No, no, I’m not in the market for a new set of wheels. But I did try grocery shopping by bike.

To be fair, I had biked to the grocery store before, then loaded the contents of my shopping bags into my panniers. But I figured it was Earth Day, so maybe I could try skipping the plastic bags for once. I was just going to take the pannier off of my rack and into the store, but then I thought I’d be a bit more daring and just wheel the bike into Roche Bros.

I got a few stares from fellow shoppers, but none of the employees said a word. Maybe that’s b/c my folding bike isn’t much larger than a shopping cart.

I’m not normally much into the “eco” side of cycling, but it did feel un-wasteful to avoid grabbing a bunch of plastic bags. Here are some bananas in the pannier:

The only downside was that riding home was a bit of a bear since I switched the pannier from the back to the front. With a laptop, the frontloaded bag actually improves steering by making the folder a bit less “twitchy.” But with so much weight in the front. steering was difficult/awkward. I’ll give it a few days of commuting and then maybe switch it back to the back…hides my hindquarters anyway.

All I ask of Boston drivers…two things:

1) signal before you turn. because so few people signal, those of us on two wheels instead of four live in constant fear that you will suddenly pull in front of us. your turn signal will not wear out from use. do it. hanging up the phone will free your hand

2) stop for crosswalks, but don’t stop IN them. on my ride up the Southwest Corridor I am continually amazed at the number of drivers who would never block cars in an intersection but appear to think nothing of blocking pedestrians and others using the MUP. once when I asked someone to move his vehicle he responded not by apologizing but by yelling at me.

Just these two things would make my commute a lot safer. what a joy it is to ride off-peak when there are far fewer cars about…

I started commuting about 18 months ago from the suburbs to Boston. It’s about marathon distance roundtrip. When I started, it took me nearly an hour and a half (one way) door to door, and today I did it in 45 and a half minutes.

The best part was that my previous record was 52 minutes, so this cut off six and a half minutes from my previously fastest time!

What changed?

• switched from an upright “comfort” bike (Giant Cypress) to a road bike (Specialized Roubaix)
• lost 30#
• optimized my route to shave off half a mile to a mile
• clipless pedals
• riding in work pants –> “real” biking clothes
• riding off-peak to avoid traffic
• got comfortable proceeding through intersections without cross traffic
• of course, flexibility and strength increased

maybe there were other factors, too. anyway, if at first your commute seems to take too long, don’t panic! it’ll probably get shorter over time.

What’s cool is that if I can keep this up, then biking is actually faster than taking public transportation or driving in rush hour. In fact, driving off-peak is only a 15-minute savings and of course costs $10 in gasoline. Public transit involves

1. Driving to the Route 128 commuter rail station (5m + 5m buffer so I don’t miss the train)
2. Riding to South Station (20-30m)
3. transferring to the Red line and riding to Kendall/MIT (15-30m)
4. walking from the station to E62 (5m)

All told, it’s at least 50m and can take as long as 75.

So now biking is almost always the fastest way to get to work and definitely the cheapest! Can’t wait for my semester to end so I can ditch the T pass — I get nervous biking to work when I teach early in the morning.

My next milestone is to hit 5,000 miles since I started tracking last Memorial Day. As of today I have 870 miles left, which is challenging but not impossible. Once the semester is over I may take some time off to do a few centuries if necessary!