It is great how many people are taking alternative transportation to work. Particularly those who travel in and out of the city. I aplaud you! Down near the Longwood Medical Area where I teach, there are stream of 4 to 5 connected bike racks that are busting with bikes to the point where not an exposed pipe or surface is available to lock just one more ride. At first I thought people were just taking up space by storing their bikes on these racks. Surely, not ALL of these people are commuting in. Sure enough, I rode past the rack early one morning and only found 3 to 4 bikes. Amazing.
As cyclists, we may find ourselves also sharing the road with this motorized scooters (commuter scooters). These have become quite a nuisance in the Boston area. According to the local laws, these motorized bicycles are allowed to ride in bike lanes. Not only do cyclist not how to breathe in their fumes, but have to be aware of these annoying hornets buzzing into our lane whenever they feel traffic is not in their favor. Now I’m not only battling moving cars on my left and dodging flinging doors from the right, there are these scooters which are buzzing around and very hard to see.
I’m sure there are very conscientious scooter drivers, so I don’t want to lump them into one bunch. My challenge is that I’m usually (if not always) traveling faster than the scooters. I’ll be cruising along and all of a sudden scooter weaves into my lane going 5 mph slower. It is generally easier to pass another cyclist in the bike lane, because they are usually not very wide and will kindly move over to allow me to to go by. Some of these scooters are pretty wide. Particularly those carrying a passenger and with bags and boxes hanging off them like grapes.
Yet another factor impeding on the safety of trying to stay healthy and ride a bike to work.
