Home on the Freeway
Weather: 80 degrees (~27°C) and sunny… I don’t know how much more of this I can stand!
We have been very busy at work of late. It involves things I can’t talk about on this blog, but suffice to say that I could probably spend every waking hour there, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
Some of you must be wondering where all the pretty pictures went. Well, my wife Amy has commandeered the camera this week, for the whole array of graduation activities at my daughter’s school. Amy works there, you see, and this is the photographic season at schools everywhere. So I am left with mere words to paint a picture of my daily commute.
Anyway, I had just made a commitment on the phone to be here with my family at a certain time tonight, for one of Emily’s school activities, when one of our bosses asked me to perform a bunch of technical tests on some of our products late in the day. The timing couldn’t have been worse, but I stood my ground and chose the most important option. My family will be with me for life. My employer could drop me at any time, for any reason. They say so right in the Employee Handbook.
I made a small compromise, and stayed as long as I could. By the time I left, the only way I could make it home in time was to take the freeway, and hope there wasn’t an accident or incident which would cause the whole horrible mob to come to a screeching halt. It’s been years since I rode the freeway home, and I knew that conditions there had only gotten worse over time.
The same freeway route that I take to work in the morning is an absolute nightmare on the way home. This is because you only have the day shift to deal with on the way to work in the morning. In the afternoon, you have everyone else who needs to use the roads; including folks going home, big trucks hauling freight, all the other folks heading to second shift jobs, and the shoppers and miscellaneous travellers, who don’t know enough to run the side streets.
It is a madhouse of oblivious morons, yakking on cellphones and darting from lane-to-lane, secure in the knowledge that their insurance company will deal with whatever damage they cause in their ignorance. Unfortunately, we who ride motorbikes are playing this stupid game for much higher stakes.
Well, since “filtering” is illegal in Minnesota, I have to consider the shoulders and the navigable green-space around the freeway as fair game if I get into a dangerously congested situation. I refuse to be surrounded by vehicles higher than my helmet when everything comes to a stop. That is one of the only places on the road where nothing I can do will save me and Frogwing from some idiot rear-ending the vehicle behind us, and making us the meat in a very messy sandwich.
I will go to court against any prosecutor with that argument. Before the court date, I would write the AMA for support. If we don’t win, then we expose the so-called “justice system” for the greedy, revenue-gathering activity that it has become. Then we go on the PR offensive.
But I’m getting off the point here. My adrenaline level was higher on the ride home tonight than it has ever been, even in the midst of a CRA roadrace up at Brainerd. I couldn’t believe some of the behaviour I was seeing:
- Some folks just pick a lane, open the paper on their steering wheel, and roll ahead whenever the car ahead of them disappears from view.
- Others are dividing their attention between the road and a laptop in the passenger seat, doing gawd-knows-what, but devoting very little attention to piloting their two-ton vehicle.
- Then you have the obvious cellphone-yakkers and makeup-appliers, mixing in with the little dipshits in the pocket rockets, changing lanes whenever two feet appear between adjacent vehicles…
No, I am not going to ride on the freeway during the afternoon rush hour again. If I have to go anywhere quickly at that time, I would rather speed down the sidestreets and risk getting a ticket. At least I will be alive to dispute it in court.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:19 am
and there are never enough good corners on highways. What’s life on a bike without a few good corners?
June 9th, 2006 at 6:37 am
And to think there are actually “bikers” that plan every trip over the super slab. I can’t stand the stuff, even without the traffic. Glad you made it home.
June 9th, 2006 at 8:46 am
I have a 20 mile one-way commute and (unfortunately) need to cross a fairly wide river. Due to this, my route options are few – the most expeditious has been using the superslab. Unfortunately for me, the volume of traffic has increased exponentially over the years. I’ve even tried leaving for work 1/2 hour earlier in order to avoid the evening crush – it is now catching up to me and I am considering an even earlier departure time. I once met a guy who said that he would never live more than 5 miles away from where he worked. Maybe this is the best solution for commuting, but not necessarily for living the other waking hours in the day and weekend. Bring on the telework!
June 9th, 2006 at 11:16 am
Mad: What more is there to say?
SGP: I don’t understand it either. Only when you have to go a long distance, quickly, do the Interstates make sense on a bike.
