advice

All cyclists in the Atlantic Station Area

Be aware of the bike lane change / removal as you crossover the 17th St bridge leaving Atlantic Station toward Spring St and West Peachtree. Apparently the city or GaDOT have removed part of the bike lane as there is now 2 right turn lanes available for motorist to turn onto Spring.

The problem is that they did a poor job of removing the lane markers so you may think the lane still exists. And then they did not remove any of the lane markers going through the intersection itself. (See picture.)

Today and tomorrow are Ozone Red alert days for the Atlanta area, highlighted in various news reports. We've already had a number of “Yellow” alerts, that warn people with sensitive respiratory conditions not to spend time outside. With the Red alert, everyone is warned to stay inside, and asked to avoid pumping gas until the evening hours, and (ideally) to carpool or avoid driving as much as possible. Being Americans, most of our citizens pay not attention.

You may have seen or heard the little news item this week; aggressive drivers are more likely to have bumper stickers on their vehicles.

Why is that? The theory is that these people are more territorial than average (or possessive about their private spaces). By putting stickers on their car, they proclaim it as Mine Mine Mine! Regardless, those with bumper stickers blew their horns an average of two seconds faster than those without such claims of ownership. (To get them to honk, researchers put a driver in a turn lane who stayed stopped after the light turned.)

What does this mean for cyclists? Well, it's useful for us to have a clue about who might be more aggressive. But we can assume all drivers can be aggressive, and position ourselves accordingly.

The Bike Ride Across Georgia, or BRAG, is riding this week, out of Oxford to Griffin and Macon and on to the coast. I rode BRAG a few times in the past (usually with kids) and have a few more ideas to share based on that experience.

I ran a bike magazine test this weekend. They suggested weigh yourself, bike for an hour without drinking, then re-weigh yourself. All weights are done nude (which is French for naked, I believe).

I did it. Waited until 3 pm when it was nicely warm (probably in the low 90's) covered myself with sunscreen, and headed out the door, riding an hour, trying to imitate the end of a century or other ride, when you've lost that cool morning excitement when you felt that you could do anything, and instead you're trying to NOT think about the ride, or where your body aches.

It's June, and it's hot! Not like when I was a kid – of course, but then, we're changing the climate, so we can expect things to get even hotter.

What's a poor cyclist to do? ADD WATER To WIND CHILL!