As we prepare for Bike to Work Day 2011, 511CC invites you to share your memorable biking to work stories. Post them in the comments.
I learned how to ride a bicycle in a quiet suburb when I was 9, but I never rode in traffic until I moved to Boston. Learning to ride in Boston traffic is like learning to add at MIT.
Kenmore Square is actually a five-road intersection, but because Commonwealth is divided, it acts like a seven-road intersection. There’s a train station, a lot of BU students, and usually a lot of baseball fans (Fenway Park is a few blocks away). When I was there, the intersection had been under construction for about as long as the Red Sox had gone without winning a World Series. It was a mess.
But I had to get to work, and the summers have beautiful weather, so I found myself biking through this monster of an intersection twice a day for a few months.
One time, I pulled up my bike to a red light alongside a characiture of a Harvard professor. He wore a tweed jacket with elbow patches. His bicycle looked like something out of the 1940s – it matched him perfectly. Clearly aware that I was staring, he asked me a question in a very professorly tone –
“Do you know the shortest perceivable length of time?”
No clue.
“The length of time between a green light and a Boston driver hitting their horn.”
Sure enough, the light changed and at least three drivers blared their horns. We were off.
Now, the construction at Kenmore Square is finished and it looks quite nice. Not only do they have bicycle lanes, but they even have left turn bike lanes.
Post your own story in the comments!
