Bruce Tabb: Well-Prepared Commuter

...(story continued)

... In winter I wear rain gear and Gore-tex lined wool gloves. My jacket is good, but the rain pants are more like mud pants; they keep off the mud but don't really prevent me from getting wet. In the four years I've been doing this, I've only gotten really wet two or three times. I don't mind getting wet on the way home because I can just put on dry pants and dry socks, but those several days I spent going in and out of chilled vaults in damp socks were not pleasant.

I generally use the same route. I bike down Augusta to 16th, 16th to Riverview, up onto Franklin, take the bike path that connects Franklin to 15th, 15th to University, and then behind Gerlinger to the library. It takes me about six minutes. I don't have to look for parking, and besides I hate cars; well, I hate everybody else's car. Biking actually takes less time than driving, I get some exercise on the way to work because it's all uphill, and after a day of running up and down stairs in Special Collections, I pretty much coast home. The only time I don't take this route is when I stop off at the PC Market between the university and home (which is quite convenient to do) to get something for supper. I also like the praise Lesli Larson gives my vintage Fuji Royale bike, quite the specimen about 20 years ago. But now she's started in on my attire, though I am vehemently resisting J. Crew and Izods.

The highlight of my route is when I stop off at the university gym almost every day after work. I do a half hour on the stair master. It's good exercise and releases stress, but I also read fiction to pass the time while exercising. In fact, it's the only part of the day when I get to read something I actually choose to read. I've read many books this way, and I should add, I don't check out books from the library to read while exercising as I don't want to get them all sweaty. The highlight ends up actually being the reading, not the exercising, nor even the ride home. I hate riding down Franklin.

I've been hit once by a car. It was the student's fault. He got impatient, waiting for the car in front of him which was waiting for someone in front of him to pull out of a parking space, He floored it in reverse and creamed me. If I had been near one of the rear tires, I probably would have been severely injured if not killed. As it was there was about $100 damage to my bike and my legs were badly bruised from crotch to toe. He drove me home, and I was in such shock I didn't recognize him the next day. He paid for the repairs and I didn't take him to court, as a lawyer friend suggested. Seldom does a week pass that I don't almost get hit, particularly by students driving through campus in oblivious search for parking or by cars speeding past me on downhill slopes when I am biking home.

I used to bike recreationally but now I just use my bike for commuting. This alone adds just the right amount of danger to my life.

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