Not-So Critical Mass – October 2005 Ride Report

I hadn’t been able to make last months CM ride, but I had high hopes for this month. Not only was it Halloween, but we put up a bunch of fliers, and tagged a bunch of bikes through out the week. The turn out, however, was disappointing to say the least. Rumor had it that September had had a good number of people, but apparently none of them felt like coming out this time.

Of the handful that showed up, half of them left since they were expecting more of a “critical” mass. This left just four of us. Having only this many riders does have its advantages though.

First, the police didn’t see us as much a problem, and went their merry way, allowing us to go our merry way. (Actually, we are developing a very good relationship with the police) Second, instead of going for a slow ride, we went for a very fast ride, basically becoming one with traffic; weaving in and out of the cars. Wait, we already are traffic. How can we become one with something we are already part of? Anyway. Third, you can take a picture encompassing every cyclist on the ride!! Try doing that in chicago :-P

All of us. Well, if you count the Scotch-lite strap off my messenger bag as being part of me, then there are all of us. I'm actually super impressed that this picture turned out. I didn't really slow down much to take it. Although I did realize that the cars behind us might not appreciate the flash to much!

Fourth, and possibly most important, when four riders show up at an Irish pub, and one of the riders knows the bartender, she’ll have no problem giving everyone free drinks the entire night.

I think we’re still going to continue trying to promote the ride through the winter, but I’m not sure if we’re going to get much more participation. It’s kind of sad how many people stop biking around here when cities like Minneapolis and Chicago can draw hundreds if not thousands of people under much harsher conditions.

At the very least, we’ll probably be doing a ride like this past one even if others don’t show up.

WAIT. WHAT. HUH

BANG! I WAKE UP. NO ALARM SET. I HADN’T SET IT. THE BANG WAS A DOOR IN THE HALLWAY. THE ROOMMATE MUST BE AWAKE. WHY IS SHE UP THIS EARLY? WHAT TIME IS IT? WHY IS IT SO BRIGHT? SHIT, IT’S 8:30. I SHOULD BE UP ALREADY. I HOPE THAT WAS HER BEDROOM DOOR CLOSING AND NOT THE BATHROOM DOOR. WHY IS IT SO BRIGHT! THE TIME CHANGED, THAT’S RIGHT. THE NEXT TRAIN IS IN 5 MINUTES. CAN’T MAKE IT. NEXT TRAIN WOULD BE IN 35 MINUTES. I’D GET TO WORK TOO LATE. WILL HAVE TO DRIVE TODAY. JUMP OUT OF BED. I’M COVERED IN FAKE BLOOD. YESTERDAY WAS HALLOWEEN. WHAT TIME DID I GO TO SLEEP? DON’T KNOW. IT WAS SOMETIME LATE. I DIDN’T SHOWER WHEN I GOT HOME. FUCK, ITS TUESDAY. FBO MEETING AT 9:00. WITH PERFECT TRAFFIC I CAN STILL MAKE IT. MAYBE. GRAB TOWEL. THROW OPEN BEDROOM DOOR SHIT. BATHROOM DOOR CLOSED. RUNNING WATER. ROOMMATE IS IN SHOWER. GO BACK IN ROOM WHY IS SHE UP? OK, NO SHOWER, JUST GO TO WORK. FUCK, COVERED IN FAKE BLOOD. HAVE TO SHOWER. SHIT FBO AT 9:00. MUST USE TIME EFFICIENTLY. BRUSH TEETH NOW. START BRUSHING TEETH CLOTHES. I CAN ASSEMBLE WHAT I’M GOING TO WEAR. UNDERWEAR. SOCKS. PANTS. SHIRT. PACK UP LAPTOP. FINISH BRUSHING TEETH BATHROOM STILL OCCUPIED. I CAN USE THIS TIME TO SLEEP MORE. LAY BACK DOWN SHIT. I MIGHT BE HUNGOVER THAT’S THE BATHROOM DOOR OPENING. MUST SHOWER. GRAB TOWEL, GO TO BATHROOM WATER IS STILL WARM. GOOD. SHAMPOO. SOAP. RINSE. DONE. GO BACK TO ROOM CLOTHES ARE RIGHT THERE. DRESS. GRAB BAG. LEAVE. AHH. MY JEEP. I LIKE MY JEEP. HAVEN’T DRIVEN IT IN A WEEK. TRAFFIC BETTER NOT SUCK. IT SHOULDN'T. ITS LATE ENOUGH. 8:45. WITH CLEAR TRAFFIC I WILL ONLY BE A COUPLE MINUTES LATE. ON RAMP, ACCELLERATE, UP AROUND CORNER. I LIKE DRIVING, ITS FUN. BREAK LIGHTS AHEAD. STOP. SHIT. TRAFFIC BLOWS. FUCK, I AM DEFINITELY GOING TO BE HUNG OVER. WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING ON THE FREEWAY AT THIS TIME? I'M GOING TO BE REALLY LATE. SHOULDN’T YOU BE AT WORK ALREADY? GET A REAL JOB. YEAH YOU, IN THE TIE, TALKING ON YOUR CELL PHONE. YOU THINK YOU’RE COOL DON’T YOU. TAKE THE TRAIN LIKE A RESPECTABLE CITIZEN. STOP. DRIVE. HMM. THERE ARE STILL REDISH ORANGISH TRACES OF FAKE BLOOD STAINED INTO MY HANDS. STOP. DRIVE. I WISH I WAS ON THE TRAIN. STOP. DRIVE. THEN I COULD BE WRITING ON MY LAPTOP INSTEAD OF JUST SITTING HERE. THIS WOULD MAKE A GOOD BLOG ENTRY. I COULD PUT IT IN ALL CAPS. MAKE IT DISJOINTED SENTANCES PORTRAYING MY INNER DIALOG. YES, I’LL HAVE TO DO THAT.

