Pretty lonely feel.......

 

Bring company along! Inspire someone else to go car-free with you! :)

Being car-free can work as long as you have the right attitude about it. Your freedom is compromised, you start to realize that having a car saves you a lot of time but when you consider how much money your saving, at least in my case, it's worth it. I just got a state ID; I went to the BMV and the woman at the counter asked me if I wanted to get a drivers license, I said no, I'm fine with the state ID. She looked at me like I was crazy and said "you're willing to sacrifice your DRIVING privilages to save 12 dollars in fees?" I said if you want to call paying for $4 gas, insurance, license fees, maintenance/repairs and parking/speeding tickets a "privelage" then yes. Besides, when I walk and ride my bike I'm getting good exercise.

Day Eleven -- July 11

 

Cue the Beach Boys' "I get around." I had an 8:30 a.m. meeting at A.J. Rocco's coffee shop downtown. Stepping out of my Lakewood condo onto Clifton, I take a left, or west. West? Yep. If you want to increase you departure options, you go to one of the stops served by the No. 55F -- the Gold Coast Flyer. These rush-hour "express" runs pick-up/drop-off passengers only at certain stops of the regular No. 55. The nearest 55F stop to me is at Clifton and Cove Avenue.

 

But I just miss one of the flyers. The next No. 55 goes via Edgewater. So now I have to wait until a few minutes before 8:30 a.m. for a bus to stop at Cove. I'm going to be late. I call the person I'm meeting and give an estimated time of lateness of 15 minutes. Turns 18 minutes was my delay. Again on the morning bus to downtown, no one says a thing.

 

After the meeting, I'm returning to Superior Avenue where the 55s and 75Xs play. I'm trying to walk slow to avoid aggravating my shin splints. I want a No. 75X. It comes after about 20 minutes of waiting, and it's the bus that goes all the way out to the Lorain County line (near where my office is). After an hour of riding, reading and listening to music on my headphones, I arrive. But first I grab some liter-bottles of soft drinks at Rite Aid across the street and walk into my office at about 11:20 a.m. We're having a good-bye party at noon for departing reporters Kim Guffey and Brian Story. I hate to see them go.

 

At about 2:15 p.m., I get a call from my friend and old college buddy Mark from Chicago that his Megabus trip has just departed the stop in suburban Toledo and looks to be on-time into Cleveland (4:15 p.m.). We plan to meet at Caribou Coffee in Tower City Center. Then I get a call there was a residential fire the day before in Fairview Park. I need a photograph but the house is not near a bus line. Reporter Julie Kreuz is heading for home before 4 p.m. so I catch a ride with her. She takes me by the fire scene and I get a few photos of the destroyed house.

 

At about 4:30 p.m. I'm dropped off at the Red Line station and I just miss a train. Fortunately they run about every seven minutes during rush hours. I've already called Mark to let him know I'm running late. I arrived downtown a few minutes before 5 p.m. Mark has to catch a 5:20 p.m. PARTA bus to Kent where he will transfer to another PARTA bus to Ravenna to visit his mother over the weekend.

 

We head to Public Square where his bus will depart. Watching the crowds coming, going and flowing is entertaining. High gas prices have definitely increased the activity on the square, as this is RTA's main hub and where transit buses to Lake County, Greater Akron and Kent arrive and depart. There is a disruption however -- a man preaching the gospel in a rather physically animated way. Most people avoid getting too close to him else one of his careless fist-pumps might knock someone flat on their keister.

 

Mark's bus is on time. We shake hands and bid goodbye. I'm off to the north side of Public Square and my No. 55 stop on Ontario Street. A No. 75X shows up first and vaccums the sidewalk of waiting patrons. I decide not to board and wait for the No. 55 since it will stop closer to where I live. The sidewalk is again becoming more crowded. A No. 55 arrives and collects the waiting. We depart downtown on the West Shoreway with enough passengers that five are forced to stand. There are also two bikes in the rack. While silence seems the golden rule among passengers on morning buses, excited chatter is the M.O. on the afternoon return.

 

Home is reached without any drama. Tomorrow proves to be another matter, however. When I return, I discover the repairs on my building's parking garage are done. I retrieve my car from Beach Avenue and put in the garage. Barring any other emergencies it will be the last time I drive it until at least Aug. 1.

