bad guys” go about their attacks. I starting thinking about the bike cars with the same frame of mind and started to think about how I would steal a bike from the train if I so desired. The argument here is that, the more potential theft gambits I know of, the better equipped I will be to defend against those thefts.
Now I know that some of you will be thinking “But Ross – you’re just telling the thieves how to do it!” It is a common statement, and open to some debate. On the one side are those that believe that publishing information about how to engage in a particular harmful act (breaking into a computer system, stealing a bike, whatever) only serves to make the criminals more efficient. On the other side of the argument there are those that maintain that the criminals can come up with this stuff on their own, and our ignorance of these techniques only makes us more likely to be victimized. Obviously I belong to the second group.
I’ll also offer some of my own suggestions on how to help mitigate the risk of getting your bike stolen from you.
I’ll start off with an examination of how the perpetrator was able to get away with my bike, which was less than 15-20 feet away and in plain sight, without me even being aware it had happened. This scenario is put together with bits and pieces of information I got from the conductor and other passengers at the time.
The “plenty of time, grab-n-go” theft
The prerequisite for this theft involves a location where the train is sitting idle for long periods of time. Specifically, this takes place at either San Francisco 4th & King for southbound trains, and San Jose for northbound trains. Our victim boards and places his bike against one of the racks. He then goes to his seat – turning his back on the bike by necessity. Furthermore, most of us will be slightly distracted as we sit down – pulling laptops out of our bags, eating the Subway sandwich you just purchased in the station, whatever. All of these provide moments of opportunity for our thief to notice your inattention, grab your bike from the rack and head out the door. As soon as they hit the platform, they can jump on the bike and be out of the station to the street – probably faster than you can even get out of your seat and out the door, alert the conductor, or whatever. If you happen to be sitting on the top level of one of the older cars, your path out the door after the thief is even further hindered.
The “pretend to be a regular commuter” theft
This method is probably more effective on crowded trains, and again may benefit from being carried out before leaving either the SF or SJ stations. People standing around, shuffling bikes can often block your view of your bike from your seat, further setting the stage for our thief. In this situation, our victim is already on the train with their bike in the racks. Our thief boards with a bike of his own (crappy and disposable, we would assume) and loiters near the doors. When the thief feels the time is right, she will approach the rack where our victim’s bike is and remove it from the rack – acting as if she is simply putting her bike behind the victim’s. This is not an unusual occurrence on Caltrain as folks organize the bikes to ensure that those getting off first don’t have to move other bikes out of the way. But already our thief has the upper hand. Perhaps she already kn0ws this is your bike and as casually checking to see if you are watching. Even if not, though, she’s already got the bike in her hands and gained an advantage. Time this (by fumbling around, whatever) and you can actually spring towards the door as soon as the chime and “Caution, the doors are about to close” announcement comes on. Our thief is out the door and, even if our victim is fast enough to catch her, the doors are already closed and the train is beginning to move out of the station. Sorry – you’re bike is gone.
Protecting yourself
Caltrain doesn’t allow you to lock your bikes to the racks – for understandable reasons. However, there are some things that you can do to help alleviate the threat – most of which result in making your bike appear as a more difficult target:
- While you can’t lock your bike to the train (or other bikes) you can lock your bike to itself. Put your UBolt or chain through one or both rims and through the frame. This eliminates the possibility of a riding getaway, and may actually fool more ignorant or less observant thieves into thinking the bike actually is locked to the rack.
- Remove the saddle and take it with you. Or – another approach is to turn the saddle around backwards. Again – hindering the quick ride away.
- Place your bike in the racks farthest from the door. Truth be told, however, mine was in the fourth rack from the door of one of the older style train cars. Still, bikes close to the door sure feel like easier targets.
- Watch your bike very very carefully until someone else places there bike on top of yours. You might want to notice where that “outside” bike is going, too, so that you can pay attention at that stop.
- Sit as close to your bike as possible. Hell, maybe just stand next to it depending on the length of your commute.
- Take removable stuff like cycling computers and lights with you to your seat. Yes – these can get stolen too, and are a lot harder for you to notice when it is happening.
