Other thoughts for today

While thinking about and writing my last post, I also got to thinking about convenience. I do a lot of thinking about why I ride instead of driving, as I am asked that from time to time in face-to-face discussions. I keep coming back to that I enjoy riding more than driving, even when I can discuss the long list of other benefits.

One of those benefits is the perceived convenience. I see it as more convenient for me to ride a bike when doing my errands. The time involved isn't a big difference--it takes me perhaps twice as long to ride as to drive within a five-mile radius, and about the same amount of time within a two-mile radius. My ride to work--all eleven miles of it--takes me less than three times as long as I can do it in a car.

However, in that extra time, I get to: a) exercise, burning carbs and fat grams instead of petroleum, b) think about stuff that I wouldn't have time to ponder when driving thirty-plus miles an hour (not that others don't let their minds wander...), c) re-allocate gas/insurance/car upkeep money into the grocery and bike parts funds (I far prefer eating to filling the gas tank).

I also get premium parking spaces, often right at the door of whatever shop I'm patronizing! It's nice to not have to walk across acres of hot asphalt parking lot to pop in to the local grocery store, although one could say I'm paying for that by riding my bike for more minutes than the guy who is walking across the parking lot. I figure I'm more acclimated to the heat by riding, so it doesn't bother me as much, so I'm ahead. Or I think so, anyway.

In my errand-running today, I hit on an idea that solved a problem I've been perceiving for some time. The problem: convincing motorists that it's a good idea to stop with their front bumpers above the Stop Bar (that foot-or-so painted strip across the lane at a stop light). I had dropped off some paperwork at an office off Millbrook (near the Northeast YMCA), and my next stop was the ValuMarket on Whittington Parkway. Rather than ride Hurstbourne Parkway all the way to Whittington, I opted to use the roadways within the ShelbyHurst development that used to be called Shelby Campus for the University of Louisville (and which was Kentucky Southern College before that). Recent construction has changed the entrance of the campus to be directly opposite the Shelbyville Road end of Whittington Parkway, conveniently enough.

As I neared this intersection, I was passed by a guy in a pickup truck. He reached the light, and stopped with his back bumper above the stop bar. The light is set up so that it will only offer a green if its sensor is tripped, and his truck was not over the sensor at all. I pulled up beside him, and suggested that he'd get through the light quicker if he backed up over the sensor, and that the stop bar was a guide as to where the sensor is so that he could use that information on other intersections as well. He genuinely seemed to appreciate the information, telling me that my tactic was well-received. It didn't hurt anything that almost as soon as he backed up, the light turned green for him. I was in the process of getting back in line behind him, and the short light there almost caught me, but I made it under the yellow...

Parenthetically, one of the things I like about the new house is its proximity to ValuMarket. It's a great, locally-owned grocery that stocks a much wider variety of food stuffs than any Kroger I've seen, preferring to simply stock one row of a given item than six to allow for better selection. They have a lot of things I have no idea how to prepare, but that they have such things makes them stand out as local merchants.

Sure beats going to Kroger. It's a fifteen-minute bike ride home from ValuMarket with a trailer full of groceries, by the way.