BICYCLE
CONNOR, Raleigh Grand Sport Road Bike
Time 1 hour, 29 minutes
Miles Traveled 22.42
Water Consumed 1 liter
Calories Burned 750
Direct Cost 0
Annual Vehicle Costs $30
Bike and Gear Purchase $705
Stress and Discomfort Moderate
Fun Factor Extremely high
I started out chugging up a long hill, southbound on 228th Ave toward I-90. Halfway up, the carpool cruised by me. Zooming downhill on Southeast 43rd Way to East Lake Sammamish Parkway, I reached 44 miles per hour, my top speed for the trip, eyes watering and bugs hitting my face. The posted limit was 35, but cars still flew past.
Traffic sped even faster on the parkway, a four- to six-lane monster of a road through suburban subdivisions and apartment compounds broken by occasional glimpses of the lake. The first snag was a giant hill on Southeast 34th Street in Bellevue. I’d plotted the route on Google Maps, but it supplies no information on bike paths or, more important, hills.
I finally topped the hill and hit Eastgate Way, within sight of the freeway. The entrance to the bike path that follows the freeway, at 36th Street and Richards Road, was entirely unmarked; if I hadn’t scoped it out the day before, I might have missed it. Signs occasionally mark bike routes, but my general impression is Eastside bike accommodations suck.
The trail swooped under the freeway and through the freshwater wetlands of Mercer Slough Nature Park. Race or no race, I couldn’t resist stopping to take pictures.
The bike lane on the bridge from Bellevue to Mercer Island was surprisingly bumpy, though no tree roots pushed up the pavement and nothing heavier than bicycles had worn it down. Crossing Mercer Island on the surface streets, I had to stop and wait at five or six intersections. Cars shoot straight through beneath the Mercer Island lid, but no one considered bikes when the tunnels got dug.
I couldn’t resist stopping twice to take photos and watch wakeboarders playing north of the long bridge and boats massing for Seafair. Bicyclists do get their own tunnel on the Seattle side—cool and breezy, a welcome break from heat that had now hit 80. Bike lanes are few on the 2.3 miles of city streets from the Mount Baker tunnel exit to the office, and I dodged pushy drivers and buses. But at least they were going closer to my speed. I’ll take a crowded street over a roaring six-lane boulevard any day.
Published: November 2009
Great article, but the scooter guy turned in a really pathetic performance. Everyone else took I-90, so why did this guy make the boneheaded choice to go up Lake Sammamish to Hwy 520? If his scooter was fast enough to get him to the starting point via I-90, why not take that route back to Seattle? If he had, he could’ve used the same HOV lane as your carpoolers, and probably won the Derby. As it was, he barely beat the cyclist (who stopped a few times for sightseeing!). That is so many flavors of sad, it’s not funny.
Motorcycles and scooters are efficient and fun alternatives to the ‘cager’ grind, and they can seriously reduce parking congestion downtown as well. Too bad you couldn’t have found someone with a little more ‘street savvy’ and common sense than this loser.