"Get on the sidewalk!!"

Brent has a red-hot temper and his trigger lately has been people in cars yelling "Get on the sidewalk!!" Many times these drivers throw in some choice profanities and lay on their horns. In some situations a vehicle pulls right up to his side and tries to push him off the road. Brent comes home livid and recounts the tale and I always ask what his response was. It varies from telling the driver "no" to "share the road!" in the verbal arena. He has also looped back to the vehicle, asking them to roll down their window to tell them they need to share the road and it's illegal* to ride on the side walk. Then there was what he hastened to do tonight, chase the car on his bike.

We have discussions often about what the appropriate retort to a driver should be if we find ourselves in such a situation. I am partial to ignoring them at first and should the belligerent behavior continue, ask them "why?" Yet no one has ever treated me or my children in such a negative or dangerous way. I wonder what it is about him or his bike or the situation that attracts such offense. How many of you encounter such responses from automobiles? How do you handle it?

Brent has gone out of his way, literally, to make his commute less intrusive to automobiles and heavy traffic. The direct route would be to take Hal Greer, he goes in on 20th and home on 10th, adding about two miles to the journey. He rides on the curb side as far as he can until he needs a left turn lane. He uses hand signals. He stops at lights. He pedals as fast as he can to stay with traffic when he can. When he is near the bike trail, he uses it. As far as I know, he's doing the best he can to be a safe and considerate cyclist. As a driver, please tell us, what else could he do?

I reviewed the state law below very carefully and from what I gather, and your perspective is greatly appreciated, it is not illegal to ride on the sidewalk. If a cyclist chooses to ride on the road, they are granted protection of the law if they follow the regulations stated in Chapter 17C.
For your consideration, the following is the West Virginia laws regarding bicycles. I chose to highlight the portions pertaining to the conversation above:

West Virginia State Bicycle Laws 

CHAPTER 17C. TRAFFIC REGULATIONS AND LAWS OF THE ROAD

ARTICLE 1. WORDS AND PHRASES DEFINED.

§17C-1-8. "Bicycle" means every device which does not have a motor attached and which is propelled by human power upon which any person may ride, having two tandem wheels either of which is more than twenty inches in diameter.

ARTICLE 11. OPERATION OF BICYCLES AND PLAY VEHICLES.
Provides rules of the road for the operation of bicycles on public roads in West Virginia.

§17C-11-1. Obedience to article; duty of parents and guardians; applicability of article to bicycles.
(a) It is a misdemeanor for any person to do any act forbidden or fail to perform any act required in this article.
(b) The parent of any child and the guardian of any ward shall not authorize or knowingly permit any such child or ward to violate any of the provisions of this chapter.
(c) These regulations applicable to bicycles shall apply whenever a bicycle is operated upon any highway or upon any path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles subject to those exceptions stated herein.

§17C-11-2. Traffic laws apply to persons riding bicycles.
Every person riding a bicycle upon a roadway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this chapter, except as to special regulations in this article and except as to those provisions of this chapter which by their nature can have no application.

§17C-11-3. Riding on bicycle seats; carrying more than one person on bicycle.
(a) A person propelling a bicycle shall not ride other than upon or astride a permanent and regular seat attached thereto.
(b) No bicycle shall be used to carry more persons at one time than the number for which it is designed and equipped.

§17C-11-4. Clinging to vehicles.
No person riding upon any bicycle, coaster, roller skates, sled, or toy vehicle shall attach the same or himself to any streetcar or vehicle upon a roadway.

§17C-11-5. Riding on roadways and bicycle paths.
(a) Every person operating a bicycle upon a roadway shall ride as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable, exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction.
(b) Persons riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.
(c) Whenever a usable path for bicycles has been provided adjacent to a roadway, bicycle riders shall use such path and shall not use the roadway.

§17C-11-6. Carrying articles.
No person operating a bicycle shall carry any package, bundle, or article which prevents the driver from keeping at least one hand upon the handle bars.

§17C-11-7. Lamps and other equipment on bicycles.
(a) Every bicycle when in use at nighttime shall be equipped with a lamp on the front which shall emit a white light visible from a distance of at least five hundred feet to the front and with a red reflector on the rear of a type approved by the department which shall be visible from all distances from fifty feet to three hundred feet to the rear when directly in front of lawful upper beams of head lamps on a motor vehicle. A lamp emitting a red light visible from a distance of five hundred feet to the rear may be used in addition to the red reflector.
(b) No person shall operate a bicycle unless it is equipped with a bell or other device capable of giving a signal audible for a distance of at least one hundred feet, except that a bicycle shall not be equipped with nor shall any person use upon a bicycle any siren or whistle.
(c) Every bicycle shall be equipped with a brake which will enable the operator to make the braked wheels skid on dry, level, clean pavement.