Basically, though, there is one thing that protects you more than anything else you can do – watch your bike! Certainly no one is going to stare at their bike non-stop through their entire trip. However, if you are vigilant at all of the station stops you can go a long way towards protecting your bike. Clearly no one is getting away with your bike on a moving train!
Hope this helps others somehow avoid my fate. Cheers, happy cycling and may all of your bikes arrive at the station with you!
Follow Ross To Work Day #4 – Caltrain and The Office
9:37am I depart San Francisco on the second train of the morning. Caltrain has something of a slightly troubled history with velo commuters, generally surrounding bicycle capacity on their trains. Caltrain has specific, dedicated bicycle cars with a fixed number of spaces for bicycles. So, unless you have a folding bike (which can go on any of the train cars – not just the bike cars) you will potentially be denied entrance to the train if all of the available slots are full – known as “getting bumped” in the Caltrain rider vernacular.
In the past year Caltrain has done a lot to improve this situation. My commute home from Palo Alto on one of the Bullet trains is one of the busier train stops, and getting bumped used to be a regular occurrence for me. Looking back, however, it seems it has been a very very long time since I’ve had to wait for the next train.
They’ve increased their capacity in two ways. First, they started to remove seats to allow room for more bike racks. Each rack takes the space of about 4 people seats, and holds 4 bikes. In addition to adding racks in the bike cars, they’ve increased the number of trainsets rolling with two bike cars. That means that some of the trains can handle 80 bikes at one time.
Caltrain has a little more of a “Big city commuter train” than the Amtrak Capitol Corridor trains. There is not quite as much room in the seats, for one thing. Also, of the two types of cars only one style has any table top surfaces at all. Of the cars that do have tables, they are tiny in comparison to the Amtrak cars. Also, electrical outlets on the train cars are rare and seem to be intended for servicing the train more than providing power to riders power-hungry electronic gizmos.
All that being said, I’m not sure I’ll call the ride unpleasant – it just feels a little more like mass transit. City bus like almost.
Caltrain travels up and down the pennisula in a basicly north/south line between San Francisco and San Jose – stitching together SF’s hipsters and the Silicon Valley’s techsters. Even with frequent stops, it is by far faster compared to driving, especially during peak traffic times.
Cool places passed include Tesla Motors – with their rows of electric powered, Lotus bodied sports cars.
Finally, I jump off at Palo Alto. It is a short couple of blocks to the office where I work – and I walk in the door at about 10:37 or so. It has been about 4 hours and 15 minutes since I left my driveway. During that time I’ve:
- Traveled about 116 miles
- Reached a top speed of about 80 MPH
- Averaged about 28MPH – including stops waiting for busses and trains to leave – across the entire trip
- Drank 3 cups of coffee and eaten 119 grams of carbohydrates
- Burned approximately 413 calories.
- Written 1.5 blog posts
- Napped about 15 minutes
- Read about 10 or 15 emails
- Come into contact with countless people
- Actually spoke to 5-10 folks
- Saw a hawk flying right next to the train window
- Dropped my phone under the train seat trying to get a picture of the hawk flying right next to the train window
- Stopped at zero gas stations or toll booths, and was stuck in my car for zero minutes waiting for traffic jams to clear
- Felt very happy in the fact that, although my commute is up to 6 times longer than most, I’m contributing substantially less CO2 emissions than drivers.
There you have it. Thanks for following along with me on my trip to work. Unfortunately, the application I was hoping would allow me to post an exact map of my route isn’t allowing me to upload right now. At some point I’ll get that map and post it here online.
Until then – it is a busy day, and I’ve got work to do.
— FIN
Follow Ross To Work Day #4 – The Amtrak Leg
The Amtrak Bay Area Commuter Train (aka Amtrak Capitol Corridor) is actually a fairly comfortable service. The run hourly or less between Sacramento and Oakland, with some of the trains heading east as far as Auburn, and south/west as far as San Jose. Almost all of the cars have standard electric outlets to allow you to power your laptop and other electronics without fear of draining your battery. That, coupled with the fairly spacious seats with either full tables or fold down trays makes working on the commute a very viable option. In fact, the entire previous post was done in transit between Davis and Fairfield.
