Cars, Bikes, and Roads

This week I read a couple of articles in the New York Times about biking, the first was about initiatives in Copenhagen to support longer distance commuting with bike highways.  The second was about how some bikers are using helmet mounted cameras to help protect themselves from aggressive motorists.  I thought that it might be interesting to write about our experience sharing the road with cars during our trip this summer.

Our journey began heading north up Highway 1 from Santa Cruz to San Francisco, a road that we were all familiar with, although also one that has seen its fair share of controversy between cyclists and motorist during our time in Santa Cruz including a fatal hit and run collision with a cyclists this past May.  The size of the shoulder on Highway 1 varies from easily accommodating two cyclists, to being so small that cyclists must ride in the road along with cars traveling at 55 MPH or more.  The most challenging part of the ride along Highway 1 is a stretch called Devil's Slide near Pacifica which has a steep climb with no shoulder.  Fortunately the cars we encountered were not too aggressive, but it is not a ride that I would recommend for a novice cyclists. 

Heading north up Highway 1

San Francisco has a decent amount of support for cyclists with bike lanes on some streets.  Unfortunately most streets don't have bike lanes and as we made our way through the city we ended up in rush hour traffic on some roads that were not the best for cyclists.  This illustrates a problem that touring cyclists face where even when there is some support for cyclists in a city, it can be hard for visitors to find their way around.

The next day we headed north towards Santa Rosa and I encountered another problem with the roads, namely a pothole on the side of the shoulder which caused me to crash.  As we approached the intersection of Nicaso Valley Rd and Lucas Valley Rd heading downhill at about 20 MPH it appeared to me that there was a decent size shoulder to the right of the road.  The picture from Google Street View gives a sense of what the road looks like.  However, as I got closer I realized that it was a soft shoulder rather than a paved road.  I had a split second to decide what to do and rather than trying to cut left back into the road I thought I would just ride on the soft shoulder.  Unfortunately I ran into a large pothole right when I went off the road and this caused me to crash.

Pothole on the soft shoulder which caused me to crash on day 2

This illustrates one of the challenges that cyclists are faced with while riding on roads.  Cars are always expected to stay to the left of the white line which divides the road from the shoulder.  However, cyclists are sometimes expected to stay to the right of the line and ride on the shoulder, while other times there is no shoulder and so they must ride in the road.

The next day was a Saturday and we made our way north from Santa Rosa to Sacramento and along the way we rode through part of Napa next to Lake Berryessa.  The area was filled with recreational cyclists riding along a nice smooth road with minimal traffic, which is the sort of riding that makes bike touring so much fun.

Jack and Ryland riding along with recreational cyclists in Napa

When we left Sacramento the ride started off with about 20 miles along a nice paved bike path with no cars.  Sometimes bike paths can be challenging to ride of because of a mix of pedestrians (with dogs) and cyclists.  But the one we took heading out of Sacramento was great and it would be nice to see more bike paths like that across the country.

Bike path heading out of Sacramento

After leaving Sacramento we spent the next few days riding mostly on two lane roads in the mountains.  Sometimes the roads had a nice wide shoulder, often a narrow shoulder, and sometimes none.  The traffic levels varied as well, but typically it was not too bad.  Most drivers tried to give us some space as they passed, although not too much, although people weren't shy about using their horns if they thought we were straying a few inches farther to the left than we should be.  After my crash earlier in the trip I was wary of potholes and other obstructions along the shoulder and I tended to view that as a bigger risk than drivers.  I hoped that I would be visible enough and that drivers would give me space to ride rather than try to run me off the road.  One thing that was nice when riding through the Sierras was when we were in National Parks which did not have any commercial vehicles, because at other times we had to worry about large trucks possibly running us off of the road.

A typical road while biking through the Sierras

As we left Mt. Shasta and headed north towards Oregon an interesting thing happened, the aggressive drivers disappeared and almost all the drivers we encountered treated us with respect rather than as an obstacle on the road.  Most cars would move completely into the other lane when passing us, rather than giving us the minimum amount of space to avoid a collision.  And cars also stopped honking at us, and instead simply passed when it was safe.

Heading north from Mt. Shasta

Being passed by a car in Oregon

When we were in Oregon there were a few times when it made sense for us to ride along an interstate highway.  Although this was generally quite safe because of the wide shoulder in most places, it certainly was not the most pleasant type of riding.  The high speed and high volume of cars created highway noise that was simply not that much fun to ride with.  This was combined with a variety of tire debris along the shoulder that we had to concentrate on avoiding.

Riding along Interstate 84 heading towards Hood River

As we entered Washington we found ourselves back on roads like what we had ridden on in the Sierras.  Most of the cars gave us enough space that we felt safe, but the road we were on had more trucks and higher speed cars, and just wasn't as pleasant as the riding we had done in Oregon.  We also happened to enter Washington on a day when they temperature was around 110 degrees, but that has nothing to do with the cars, although it might have contributed to our feeling that the riding was less pleasant.

Entering Washington the "Evergreen State"

Entering Idaho had the feel of entering the Wild West and unfortunately we started noticing more hostility towards us as cyclists.  We spent nearly two hundred miles riding along a small two lane road next to a beautiful river in Idaho.  Unfortunately there was often not much of a shoulder, and some drivers did not like seeing cyclists on the road.  About half of the drivers were as courteous as those in Oregon.  But it was the ones from the other half that made the ride less fun.  For instance there were numerous logging trucks that passed us heading up the road.  Half of them would wait until they could get in the other lane and safely pass.  The other half would pass at high speed giving us the minimum amount of space that they could, and some of those would blow their horns as they went by just to try to make our day a little bit less fun.

Riding along a river in Idaho

As we entered Montana things took a turn for the worse as the road we were on was suddenly filled with potholes.  We also noticed signs for a 70 MPH speed limit on roads that elsewhere in our journey would have been 55 MPH or less.  

Montana road with 70 MPH speed limit

On the final day of our trip we headed east along Highway 200.  The road itself had a nice size shoulder for the most part and rumble strips between the shoulder and the highway.  However, it also had a relatively high volume of traffic and cars were buzzing by us at 70 MPH or more all morning.  

Highway 200 in Montana heading east out of Missoula

When biking one tends to be more connected to the road and the environment than when driving and often you can hear cars approaching from behind.  However, although hearing the cars is helpful there are also times when a car approaches without being heard.  I think that the higher speed of the cars in Montana contributed to changing how they sounded and also to our failure to notice the car approaching from behind (until it was too late) when Matt was hit.

Aftermath of a car hitting Matt's bike at high speed

We saw a lot while riding 2,000 miles through five different states.  Many places were great for riding and cyclists and drivers had a good relationship.  Unfortunately some spots were not as good and our trip ended prematurely as a result of a motorist hitting a cyclists.  This has not dimmed our spirits and we will continue to ride; although I think that Matt and Ryland are planning for their next big adventure to be on dirt where they won't have to be as concerned with cars.  As for me, I'm not sure what I'll do for my next trip, perhaps I'll go to Europe check out the bike highways in Copenhagen.