A Lot of Bike Drama

After getting the children to school, Brent, Oliver and I began our day with an interview at the Herald-Dispatch. The story ought to run on Tuesday, but of course it could get bumped a day or two.

It should be pretty clear by now that I have no idea what I am doing with a bike and further more I am a bit of a nutter when it comes to "great ideas." There was so much drama surrounding both mine and Brent's bike today. I could fill a book with the course of events between 8am and 6:30pm today. I will spare you all the saga and tell the story with photos and captions.

Following the interview we had a play date with the Mother's Club at the fire department. Oliver was more interested in their ride on bike. I can't make this stuff up. He wanted nothing to do with the engines and dove out of my arms for the bike.

It must have been "coal patch" day in the neighborhood. All the holes were freshly filled. Not fun to bike over. Sticky, stinky and rocky.

This was my "great idea." Elliot was having a lot of leg pain while riding, so I decided then and there to see if I could move the child seat forward, allowing me room to tow his bike and put him on mine. Apparently moving the seat is not a single person job and it's complicated with small parts. I lost one of those small parts on the sidewalk somewhere and had grease up and down my arm.

The towing worked. As did hauling three boys on one bike, up hill. It was only the last major hill and last minor hill, but I was still pretty excited I could do it.

Having the child seat in the front position created another unforeseen problem. My heels kept hitting Avery's toes.

Towing was a success. We are trying to make bungee cords fashionable and functional.

Brent had to walk the last 1/3 of his trip home from work because of this. He had new road tires put on his mountain bike today and we are unsure of the exact cause, but the front tire blew apart. No bodily harm done.

The shattered tube.

Scuffed up rim.

Fortunately for us, he arrived home at 5:30 and put in a quick call to Tom at Huntington Cycle & Sport. Tom made a house call to smooth out the rim, replace the tube and remount the tire. I will be baking copious amounts of cookies and making a gratitude delivery soon.

Miles Walked: 1	Biked: 60.2	Bused: 0	Drove: 12	This week
54.7	433.2	12.6	559.2	Since August 14, 2011

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Today's route above. I did get to see a new neighborhood by bike today because of my trip to the fire department. I also discovered a lot resources I had not known or forgotten.

Carpooling to School

Miles Walked: 19	Biked: 37	Bused: 8.4	Drove: 3.6	This week
19	37	8.4	3.6	Since August 14, 2011

Carpool
We arranged a ride for London and Elliot to go to school this morning. They were able to wake up a bit later and got to school on time for the first time all week. These friends had three children of their own to take up to school, but we were on their way, so it all worked very smoothly. The children welcomed the break from walking and biking, but they were most relieved they were not going to be tardy.


Other Events of the Day
Brent biked an errand to Rite Aid this morning then biked into work. I had arranged to keep a friend's daughter today as well as had an in home appointment for Oliver with Birth to Three, so Brent biked up to the school to walk the children home. My legs were very thankful for the day of rest.

Brent's new rack with his new lunch box.

Arriving at campus.

Going through Marshall University campus.

Children's packs loaded on the rack, then they walked home.

This evening Brent did a larger grocery trip on his own. He took the empty trailer to Kroger on 7th Street and filled it up. His purchases and approximate weights:

• 4 dozen dinner rolls, 4lbs
• 1lb of cheese
• 5-1.5lbs of whole wheat bread, 7.5lbs
• 3lbs of apples
• 2-1.5quarts of ice cream, 3.5lbs
• 1lb of coffee
• 2-half gallons of almond milk, 8lbs
• 2-half gallons of soy milk, 8lbs
• 2 gallons of milk, 16lbs
• 1 box wheat saltines, 1lb
• diaper wipes, 4lbs
• paper diapers
• 5 lbs of pastas
• 1-2lt of diet Coke, 4lbs
• dish washing detergent, 2lbs
• 5lbs of bananas
• 2.5lbs of grapes
• 14lbs of cat litter

85.5lbs Total.

Red Light Runner
As we were recapping the day Brent noted that he had to run a red light on his way to pick up the children. He was at a light for a very long time and it wasn't changing. He presumed it was because the light is tripped by a magnetic sensor and his aluminum bike was not giving it anything to trigger the light. Anyone know how to overcome this? Should he have moved over to the cross walk? What would you do?

A red light that wouldn't change until a car arrived.

More School Commuting Issues

Avery, ready to walk to school yesterday.

Kid power.

Yesterday I walked up to the school at pick up time, with the little boys in the stroller, gathered the big kids and walked home, but it was torture. My first mistake was not packing enough snacks for their hungry school drained bodies. Second mistake was walking home, down Norway with scuffing children. Third mistake, was walking six, almost seven, miles today, mostly over hills. Am I sounding like a wimp yet? Extremely unfit? A mother of four cranky children? A bit unrealistic and insensitive? Probably a bit of each.

