Thursday, May 15, 2008

Monster to Home

Bike to Work Week

This is the first "Bike to Work Week" since I have been riding that I have had the opportunty to do so. My manager suggested that I drive in, bike home, then bike in the next morning. My bike commute is 25 miles and I don't want to commit myself to riding 50 miles round trip. So this seemed like a good suggestion.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I either had a stomach virus, or was recovering from one. so those days were out. So Thursday I drove in with the bike.

All day long I kept on running out of excuses NOT to ride home ;-)

Planning The Route

Ever since I started here at Monster in Maynard, MA I had been plotting out a bike route from my Home to Work. There were three major obstacles to contend with:

  • Crossing Route 20
  • Crossing Rt 9
  • Framingham in General

Thanks to various mapping tool like MapMyRide.com and Google Earth, I was able to plot a route that took strategic advantage of traffic lights at some of the more difficult crossings.

Rt 16 in Holliston

It turns out that the most difficult intersection I had to contend with was the intersection in downtown Holliston. I needed to make a left off of Rt 16 onto Central St. The only traffic control device that have for this really busy intersection right smack in the middle of town is a pathetic blinking yellow light. I'll avoid that in the future.

The Ride...

The weather was perfect. Slightly overcast and in the mid-60's. Route 27 coming out of Maynard was a fun rolling decent which helped my fly home.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Martinator,
You just have to love thos vehicular left turns at uninterupted intersections. That is part of why I can make a living out of making it safer to bike and walk around.

Hope you ride in again soon. I suggest that you bring a couple sets of clothes to leave at work, then you can decide to ride at the last minute. You can also leave a lock at work so you don't have to carry it.

I only rode once last week - and that was slow but the first time at RBA's new building.
DanneBiker