My bicycle commute

I decided to bike the whole 25 mile distance from San Jose to work in Menlo Park, going up Park Street to Naglee / Forest, a quick jog up Winchester (just two blocks away from the famous Winchester Mystery House) and then I followed Stevens Creek Boulevard the entire distance to Foothill Expressway in Cupertino. With all the lights on Stevens Creek it took me a full hour to go just 10 miles. After I hit Foothill I could cruise at 24 mph into Palo Alto. BionX Boy caught up to me in Menlo Park and we cycled together the rest of the way to work.

I saw several other bike commuters, of course, including this guy with his very practical basket equipped bike. He turned left from Stevens Creek onto De Anza, where Apple is headquartered at.




Once I hit the Bike Boulevard, I encounter bike commuters of every variety -- from cyclists in full road kit on lightweight racing bikes to students on mountain bikes and ordinary people just heading to work on very practical city bikes. As you can see, the weather this week has been gorgeous in the Bay Area.




Here's BionX Boy on Willow Road as we approach the 76 gas station, where Regular Unleaded was priced this morning at $3.78 per gallon. For some reason, traffic on Willow Road was backed up in both directions between Middlefield and Bayshore. Highway 101 was clogged too, especially southbound.



My ride this morning perhaps was not quite as green as the Sierra Club would like it (since I stopped at a Valero station to fill up on a drink and a snack), but I arrived at work feeling wonderful, refreshed, and more than a little sweaty. And like most of my commutes, this ride was incident free: no harassment of any kind, no near collisions, and no rudeness at all.

Update: DJ's commentary on the Sierra Club green bike quiz roolz: "At first blush, I'd say hardcore environmentalists like the Sierra Club can suck the fun out of anything, even bicycling, with a depressing injection of eco-guilt."