Timeout for us all on Norway.

There were melt downs and complaints and very unsafe tugging of backpacks and kicking between children on narrow sidewalks with a lot of cars. No narrow misses, no one hurt, but very unnerving for me and probably for the drivers. The boys didn't complain once, but London's feet and legs really hurt. I suspect she needs to stretch  more and get better shoes. I made sure to stop many many times and I massaged her aches and pains when we returned.

Big kid power.

More rest time yesterday.

There must be a good way to do all this without our van. I am stubbornly unwilling to accept that covering a two mile distance is not reasonable without a vehicle. We could bus home, for another $3/day. We could ask someone to bring the children home, but then I would miss the interaction with the teachers and double checking they didn't forget anything. Or we could try what we are going to do today.

Going to find a bus stop this morning.

An Oliver on my back.

Wait time.

This morning, all six of us, biked and walked to the bus stop. Brent had a very early day on campus and decided to join us then head on into work. Since he wasn't able to stay home with the little boys, I loaded Oliver into the backpack carrier and Avery walked with us. London and Elliot rode their bikes. Two walkers, three riders and one in a carrier. 4/5 of a mile, 20 minutes, $3. We actually left our house on time and had about 15 minutes to wait on the bus. Fifteen minutes means the bus didn't arrive until 8AM, the same time the tardy bell rings at school.

The children arrived too late, but we were able to get their bikes to school without riding them up any hills. Loading the bikes onto the bus rack was a new experience. The driver had to get off the bus to show us how to pull the rack down and then lock our wheels to the rack. I am sure that annoyed all the other passengers and set us back even further. Yet, now we know. In consideration, I did not take photos. Avery, Oliver and I walked the two miles home.

Bikes made it to school.

Avery's shoes were bothering him, so he waked most of the way home this morning in socks.

avery insisted on running the length of Woodland to the mailbox where I said we could take a break, but then he didn't want to.

Oliver, Avery and I will walk to school at pick up time today and then Elliot and London can ride their bikes home while I push the others. I did make it very clear to them all that we will have to go over the big hills to stay off Norway in exchange for riding. I really should have made them walk the hills yesterday, but Norway is the more direct way and at that point I had covered 4.8 miles and wanted to just get home. Additionally, the short biking we did this morning didn't bother London's legs and feet at all, so I am hoping our return this afternoon will be smoother.

On our walk home this morning, we noted a fresh patch of asphalt next to the cemetery. I read on the Create Huntington Facebook page yesterday, that this is the new portion of the PATH. According to the old map, PATH should provide us a way to get from Wiltshire to very near Our Lady of Fatima Parish School, with a safer route that follows Norway. Create Huntington said an updated map of the PATH should be available soon. Perhaps this will assist us in our school commutes?

New section of the PATH.

Good morning.

Miles Walked: 13.2	Biked: 9.3	Bused: 2.1	Drove: 0	This week
13.2	9.3	2.1	0	Since August 14, 2011

Brent's Video: Commuting to Work

My Commute: Huntington, WV from delano on Vimeo.

Brent put together this video to show parts of his commute to work today. He takes a different route home, as mapped below. He certainly goes out of this way to avoid Hal Greer, riding 5 miles to go a crow's distance of 3.


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Test Riding to School

Brent ponders the problems of getting the children to school.

The Challenge of Getting to School
It's been a good slow summer for us over all. I made a list of things for us to work on over the break and we accomplished or tried most of them. Now, here we are a week from starting a new academic year and my biggest concern is how are we getting the children to and from school? They are attending Our Lady of Fatima Parish School for their second year in a row. Our academic journey is a long one and best saved for another blog altogether. Because it is a private school, there is no busing. Last year we drove them to school and drove them home. Some afternoons they would get a ride with a neighbor. Toward the end of the year, we biked a couple mornings to school and walked home many times, even in the rain.

The Problems
This year we have several new obstacles. Avery will be going to school for the first time. This mean that all three of the children need to go in the morning and all three need to get home. That third child, who doesn't bike independently and who weights near 45lbs, adds, literally, to the trip. Even if someone could pick up our children, two extra car seats and three children is a strain on most anyone who is in the area, as they all have three children of their own.

Our second challenge is Oliver. He can stay home with a parent in the morning, but will need to go to school for pick up.

The last challenge is that we (mostly I) don't want to drive our vehicles for the first two and a half weeks of school. If we can overcome this challenge in a simple way, we will stick to our solution, but if it is as complicated as it is looking to be, we will resolve to drive in the morning and flip a coin in the afternoon. Some days a walk is wonderful, others it might be cumbersome.

