Sign of the Season
Something is a little different this winter in Boston. If you pay attention to the roads you will notice something: there’s more than one bike. Actually, there’s lots of them.
Apparently even people who ride bikes are surprised by this.
Just saw this story in the Globe: “Welcoming the winter cycle” http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/01/24/welcoming-winter-cycle/DCU1tOw63oIF6sKytZPzAI/story.html
It’s about 15 degrees and it snowed last night here in NYC. The bike paths were not yet plowed. Nevertheless, on my 5 mile commute I saw two female cyclists dressed much the way you depict yourself here, and I thought of you. It is not quite like the crowd you show here, but I was surprised to see anyone else out there in such extreme conditions. Way to go truly year-round bike commuters!
Easy winter to set a new PR for cold weather commuting. January 5 it was -18F in the morning, with a brisk wind.
The evening before, hearing the forecast and all the dire “wind chill” warnings made me visualize walking to the bus stop for the first time in almost two years.
Then I began to feel this as a challenge, as I was only 3 weeks away from my 65th birthday, and we haven’t been getting many sub-zero days in Madison, Wi when I could try to break my -8F record from more than 10 yeaers earlier.
I rounded up some extra layers, applied a thick layer of Warm Skin cream, and went for it. Only my thumbs got cold. The UW was on vacation, so the residential streets and bike paths were nearly vacant. It was a great feeling riding in amid our daily throng of the car-dependent.
I’m in Milwaukee, WI, and I’ve also seen a lot more people out this winter than last, despite getting 10x as much snow and much lower temperatures. The city has even been plowing the commuter trails consistently. I don’t know what happened, but we seem to have hit some sort of tipping point.