Pic from my 7 mile commute in a sprawly town

Before anyone says to take the whole right lane: these cars are going 55mph plus, and the right lane does eventually disappear. (Although I would consider taking this lane when it is 2 lanes, and when traffic is less busy.) Before anyone says take another route, there is no other route 🙁

This is a very temporary commute for a 2 week class I'm taking, but I have some notes for anyone interested:

1. I ran into about 3 people walking along here on my way there, and I saw another guy biking on the way back! (He also rode in the grass like me.)

2. Whenever the shoulder turned more than a few inches wide, I treated the shoulder like a bike lane. I was honestly on a time crunch, but I was not about to hold up cars going 55 mph on a single lane.

3. People in the class who saw me biking thought I was crazy. This hour plus long bike ride actually gave me less anxiety than driving the same way for 15 minutes though. Does that make me crazy?

4. Surprisingly, I did not get honked at a single time.

5. This commute is interesting in that it is near the edge of new sprawl, and it is clear that the plan in this area is to continuing sprawling.

Okay here's my rant:

The place I live has a small enough radius, that it would be sooooo reasonable to bike anywhere if there was just proper infrastructure, or even better connectivity (i.e. most neighborhoods just end in coves instead of connecting you to places). The town also has super moderate weather and is super flat. There is so much potential, yet it is so car dependent. My partner and I are planning to move to Denver in a few years too, so I'm sure that will feel like bike paradise compared to here.