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Bicycle commuting, Unarmed Road Warriors
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This is the first of a series of articles about bicycle commuting, asking the experts, people that ride thousands of miles a year in every kind of weather, almost any kind of pavement (sometimes no pavement, riding road bikes), and all day and night. I went to my bike club, Recumbent Bicycle Enthusiasts of North Texas (RBENT).
Of the 21 active riders in the club 5 are regular bicycle commuters, 2 can get to work faster walking than riding a bike, 3 live too far to ride to work (time or distance not specified), 2 say that there's no place to get cleaned up after the ride, and 9 say that the roads are too dangerous to ride their bikes to work. I contacted the 9 people that said it was too dangerous to ride to work to ask why and if they were also in the group that rides hunderds of miles in a day, of which there were 2 that responded. These 2 wrote me that while they didn't mind a little traffic alongside while they were riding a rando or brevet with companions (potential witnesses?), riding alone in rush hour traffic was more than they could dare. One rider said the level of hate and disrespect on the road on his commute was too great, and he was concerned about leaving his wife as a widow.
So out of 21 of the most experienced long distance riders in North Texas 20% commute by bicycle, but nearly 50% say that roads in North Texas are too dangerous to ride during rush hour. I will be talking to another local club next week.
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