They also have a cafe car – or, more accurately, a snack bar. Drinks and a couple of microwaved offerings make up the menu. And yea – alchoholic beverages are available. The prices are a little on the steep side, but nothing compared to, say, a hot dog at a sports arena. You’re always able to bring your own food along as well.
On this morning, the train left right on time – 7:00am. I often get a kick out of watching the auto driving commuters on I-80 coming out of Sac heading towards Davis and teh Bay Area. Usually I get to be all smug about the fact that I’m, not stuck in that traffic. Today, however, traffic seemed pretty light. [video clip]
I was finally able to catch some video [video clip] of the delta between Fairfield and Suisuin Bay. Everytime I go through here I always imagine Lord of the Rings, and Gollum leading the Frodo and Sam through the Dead Marshes. OK – guess I’m a geek…
Across the bridge near the Suisun naval reserve fleet, past petro refineries, past C&H sugar, Richmond and Berkeley and finally Emeryville. 
From here, I transfer to a bus that takes me across the Bay Bridge [video clip] to the Caltrain station and 4th & King in San Francisco. Time for another train.
Some mornings, however, I’ll traverse SF a little differently. Depending on timing, weather and my general mood, I may actually take the bus and get off at either the Hyatt in the Financial District, or the Ferry Terminal. From there, I’ll ride along the Embarcadero to Townsend street. Makes for a nice, quick and generally enjoyable ride.
That’s it for Amtrak – and I board the Caltrain #236, leaving San Francisco heading south on the peninsula at 9:37am. Last leg of public transit for the morning.
Follow Ross To Work Day #4 – Alarm Clock to Train
Those of you who have followed my twitter feed, Facebook, or read the (unfortunately now defunct) SacraFrisco Commuter blog will be familiar with Follow Ross to Work Days (FRTWD). Here, I chronicle my normal commute from my home in Sacramento, CA to my place of employment in Palo Alto, CA. For those of you already doing the jaw drop “oh my gawd” expression – hold on. I don’t actually do this every single day. It averages about 3 days a week. I also don’t drive it – instead opting for a Bike-Train-Bus-Train-Bike combo.
Why is this FRTWD different or better than previous ones?
One word – technology. A second word – Droid. This time around, I’ll be including GPS maps and video along with the normal photo work. As mentioned above, the most up-to-the-minute information and photos will be on my Twitter feed – which is also replicated to my Facebook status. If you’re looking for more of a “digest” form than this blog is the place for you. Here goes….
Alarm Clock sounds…
This morning was a 2-snooze-button morning, but I managed to make it out of the house even a little early.
I knew the streets were wet from rains last night (but it wasn’t raining at the time) and that I’d loose some time as I juggled gadgets trying to capture as much content as possible for these posts. The plan was to get a little video of the ride in, as well as map the route.
For the GPS stuff I’d actually decided to use two apps on the Droid. One – CardioTrainer – is the one that I’ve been playing with to track my training rides. I was planning to use this for the shorter segments (like the house to the train station). It tracks cool information like calories burned, etc. The second I’d just downloaded the night before – EveryTrail. The plan was to use this to track the entire trip – from leaving my driveway to arriving at the office.
Well – I kinda blew it on the CardioTrainer portion. I simply forgot to hit that uber-fancy “Start” button to make it actually record my trip. Oh well. EveryTrail is recording the overall trip, however. It still remains to be seen if I’ll have an uploadable map to share when this is all done.
6:10am: So now we’re out the door and on the bike. Things are going as normal for my commute. The streets are pretty wet, but there is no rain falling. I’ve got about 5 different variations on the trip to work, and I choose the easier one (as far as effort on the bike) to give myself ample time to play with the camera. It also happens to pass through Land Park – which is where I plan my first video. Unfortunately, before I get to the park the rain starts to fall. In the interest preserving the Droid from electronics-unfriendly moisture – no video.
Not sure there is much else to really say about the ride in. The rain got harder and I got wetter, but arrived at the train with ample time. I skipped my normal Starbucks Espresso for the morning – more out of laziness than anything – and boarded the 7:00 am train at about 6:43. Let the train ride begin!