[SDCBC] YouTube, etc.

[trevorspoke at cox.net]

Mary,

Welcome to the county and the community. I'm cheered by your can-do attitude about transportation choices, one should always lay out the options and pick the one that makes sense for today. I'm impressed that you've chosen a multi-modal approach (bike+shuttle) as your starting proposition. Plenty of riders in the county do the same on the Coaster, by the way. I do hope you realize you haven't quite sorted out your priorities yet. You can't have a 5-mile commute in San Diego if you choose for "personal" reasons to live remotely. A perfect place for you (level east-west route) would be UTC or Scripps Ranch, and even Mira Mesa would only involve one hill to climb. You've got to look at the topology, too. I've got a 15-mile trip, but it's mostly level from Poway to Sorrento Mesa.

If you really love biking in San Diego, you have to learn to like short steep hills, since we have plenty of canyons. Come ride with the SDBC (San Diego Bicycle Club) on the weekend, you'll get trained up on Torrey Pines.

For even more great training in traffic cycling skills and techniques, check out the bike coalition's web pages at sdcbc.org.

Please remember that "danger" is a factual type of word, which is intended to convey that statistics do/would prove actual risk of harm. Intimidating, frustrating, or scary are more accurate words for most bicyclists to use. A semi passing close at 70mph is dangerous, you could be pulled under the truck. A motorist driving a small car past you in the same way is just inconsiderate, inattentive, or rude. Don't let yourself get too worked up by things that happen, instead treat them as learning experiences. Eventually you will become accustomed to and less affected by the small incidents and be able to distinguish the rest as being actually dangerous, then you can focus on how to mitigate or avoid those situations.

-- Trevor