Solution Options
A few of the options we have considered and some of the foreseeable issues:

Mornings

• Walking to the nearest bus stop on Charleston Avenue, about fifteen minutes away, and riding the bus for ten minutes directly to the school. One parent, three children.
• The three routes we can walk to the bus stop are either a) heavily trafficked, b) extremely steep downhill with one way traffic behind us and no sidewalks, c) a rocky run off behind a retaining wall that is not meant for pedestrians, only water, that ends in a parking lot that we would then have to proceed down to the heavily trafficked street.
• The bus ride would cost us $3 each day
• Walking to school. One parent, three children.
• We would need to leave by 7:05am to beat the 8 o'clock tardy bell. That's usually when we are getting up. While this is not a huge problem, or an unsafe one, it's a personal routine issue that we have tried fighting before and have always failed.
• In rainy weather, we would be more susceptible to getting soaked just due to being outside longer.
• Biking and jogging to the bus stop on Charleston Avenue, and loading two kid bikes and a stroller onto the bus and riding to school. One parent jogging with Avery in the stroller, Elliot and London riding. The bikes and stroller would remain at school till pick up.
• See the issues with walking to the bus stop above.
• There may not be room in the bike rack for two bikes.
• I haven't practiced converting the bike trailer into a stroller or collapsing it yet, so it may not even be reasonable to do this everyday. There may not be room for the stroller on the bus.
• There are no bike racks at school.
• Biking to school. One parent with Avery in tow, Elliot and London independent.
• It's 70% uphill to school from our house.
• The roads to school are riddled with difficulties and dangers. There are some blind intersections, some very fast roads, lack of side walks, several one way streets, some extremely steep inclines, many allies and drive ways.

Afternoons depending on Morning methods

• Walking to school with Oliver and riding the bus back to the stop and walking everyone home.
• The walk would take 45minutes to get to school with Oliver in the backpack carrier or a stroller.
• It would cost $3 a day to ride home.
• The walk home from the bus stop would be more treacherous than the walk to the stop because of going up hill and against traffic.
• Walking to school with Oliver and walking everyone home.
• It would be more than two hours to complete a pick up using this method. I think of those people who did this everyday, back in the day.
• Walking or biking to the bus stop on Charleston with Oliver, riding to the school, then doing one of the two above.
• Same issues as the morning and above.
• Biking to school with Oliver and biking everyone home, if they got to school on their bikes, or walking everyone home and walking the bike.
• If I had to walk the bike home, Oliver would have to sit in the bike seat as I couldn't carry him, hold his hand and the bike or bring a backpack on the bike. Assuming the children and the trailer didn't go to school in the morning.
• Same dangers and difficulties as mentioned for biking in the morning.

Can you see why driving would be a lot more simple and sane!

What to Do?
I was not about to give up on this problem. Brent and I were both concerned about finding the safest and most reasonable way to transport the children. It was looking to us, like walking or biking round trip, would fit the bill. Tonight we took London and Oliver out for a test ride to school. We came across some interesting options (driveways that connect to allies to avoid steep hills and dangerous intersections) and some good advice from our Critical Mass organizer Joel (whom we happened to pass and delay in order to get the scoop on an alternate to Norway Avenue). Tomorrow we are going to give it another try with new directions and further map exploration.

Trial One 

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A rough outline of our route today. 

Hills are so hard to photograph. This is climbing up Wiltshire Blvd.

Looking back down Wiltshire.

We stopped by a friend's garden to pluck some produce.

The okra were tough to break off, we should have brought a knife.

Turning right onto Woodland.

Climbing Roland Park hill. London had to walk it.

Deciding to turn down Walnut to our left instead of climbing more of Roland.

Walnut was fun to ride down after that haul up Roland.

Turning right onto Norway from Walnut. Very unsafe to ride this road, we took the sidewalk.

We thought we could get off Norway by turning right on Gallaher, but it was up up up and there were no streets that seem to cross toward the school

See, it's up, up, up!!

We ended up turning around and going back to Norway all the way to school. Long drink breaks and another contemplation about what route would be more safe.

Coming down Norway, the wrong way on a one way, we stayed on the sidewalk. This is a gravel wash out that was trick to ride through. London wobbled a lot.

This is another busy and dangerous intersection in front of Gallaher Library. Norway continues to the left, toward our home.

We sat here for a while discussing whether getting on the street (Norway) in line with traffic was safer than getting on the sidewalk on the left side of the road. We took the sidewalk.

There was another gravel wash out area in front of the Fire Dept on Norway. If we choose this route I might ask them to clear this. It was there in the spring when we were going by too.

We turned up Fairfax, it was short climb up, then downhill. This is where we spotted an alley that would cut back toward Woodland quicker.  Shortly afterward we saw Joel and got information about another route to try tomorrow.

When we got home I looked up the maps and directions and set to work on trial two!