Dave: My commute is 26 miles each way, and I’ve had similar thoughts. Unfortunately, the residential real estate near my job is twice as expensive as my neighborhood in West Saint Paul. So moving here is not an option.
As for the telecommuting thing, 80% of my work is done on the computer, and I can access much of our network from home. Coming in to the office one or two days a week would definitely be do-able, except for one thing: as an hourly employee, I have to punch the clock here.
Just think how much fuel we could save, and how much we could reduce traffic, if everyone in a similar situation were able to work from home a few days a week. This could be the return of the American Dream!
But it’s not gonna happen. The ruling class in this country does not want happy workers. They want control. It’s no fun for them if they can’t oppress somebody. Think of it as a different slant on the “trickle down” theory…
Ride well,
=gc=
June 10th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
In order to remain true to your blog title, “Rambling” and “Freeway” just don’t mix. And it sounds as if freeways trigger some of those bad chemicals in your brain that send a lot of men to dark places.
Telecommuting….. long a dream of mine. Having moved into management it won’t happen now. I have replaced that dream with another—retirement.
By the way, have not heard much about the Baron scooters, either yours or your wife’s? Are they still functioning or has the affair with Frogwing just been particularly intense this spring?
steve
June 10th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Gary, like Steve Williams was asking, I too am curious about the scooters.
later
jim
June 11th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Okay, I’m pretty new to your blog. Drivers using their laptops and reading papers while driving?!?! YIKES, I want to avoid your city. I am so glad there are lots of side roads, and in good condition, here in Colorado.
I’ve heard of “lane-splitting,” but what is “filtering?”
June 11th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
gary. just crashed on city st. thur. broken collar bone and the worst, my big trip is off. will fill in more whem\n can type with two wings
June 12th, 2006 at 7:48 am
Gary:
I thought of you this am on my ride to work today as I was witness to quite an odd turn-around of events.
Just after crossing the Hennepin Ave. Bridge (heading into downtown) in MPLS, buses let off their cargo on the right curb, then quickly jaunt over from the shoulder to the left lane (almost a 3 lane change) as they head into downtown via the bus lane.
Well today there was a Suburban in the left lane blocking the bus’s route into said special lane. One thing I have learned driving in the metro area – don’t F with the buses – they will hand you your a$$ and not think twice. Said SUV, who never in it’s existence has ever been on the defensive while driving – decided to play chicken w/ a 20 ton bus…
It was just hysterical to watch. I was a good 3-4 car lengths back, as I thought the SUV was going to speed up, and I would let the bus in as I usually do (bike v. bus, you do the math). Moroff-than-on decides to stand his ground and not let the bus into his lane. Bad, bad move. Bus driver proceeded to pretty much just run the ‘burb right out of the lane and into oncoming traffic. Guy slams on his brakes after he’s a good 3/4 into the oncoming traffic lane.
Guess he finally knows what it feels like to have someone abuse (more like rape) your road rights. Score one for the masses!
I hear James Taylor in the background somewhere – “how sweet it is…”
June 12th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
James Taylor, huh? How do the words go? “How sweet it is to be shoved by you”? I figure that’s not exactly what the SUV driver was thinking after being shoved by the bus. Cool story.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:50 am
Steve and Jim: The two scooters I was riding for Baron are still awaiting parts from the design changes indicated by my testing. The radiator grilles for the 250SX “Hot Rod” should be installed shortly, and I hope to start riding that again.
The “Black Baron” 250PM had other issues, and we are waiting to see how the factory wants to handle them. The fact that it is the peak sales season has also pushed the development work down the priority list somewhat.
The techs are so busy prepping new bikes and doing customer maintenance that my program is kind of on-hold at the moment.
Betty: I wouldn’t call what these people are doing “driving”. They are actually just semi-interactive passengers, occasionally suggesting a course or speed change to the machinery and trusting in other drivers to be aware enough to avoid them. It really is getting bad out there.
Dick: I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve often wondered why the collar bone is such a common motorcycle injury. Mine has never been broken, but I’ve had plenty of other structural damage.
Get well soon, and know that we are thinking of you.
Dan: Yeah, you can’t argue with the buses. But it does seem that most drivers out there are oblivious to the laws concerning right-of-way. This one ended well. Thanks for the story.
Irondad: Do SUV drivers think at all?
Ride well,
=gc=