Transportation

Brad’s car is having some major alternator issues this week, so today he drove our Subaru to work. Since I didn’t have the option of driving, and since I’m trying to bike more anyway, I biked down to the Rockwood Bakery this afternoon to write for a while. For whatever reason, I decided that my only real route option would be to ride straight down Grand. This is certainly the most direct route, since both my house (around 38th) and the Rockwood (around 17th) are just one block off Grand, and Grand is an arterial, etc.

However, an efficient ride down Grand means riding IN TRAFFIC, meaning amongst monstrous cars, which makes me extremely uneasy. I spent the whole ride trying to stay as far right as possible, gasping when I saw that the far right was full of potholes and gravel, and repeating, “I’m sorry!” (to the real drivers, who couldn’t hear me) and “It’s okay” (to myself, because I needed to be consoled and encouraged).

I arrived at the coffee shop sweaty and a little shaky, but alive and unharmed. But under no circumstances will I take the same route home. It means crossing paths with two traffic lights, navigating multiple lanes of traffic, and having no choice but to loosen my clamped hands from the handlebars to signal to the law-abiding motorists when I am going to make a turn. I will be meandering back up Manito Boulevard in a couple of hours, a less-direct route that will take me several blocks out of my way, but that will give me a much less harrowing ride home. I am all for commuting by bike, but this (and “this” was really a mere mile-long trip) is going to give me a panic attack.