NOTE: I forgot to mention the road-rage incident on Day 10. It's since been updated.

Day Twelve -- July 12

 

My mother's place in Middleburg Heights isn't in a transit-accessible location. Big shock for Middleburg, eh? But I want to get there by 10 a.m. So my plan is to bike one mile to the West 117th Rapid station, take my bike on a Red Line train to the Brookpark station, then bike three miles down Henry Ford/Engle to her home. Total travel time should be about 45 minutes, I guesstimate. So much for all the great plans.

 

I leave the house at 9:15 a.m. with the goal of catching a 9:23 a.m. train from West 117th. I'm already off to a bad start as I forgot my bicycle helmet. I keep pedaling -- east on Clifton, then south on West 117th. But I'm really laboring this morning. In fact, as I'm coming up the slight grade near Detroit Avenue, I'm huffing and puffing. There's no way I can make it up the long hill to the Rapid station, let alone to Middleburg. I am really depressed at how out of shape I am. I turn around and park my bike at home. Now I'm calling my mother and walking to catch the Lakewood circulator at West 117th and Clifton. None is in sight. So I walk south on West 117th to Detroit to increase my options of getting to the Red Line. Methinks there's something familiar with this location.

 

A No. 26 bus shows up first, so I take it to the West Boulevard station. I should make it there in time to catch the Rapid scheduled 15 minutes after the one I originally wanted. It's running a few minutes late behind a rebuilt Breda LRV from the Shaker lines, taking a shakedown run on the Red Line. I call my mother and tell her I'm 10 minutes away from the Brookpark station. She's on her way. Ten minutes later, I arrive but she's nowhere to be seen. I hope she doesn't go to the old side of the station where the buses go. She's just running late, too. We head for breakfast at 10:30 a.m. Could've been worse, I suppose.

 

Actually yes it could. I finish doing some work for mom around the house and we head for dinner at Denny's. She offers to drive me home but I politely decline. I get dropped off at the Brookpark station instead. That's when I first felt my stomach rumble. By the time I'm getting off the train at West 117th, my stomach is doing flip-flops. No circulators are waiting at the station or are in sight. It's time to walk home -- FAST! Home is 20 minutes away, but even with my shin-splints, I make it in 15 minutes. If I had ridden my bicycle to the West 117th station and locked it in the bike rack, I could've been home in less than five minutes. Yet, I make it home without incident....

^^your last trip post-Denny's is what like 80% of my trips are.  A late train or bus or one with multiple stops that make it take much longer than usual = agony and rushing to get to a bathroom somewhere.  I don't know why the red line stops can't have bathrooms.  Even the parking structures in LA have bathrooms.  And yes, sometimes they are less than clean and maybe smell of urine and there's a homeless guy outside asking you for money on the way in, but when you gotta go, you gotta go and you're glad they're there.  Big cities where public bathrooms are locked in places like McDonald's are a nightmare.  It's much better now than when I was really sick, before I had my surgery, but I still have to go much more than a normal person, and more and more I find there are a lot of people running around out there (no pun intended) who have undiagnosed intestinal disorders/problems that cause them similar grief.  You mention something like this and someone else says, yeah, I have this, that or the other problem ,or my boyfriend, he always has to go to the bathroom right after they eat.  There are tons of people running around with undiagnosed IBS, IBD, GERD and all host of other GI problems.  /soapbox

 

I'm glad I had surgery and I can take the train now.  When I lived in lakewood and worked downtown, the bus was fine but for all my other jobs, no way.  I think about when I was living in Lakewood, working a day job in Beachwood and a 2nd job in Cuyahoga Falls (Blossom).  When I think about that, and in essence how little my life has changed since then in terms of geography (I work downtown, live in MH and have a 2nd job in Strongsville) it's amazing I take public trans at all.  Sorry for the rambling, KJP's posts just do make me (and us all) think.

Day Thirteen -- July 13

 

My sister wanted to see Hellboy II. The locations? Valley View's Cinemark or Crocker Park's Regal Cinemas. I could take transit to/near both but she offered to drive. I didn't want her coming all the up here to Lakewood from her home in Parma to take me back to Valley View, then back home to Lakewood, then she would return to her home in Parma. So I suggested Crocker Park. She was game.

