Commuting with an Umbrella

It was raining today, quite heavily in fact. In an urban environment that provides very little consideration for folks using bicycles it is not a pleasant experience, especially if it is anything more than a light spring rain.

Mostly this is due to the road curving to the edges, where the bicycle lanes are. This is to help drain water off during especially heavy storms to make it safer for drivers. That is the key, drivers, for cyclists traveling along the curb water collects, pools and covers up the potholes that were already there. Combine this with poor roads that are barely ride-able when it is dry, cars speeding past and hopefully not splashing you, low visibility in general, and loss of braking/maneuverability, you have a very unpleasant environment.

What does riding with an umbrella have to do with it? Citizen cyclists (I believe Copenhagenize has popularized the term) should be able to ride safely while carrying an umbrella if they choose to do so.

This gets to the problem with most of the built infrastructure for bicycling in the USA. It is not designed so that it is if not pleasant, at least tolerable, to ride in the rain or any other weather condition, or any time when it is not 75 degrees in the middle of the day with little traffic and a bit of sun in May.

I might argue that even with the typical built infrastructure today, it is mainly presumed that folks using it will do something else when it rains, or are really out to enjoy the ride and not actually get anywhere safely and comfortably, or are too die-hard for rain and puddles to stop them.

All of that being said, with a little coordination and picking the right streets one can ride with an umbrella even in the crazy road environment of Cambridge/Allston. My route earlier today is below, with the parts I used my umbrella in blue and the rest in light red.

click through for the full map

As you can see of my approximately 3.5 mile urban route I can use an umbrella safely about 60% of the time (around 2.2 miles) However that is just me, I am pretty comfortable and secure with my bicycle, I have good breaks and good control. For somebody who does not use a bike often, if they tried to bike with an umbrella there is only one section where they could. A .6mi section from Western Ave to the overpass of the highway. This is so little that it is not even worth it, unless you lived along here and were going to the bank or a friends house nearby.

The reason that would even be possible is that this is a traffic calmed road designed to be so narrow two cars can not pass each other but two bikes and a single car driving carefully can.

View Larger Map
Yes this is actually two way! This design means very limited auto traffic and what traffic there is is usually driving very carefully and slowly and typically won't even pass a bike going in the same direction, although there is room to do so safely.

In general these issues are why we need to really look at how we are designing bicycle infrastructure. No we can't design around the best rain protection possible (covered elevated paths etc.) but we should start looking at how we build roads and side-paths that can allow folks on bikes, or wheelchairs, or on foot to better enjoy getting to where they need to go even when it is raining out, or snowing, or hot or cold.

More thoughts on weather cycling and what other countries are doing (notably not the US) some point soon.

Seeing in the rain, not quite like singing in the rain

thanks to Ed Yourdon via Flickr

This comes from the folks over at BikePortland.org.

the question:

I commute about 3 miles to work (and back, obviously) 5-6 days a week, and I wear glasses. This becomes an issue when it’s raining, and was wondering what other glasses-wearing riders do about it. I asked the gentleman at my local bike shop, and he didn’t really have any useful suggestions — so I turn to you! I know they have prescription goggles, but I was really hoping for a slightly less expensive alternative — something I can wear over my glasses, perhaps? Please help!

This is actually a question I had for a good long time, and still often have. This was posed to the BikePortland community and garnered over 50 responses. If you ever have an issue ridding in the rain, head on over and check out some of the recommendations. This is especially true if you wear glasses. Fogging also came up, with some answers but that depends more on what your glasses are made of and the type of chemicals you could use that would not eat them up.

I would pay good money for a small battery powered windshield wiper for my glasses... somebody should invent that quick...

One of my friends who works at my Co-Op had a friend who basically cut up a bit of a windshield wiper (the rubber part) and then glued/affixed that to the thumb of his riding gloves. This enabled him when it was really raining, to effectively wipe the water off as he went. To great success. However the flaw of that of course is you have to take your hands off and your vision is partially obscured for a few seconds, when in the rain those few seconds of loss of site and control could cause problems. The design is good, and it works and I am thinking of doing something similar.

Do you have something that works for you?

link to the original post, Here.