Bridge Building

Two weeks ago one of the guys in the bike club at work sent out an email asking for volunteers to help build a bridge on a local bike path. I’d already canceled my bouldering plans for the weekend since I needed to stay home and get some work done; however, this was only supposed to take a couple of hours, so I decided to take the train down to Folsom and lend a hand on Saturday morning.



I’d heard of the bridge building program before, but didn’t know anything about it past the point that it existed. Basically, most of the bridges built along the bike paths are built with donated money and volunteer help. The program is run by the Sacramento Area Bicycle Association, and the Folsom Area Bicycle association. For the most part, the paths around Sacramento and on the river bike trail have all the bridges they need. Folsom, where I work, is a different story though. Despite being a huge urban sprawl, there are actually large numbers of people doing a pretty good job of keeping the city bike friendly. They already have about 40+miles of bike paths in the city thus far, and at least that much more in the works.



The plan was to build a bridge between two parallel paths going on opposite sides of a small river. One of the paths ran along side a major street; the other path ran by an apartment enclave. This particular apartment complex was different, though, in that it was assisted living for the elderly. This meant that the bridge would actually serve more use than the local bikers, since the elderly residents are more prone to go for walks. (Unlikely the young and healthy residents of the community) This potential bridge was big news for them, especially for an 98 year old man who currently walked 20 quarter mile laps around his building each day. The newspaper got a hold of the story, and it was made into a big deal, with a ribbon cutting ceremony and all.


A contractor was hired to do the concrete, and drop the trusses into place. All we had to do was put the decking and rails on. Everything was predrilled, so it was basically on big erector set. Lots of fun.

One thing for sure, it was rather surreal watching an ensemble of elderly residents slowly make the inaugural crossing, complete with canes, walkers, and electric carts.

In the news: (I made the Sac Bee twice in as many weeks!)
Sac Bee

Light Rail

Sacramento light rail finally opened its newest route which now extends all the way to downtown Folsom. I’d previously been taking the train to work from time to time, getting off at what was then the last stop, and biking the final 8 miles to work. (Bikes are allowed on the train for no additional charge, if there’s room) This was okay, but seriously wasn’t that much faster than biking the entire 25 miles.

The new track would take me within 1 ½ miles from work. The bus system going from the light rail stations to the rest of the city, however, have much to be desired, despite supposedly being completely redesigned to work with the trains. Due to the large number of people (7000) working at my employer though, the transit company has implemented two shuttle in the morning, and two shuttles in the afternoon to go directly between the train stop and our campus. These are free, however, only one of them actually lines up with the train schedule in anyway whatsoever though (WTF?). Plus, I would be required to set an actual schedule in order to use the shuttles, which defeats the purpose of working for a high end tech company that allows me to come and leave as I please. This means I often still take my bike in order to make my own schedule (in half hour increments).

Here are the results:

Driving to work:
25 – 50 minutes each way, depending on traffic
Total commute time in a day: 50 – 100 minutes
Total time wasted in a day (time spent unproductively) 50 – 100 minutes

Biking to work:
5 – 10 minutes spent packing cloths ect.
65 minutes each way
Total time spent to commute in a day: 150 minutes
Total time wasted in a day: ?? Variable. I wouldn’t need to spend 2 ½ hours biking every day when I do have better things to do.

Light Rail/ with shuttle:
Walk to train station: <5 minutes
Train ride: 40 minutes
Shuttle: 5 minutes
Shuttle after work: 5 minutes
Wait for train: 20 minutes
Train ride: 40 minutes
walk back home: 5 minutes
Total commute time: 120 minutes
Total wasted time: 10-15 minutes (I use the time on the train/bus to write emails/blogs or read)

Light rail with bike:
House to train station: <1 minute
Train ride: 40 minutes
bike to work: 5 minutes
total commute time: 90 minutes
Wasted time: 10 minutes (I don’t consider any of the bike time wasted, but I won’t get a chance to park my bike on the train for the first 10 minutes of the morning ride due to crowding, so that time is wasted.)

Cost: $1.75*twice a day * 20 days a month - $30 subsidy from work = $35 dollars a month
Comparable gas spent in driving: 25 miles * twice a day*20 days*$3 per gallon/18mpg = $167 a month

Over all working well. Another down point, however, is that the city of Folsom doesn’t want the train to run past 7:00pm. They don’t want “drunkards” riding into their city. This inhibits working late, but also means that there will still be many, many drunk drivers going from downtown to Folsom every night. All of the young Folsomites I’ve talked to expressed interest in taking the train to go out in Sacramento, that still isn’t an option though.

I was even quoted in the Sac Bee.
Sac Bee