 

The movie was better than average but not as good as the first. We walked over to Cheesecake Factory and were seated immediately (shortly before 2 p.m.). As a thank-you for her driving, I paid for lunch. We then walked to Barnes & Noble where I got several books to read on my long rides to/from work on the No. 75X. One of the books is "Twilight in the Desert" by Matthew Simmons.

 

We drove home via Lake and Clifton then stopped off at Giant Eagle on Bunts in Lakewood. With my sister driving, it was a good time to get some frozen food -- especially ice cream!

I'm getting way behind on these!!

 

Day Fourteen -- July 14

 

Monday morning means taking the No. 55 bus downtown. I caught 55F (F is for Flyer, meaning it stops only at the busier corners) at Cove. At West 117th, enough people got on that we had standees. One was a woman, so I surrendered my seat to her (shameless self congratulation). But there's actually a plot-point to my mentioning that.

 

As we approached the Shell gas station at Clifton and Baltic at 35 mph, I had a clear view of the semi that was pulling out on to Clifton at an angle toward us. Since I was standing, I held on tight to an "oh sh!t" bar and muttered something -- probably "oh sh!t." The truck driver started his idiocy about 100 feet before we would crash into him. Fortunately, our bus driver was alert and slammed on the bus' brakes to the sounds of screeching tires and screaming commuters. Our driver laid on the horn as the truck driver retreated his rig into the gas station lot. As sometimes happens, people are masters of understatement. One of two guys in shirts and ties seated behind the back door where I stood said "well, that would've made us late for work."

 

Downtown, as commuters got off the bus, they thanked the driver for stopping quickly. I got off at St. Clair, walk less than a block into the police entrance to the Justice Center, went up to get the police brevity reports and came back down to Ontario Street with 10 minutes to spare to catch a No. 75 out to North Olmsted. This bus didn't go all the way out to the county line where I work -- and that's just what I wanted. Instead, I got off this bus' last stop on Lorain -- at Brookpark Extension. From there I walked a short distance to my bank to pay my mortgage. Then I walked to Dunkin Donuts to get a glazed doughnut and a cup of coffee. By the time I was done, I had seven minutes until the next No. 75 showed up and would take me to near the county line.

 

At the end of the work day, I missed the last afternoon bus that doesn't deviate from Lorain to dawdle over to the North Olmsted park-n-ride for a little sightseeing. It isn't to pick up passengers, which I've never seen it do. So instead carpool buddy Julie gave me a ride home.

Day Fifteen -- July 15

 

Carpool day. Rode with Julie to and from work. But I learned the week before that she's quitting to go back to school. I will lose my carpool buddy at the end of the month.

 

After she dropped me off at home, I noticed my cats' food supply was awfully low. So after watching the evening news I walked four blocks east on Clifton to the grocery store -- with a slight detour. I first stopped at the It's It Deli & Cafe for dinner. It's pretty dangerous to go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. I got to It's It at 6:45 p.m., just 15 minutes before it closes.

 

Even with a full stomach, I bought too much at Giant Eagle. Not only did I get lots of canned food for my cats, I also got lots of canned food for me. Beans, carrots, corn -- not cat food, silly! I also scooped up a fairly large amount of frozen food and a gallon of milk. Altogether I walked out with seven bags of groceries. After about a block of walking from the grocery store, I began to regret buying so much stuff! After two blocks, I've lost the feeling in my hands and fingers. After three blocks, my fingers were getting a bit purple in color. After four blocks, I was pretty sure my arms were stretched at least a half-inch longer. But I made it home without risking amputation of any digits. A sense of accomplishment!

Day Sixteen -- July 16

 

That morning, got my central air conditioning unit repaired. I had an 11:30 a.m. staff meeting out in North Olmsted and I needed to catch the 10:30 a.m. No. 75X from the corner of Clifton and West 117th to make that meeting. The next bus is an hour later. At 10:25 a.m. (and still a five-minute walk away from the corner of West 117th/Clifton), the repairman is done with the work but still writing up the paperwork. I'm getting nervous. Everything gets signed and payment is made by a cellular credit card swipe at 10:30 a.m. There's no way I can make the bus if I walk to West 117th.

