So we are currently over a foot of extra snowfall from our average for this time of year. Up until the last few days, I don’t recall being much above 15 during the day for quite a while. Currently 36 and raining. Yup time to leave.
It’s not the weather. I like the snow, I like the cold most of the time. (all though this year it is a bit much of both) It’s the other residents of this fair city and it’s civil engineering. Yesterday morning it took me 30 minutes to get to work. I work 4 miles away. They changed the road I take from a 4 lane road, to a 2 lane with a center lane and bike lanes.
In concept, this is wonderful. In practice it doesn’t work for Anchorage. Drivers seem to think that bike lanes and road shoulders are just narrow right turn lanes so it’s a bit scary to ride on the main thru-ways. Both are buried after the snow starts anyhow, but this doesn’t stop the bicyclists. Nor the pedestrians since the sidewalks never seem to be cleared. (and yes, we really do have people riding bikes at sub zero temps with a foot of snow.)
The route in question that I take is mixed residential and industrial/commercial. (as is most of Anchorage) There is a driveway or side street every few feet. If you bike on the road in the bike lane you are bound to get hit by someone using the bike lane as a turn lane, or from someone pulling out into oncoming traffic. There is also a lot of blind spots, so people have to pull way far out (into the bike lane) to see traffic. As a result, no one bikes on this road. In the 4 years that the road has been like this, I have seen 3 cyclists. Melissa and I are two of them. When we went, it was a Saturday and it was still scary as hell.
So we now have a high traffic two lane road that is 40mph that even in the summer people drive 30 on. Yesterday I never got above 10mph. The roads were just fine.
It’s time to leave. at least if I have to put up with shitty traffic and people, I can save money on shipping and food.