Well - Maybe not the Utah Department of Transportation.  The praise should probably be heaped upon Salt Lake City and West Valley City.  But I am getting ahead of myself...

Back on the Bike

In the last 11 months, my Garmin GPS tells me that I have ridden my Roubaix only 23 times.  The other bikes in the stable have rarely been removed from the storage hooks.  It's been a sad time for two-wheeled vehicles in the GC household.

That has changed the last couple of weeks.  I have managed two long (2+ hrs) training rides, and this week have commuted home from work by bike both Monday and Tuesday.

Someone has been busy while I have been driving instead of riding.

Impersonating Lewis and Clark

Anyone who has a lengthy suburban-urban commute discovers the issues of 'crossings'.  The old explorers and pioneers had to cross daunting obstacles; most frequently large rivers.  In the urban setting the equivalent for the bike commuter is major highways and freeways (although in my case a river comes into play as well).

For me to make the commute from Magna, Utah to downtown Salt Lake City I have to cross some combination of:

• Interstate 15
• Interstate 215
• State Road 201
• Bangerter Highway
• Multiple Railroad Lines
• Jordan River

There are only a limited number of possibilities to cross each of these - for instance, I can cross State Road 201 at 5600 W, 3200 W, Redwood Rd, or use the Jordan River Parkway.  Other than the parkway, all of these crossings are major funnels for automotive traffic.

 On of the more convenient routes allowed me to cross SR 201 at 5600 W and then go under both I-215 and I-15.  The drawback there was that the route traveled through a major industrial area with fairly narrow roads and heavy truck traffic.

All of that was a long lead-in to my discovery that after 9 years of bike commuting, and putting up with chip-seal, re-pavings that eradicate the shoulder, and the actual removal of lanes from certain roads, my two primary routes have been dramatically improved.

California Ave

This stretch of California Ave has always been somewhat treacherous.  It was narrow. The shoulder was deteriorating and crumbling.  The road is heavily traveled by garbage trucks and tractor trailers. In the last 9 months it has been widened to two lanes eastbound and one lane westbound, with a wide shoulder westbound.  They even added an optical attenuator at the intersection at 5600 W rather than an impedance loop so all you riders with carbon fiber bikes can still trigger the light rather than needing to run it when it won't change.

Lake Park Ave

There is a business park in West Valley City that I ride through frequently; especially if I want to ride the Jordan River Parkway as part of my commute.  The problem was that the roads in the park either dead-ended, or dumped you up to a much busier road.  During my 'down time' West Valley City completed Lake Park Ave to connect to 5600 W. It's a very bike friendly route. The shoulder is pretty wide; they added traffic calming roundabouts; and at least a portion of the new roads in the area are marked as bike routes.

So thanks, sincerely, to whichever government departments or agencies (or the developers, these are business/industrial parks so maybe it was the developers that paved the roads).  The changes you have made are not trivial in the life of a bike commuter.

In the past two weeks there have been two seperate incidents where cyclists have been critically injured in hit-and-run collisions in the Salt Lake City area.  Coverage from the Salt Lake Tribune says:

 A Salt Lake City bicyclist was found face down in a street late Monday, apparently after a car struck him.

The bicyclist was in serious condition late Monday, said Salt Lake City police Detective Dennis McGowan. Detectives are investigating the case as a hit and run.

Someone found the man about 10 p.m. Monday near 1400 N. Beck St. (300 West). There is a bicycle lane on that section of road, but McGowan said there are skid marks indicating a vehicle may have run over a curb and struck the man. The bike's rear end was damaged. The bicyclist was found in a business driveway bleeding from his head and face, McGowan said.

Anyone with information about the case can call Salt Lake City police at 801-799-3000.

Charges were filed Tuesday in a separate hit-and-run involving a cyclist on March 19 at 6540 S. Wasatch Blvd. The accused driver, 28-year-old Nicholas T. Murdock of Holladay, allegedly told his passenger he liked to speed around the corner of 6200 South and Wasatch before accelerating his BMW from a stop and hitting the cyclist, deputies wrote. Murdock and his passenger got out of the car and looked at the victim; Murdock obscured the license plate and drove away, detectives wrote.

The cyclist remains hospitalized, investigators wrote. Murdock was charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving an injury, obstructing justice and reckless driving, all misdemeanors.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12036925

Like many people, cyclists and non-cyclists alike, I am outraged that so far the best the authorities can do is charge Murdock with a trio of misdemeanors.  Compare that to these two incidents, also from today's paper:

In charges filed Tuesday, police wrote that [an] 18-year-old and two other people were walking through [the police] lot when an officer saw the teen "tag" a cruiser with a scribble. Two other patrol cars were found to be tagged, officers wrote. The damage is estimated at $900. The teen was charged with third-degree felony graffiti.  http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12041071

and this:

A knife-wielding man allegedly chased a hiker and his dog down a trail above the University of Utah and then charged police who arrived to investigate. The victim came upon a man standing by a tent... The man told the hiker to leash his dog and leave, moved toward the hiker with an object in his hand, and shouted threats as the hiker ran back down the trail... When officers later approached the tent, the man ran away but then charged pursuing officers with a knife held over his head. Officers deployed a Taser twice. The man, 46, of Salt Lake City, was charged with three third-degree felony counts of aggravated assault and a misdemeanor count of interference with an arresting officer.  http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12041678

So, let me get this straight.
   
If I spray paint 'Death to all Cyclists' on cars in my neighborhood it's a felony.   

If I chase and threaten a cyclist with a knife it would be a felony.
   
But I can hit one in my car, injuring them critically and then leave them for dead, bleeding at the side of the road and that is only a misdemeanor?!?!

Justice is not blind in Utah, it is stone cold drunk on 3.2 beer (which was probably a factor for both drivers as well...)

The difference in cost between a AA or AAA battery driven system and the brighter rechargeable systems is significant. Unless you know that your speed and the road conditions require the brighter, more expensive systems, I would recommend you start with a low-cost light with a flashing mode. Then, if you decide it's not bright enough for your needs you can still use it in flashing mode, or as a helmet light when you upgrade.

Originally posted on my old GeekCyclist.blogspot.com site on 9/8/08