Blogger doesn't like my fake rides.

 It's winter in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  For those of on the outskirts of Seattle that means, well, rain.  More accurately it means a heavy mist usually, but it has been actual rain lately.  I've been riding inside more frequently, in fact mostly for a couple months now.  Strava has a some interesting things about it though.  There are the obvious things, tracking your activities, comparing todays results to days gone by.  It also let's you connect with riders from around the world, friends you've lost track of and even the odd professional.

Couple things it's done for me is kept me riding even though it's wet outside, it may be inside but I'll churn out some miles.  Couple things have changed this year though.  A friend from Jr. HS rides all the time, we never really rode together, he's just enough older than me that at 15 I would have been humiliated trying to keep up.  He lives about 40 miles from me, I drove down to ride with him last summer, and I should do it again.  He's still better than me but I can mostly keep up.  The other thing is that I somehow found some people from the town in Sweden where my great grandfather was born.  I started following them, and it's a little humiliating, not the times or the power output, but the commitment to exercising and getting out doors.  Some of them are out riding in the snow, their walking in the snow, XC skiing and riding on the trainer.

The Interurban ride was a commitment to getting outside more.  I'd like to get some skiing in myself, but I'm not so sure about going out by myself.  We'll have to see what I can manage.  I have the gear for riding in the rain, when I commuted to work I needed it, I should use it.

The Interurban trail, getting the job done.

 I ride the interurban often.  It's not spectacular scenery, it's not a thrilling route.  It is a decent functional route, and frankly I should be happy to have it.   Where I live there are 3 major cycling trails (or linear parks as I like to think of them) I can get to easily from home. We have the Burke Gillman trail that follows the Seattle, Lakeshore and Eastern Railway. the Sammamish River trail which also sort of follows the SLS&E, and finally the Interurban trail that follows (mostly) the line the old Interurban trolly.

The Burke Gillman is nice, but very heavily used as is the Sammamish River trail.  The interurban gets less traffic.  Possibly because it isn't as scenic, possibly because it has more elevation gain.  In any event there aren't as many people on the Interurban, so I tend to ride there. 

I was taking a easy ride and thinking about why I ride here so often.  It doesn't really go anyplace special, there aren't great views, and thats when it dawned on me.  I ride there because it does't go anywhere and there aren't great views.  The reasons it's not as popular are the reasons I choose to ride there.

There are also some kind of intriguing oddities.  I spotted this road sign from the trail:

So what you say?

It's funny because there's so much stuff in America named Kossuth, and I don't think we understand why.  So as you ride along the Interurban next time remember that here on the Interurban is a tribute to a fighter for democracy from almost 200 years ago.

 Let's start with something that will seem bland, but will probably infuriate pretty much everyone.

Washington State SSB 6208 Bicyclist Stop Sign Requirements

Kind of a nice law, it lets bicyclists treat a stop sign as a yield sign.  So there are some limitations, you're supposed to slow down to a reasonable speed for existing conditions and stop if safety requires it and yield the right of way to oncoming and cross traffic.  It excludes intersections controlled by lights, railroad crossings and school busses.

Makes sense, I worry how far cyclists will push it, and it's not always quite as clearcut as you might expect.  I have a route I ride regularly with a 3 way stop, one way you can't see very far on.  I've had a situation where I actually slowed substantially only to be surprised by a car showing up at their stop just as I was getting ready to proceed.  Nothing bad happened, but it reminded me that "safety requires" is a rather broad definition and someone will push that too far eventually.  Who will the law protect then?

The other part that worries me is that I see increasing numbers of motorists applying the same logic while driving.  There is an intersection near me where I regularly see motorists going through the intersection without stopping.  I'm not talking "full and complete stop" I mean not stopping at all,  speeds that would be a pretty good sprint on a bicycle.  It's a new trend, and it seems to be getting worse.  My wife didn't believe me when I told her about it at first, then she saw it happen.  Once you start seeing it, you realize that it is far from uncommon.  I'm tempted to do a study and observe how often it occurs, but my guess is that probably %95 of all vehicles obey the law (perhaps roll the stop, but speeds under 2 MPH), %4 only slow to 10MPH, and the remainder proceed through the intersection between 10MPH and 45MPH (it's a 35 incidentally)

Now, is there any harm?  So far I'd say not that I'm aware of, but I've also been cross traffic slowing to a stop and watched a crossing vehicle go right through the intersection.  Yes, they got to the stop sign before me, but that's because they didn't even make a gesture to yield.  The other part is that despite what we would like to believe bicyclists remain invisible to some percentage of motorists.  My fear is that the %1 who blow through stop signs are also the motorists who don't see non-motorized traffic.  I worry every time I cross that street on my bike now, and I come to a full and complete stop.

 I'm starting again, but I think I'll limit myself to things I do and things I care about.  Right now that's riding my bike, spending the summer with my wife, and running errands.  When our long COVID19 hiatus is over I'll probably share comments about our orchestra, and I'll probably post links to our "concerts" in the meantime.  

But let's stick with bicycling for now. 

I've never been that fast on the bike.  It's sad, but I'm just a mere mortal.

So first things first.  I am on Strava.  I ride a fair amount, nothing compared to some but a bit.  I've had a number of slowdowns in my cycling volume over the years.  I'm riding more now because I have the time.  It's really nice.