 

I ask the repairman if I could ride in his van to West 117th. He agrees (I'm not naming the repair company else he could get into trouble!). I'm dropped off at the corner and go over to the bus stop where about five people are waiting. I ask if the No. 75 has come by yet. They say "no." Just then, the No. 75 makes the turn from Clifton onto West 117th! I make my staff meeting with 15 minutes to spare.

 

For the most part, my experience is that RTA buses and trains run pretty close to on time and if they do run late it's by only a few minutes. But the 3:36 p.m. run of the No. 75 from the county line never showed up. The nearly 90-degree temps made the waiting longer. A few minutes before the next bus, the 4:16 p.m. eastbound, was due to arrive an eastbound bus roared by me with "Triskett Garage" on its destination sign. The 4:16 bus was an older, high-floor coach. I suspect there was a mechanical problem on the coach originally assigned to cover the 3:36 p.m. run.

 

I get home in time to do some work on my condo before I speed-walked down to West 117th/Clifton to have dinner with my father at the Clifton Diner. That's when I noticed I wasn't getting shin splints anymore. After dinner, we head back to my place (I cheated, he drove) to have some ice cream sandwiches while watching some train videos from Europe (dad is responsible for my train geek-ness).

Day Seventeen - July 17

 

I met All Aboard Ohio Executive Director Andrew Bremer at my place so he can pick up a printer my father donated to All Aboard Ohio. We rode in his car to the corner of West 117th/Clifton to eat breakfast. Where?? At Clifton Diner, of course!! I wasn't paying attention to the time, and a No. 75 went by minutes before we were wrapping up breakfast. I had another hour before the next bus. So I finished up eating, walked across the street to get some gum and a newspaper, then walked to Starbucks for an orange juice while I read my newspaper. A few minutes before the next No. 75 showed up, I strolled a block west to West 117th and caught the bus to work.

 

The ride home was much more uneventful than the day before. I listened to music and read a book. Pretty routine, man...

Day Eighteen -- July 18

 

I think I'm getting senile. I've had breakfast, showered and getting ready to head out the door to catch a No. 75 to work. But I'm running late so I'll have to catch the next one. My cell phone died during the night and I've been recharging it. I finally turn it back on to find there's a voicemail. It's from the All Aboard Ohio members in Toledo who I promised to meet at the West 117th rapid station and take them on a tour of the West Shore Corridor! Oy!!!

 

I call them back. They had already paid for Day Passes and have been standing on the station's platform for more than a half-hour. So I speed-walk to West 117th. I knew I had already missed the No. 75 so my only hope now is to catch a circulator. I see one going by in the distance, about a block away. Looks like I'm walking. Problem is, I have to speed-walk uphill along West 117th nearly one mile to the Rapid station and the morning temps are already in the muggy 80s. This situation is my fault, and I feel like I have to punish myself for it. I don't slow down, yet my shin-splints are coming back. Still, I'm walking fast. I could've driven and broken the rules, but I didn't.

 

By the time I make it to the West 117th station, I'm a sweaty, huffing-puffing mess and my legs are rubber. I nearly trip and fall several times just walking up the steps to the platform. I meet my friends from Toledo and a guzzle a 20-ounce Diet Coke in my backpack. I give them a tour, starting with a ride on the Rapid into downtown. The trains are busy. Tower City is busy. Public Square is busy. Downtown is busy. They ask "why do all the newspapers say downtown Cleveland is dead when it clearly isn't?" Because bad news sells, I replied.

 

I treat them to breakfast at Addy's on St. Clair, are back on the Rapid again, and we drive in their minivan along the West Shore Corridor tracks out to Westlake. From there they drop south a couple of miles and drop me off at work.

 

At the office I get the press release detailing RTA's proposed service cuts and fare increases. If they happen, I will no longer be able to take transit to work unless I make transfers between a bus, a Rapid and back to a bus for what will certainly be a much longer ride out to sprawlville. In other words, I'm driving.

 

At the end of my workday, I'm back on the No. 75, but it's one of those late afternoon runs that deviates from Lorain Road to tour the scenic south side of Great Northern Mall and the North Olmsted Park-n-Ride lot. Again we pick up no one yet add 10 minutes to an already long ride back home. Ironically, this wasteful sidetrip is not among RTA's proposed cuts.

