Biking in Traffic

I really enjoy riding my bike around for errands. Grocery stores, produce stand, bank, pharmacy, Target, running stores and coffee, all within 1-1.5 miles from the house. It's stress reducing, healthy, and quite often faster than going by car.

Today was an extra great day for bike errands. There was a crew working on something at the side of the road, so the traffic was funneled down to one lane. The bike lane was quite open, so I zipped past all those cranky-looking drivers. Felt quite chic with my little bike basket, too. White capris, blue canvas espadrilles, flowing blue top, sunglasses, ponytail streaming behind me in the breeze.

Unfortunately, Fleet Feet was out of the 10 ounce bottles for my fuel belt, so that's an errand for another day. Browsed a bit, and enjoyed the air conditioning for a few minutes before heading over to Trader Joes. Picked up my veggies, strawberries, tamari roasted almonds, lavender salt scrub and 12-pack of toilet paper, then headed home. Not by the same route. The bike lane would not have been open on the way back; that's where the utility truck was parked. So I needed to take my triangle running route, Roswell to Abernathy, home. I headed north on Roswell Road. This was BIG for me. I'm not a fan of Roswell Road traffic when in my big old truck, let alone my little hybrid bike.

Even during lunch hour traffic, it was not at all scary. As a bonus, it was downhill. Decided to treat myself. Pulled up to Starbucks' front door, popped in for an iced vanilla latte. Took a big sip, then popped it in the basket with the shopping bag. The Abernathy portion of the ride was a bit more nervous than the Roswell, seeing as how it's only a two lane road, without shoulders or bike lane. Traffic wasn't bad.

I think I'm just about ready to branch out for longer road trips on the bike. Not today, because I have a map of Statesville, NC to "pretty up" this afternoon, but soon. Watch out Borders, here I come.