 

With music playing in my headphones, I'm barely able to hear bits and pieces of a loud, spirited conversation between several people at the back of the bus. The few parts I'm able to hear suggest the conversation is about the state of the world and who is responsible for it. I'm sure it's a fascinating discussion, but I tune it out by turning up the tunes. God bless the headphone-maker.

Other than your eating at Dunkin Donuts (which I completely despise due to their reactions to Michelle Malkin's insanity), I am very impressed reading these entries.

I've been following your progress closely.

 

Youngstown's transit system is brutally simple compared to Cleveland's.  How do you keep them all straight? (i.e. "if I miss 'x' bus, I can catch 'y' instead)

Eparabola, thanks! But who is Michelle Malkin?

 

JRC, thanks! I've come to know the routes through 15 years of experience. There are probably more streets in my part of Lakewood-Cleveland than there are bus routes in Greater Cleveland, yet I've come to know my neighborhood's streets. And eight years ago I also researched and wrote the part of the book "Car-free in Cleveland" that detailed what bus routes served the various libraries, recreation centers, tourist sites, parks etc. etc. That gave me a crash-course on the RTA system.

She's a Fox News coresspondant/wacko who got Dunkin Donuts to pull an ad featuring Rachel Ray due to her wearing a scarf similar to the one Palestians wear.  Michelle began an anti-Dunkin Donuts campain due to their being terrorist sympathizers (or some garbage), Dunkin Donuts pulled the clearly innocent ad, and I am so ticked off at DD for bending over to this awful person that I have refused to go there since.

Remember the early days in high school when you couldn't wait to drive?

 

Well, I can't wait to get back to Ann Arbor for my final year of grad school, where I can get everywhere via bus, walking, and biking.....and maybe the train if I'm feeling adventurous.

 

I drive a compact truck and it gets about 24 mpg, so it's not what you want to use to get everywhere, so I'm going to take it to the top floor of a parking structure and keeping it there whenever I need it.  I don't like keeping it on the street since Ann Arbor drivers are terrible.

 

The ramp is a pay per hour, but the trick is to remove it on weekends when parking is free.  There is no time limit.  It's what kept my friend's car in a Chicago Transit Authority P&R ramp for 3 years when he was off in college lol.

 

Anyone else going back to school or moving somewhere and ditching the car for awhile?

I ditched my car back in June.  It's a little bit hard for me since I currently live in a small town in Wisconsin, but it's definitely been a good choice.  I work 9.5 miles away from my apartment in the town to the west, and go to school 13 miles away in the next town to the south.  I've been biking every day and I'm loving it.  In the last ten weeks I've lost more than 20 pounds and have enjoyed the fact that I only had to fill up my car one time this summer.  I graduate in May and plan on biking every day from now until then that there isn't snow all over the place. 

Did you all want this thread combined with the car-free lifestyle discussion in the transportation section?

^Sounds good to me.  I just saw this here and thought I'd add my own experience. 

darn michiganders making duplicate threads.....

Hayward started the thread, so it's pretty much up to him.

Sure go ahead.  I rarely check the transportation forum (until recently).  Merge these posts with that thread if you will please.

 

What can you expect from a Michigander.  I started off on DetroitYES where there are 2503489 threads on "What should we do with Michigan Central Station LOL!.

 

 

I just moved to college hill in cincinnati and now I take the bus to and from work.  I've been doing it for the past two weeks and I love it!

^ You can definitely live car-free in Cincinnati -- I have for years -- but you pretty much have to live in one of a handful of neighborhoods. Downtown is by far the best for this, because you can go anywhere including a ridiculously cheap fare to the airport that's faster than driving and parking. Over-the-Rhine is almost as good, but you often need to transfer to go east and west. With all its amenties and pretty good transit, Clifton/Ludlow, Clifton Heights and Corryville are pretty good bets too. I think living carless on Hyde Park Square would be great if a grocery store were still there. Walnut Hills, Mt. Auburn and Mt. Adams ought to offer carless living, but there just aren't enough services clustered together.

^----"You can definitely live car-free in Cincinnati ... but you pretty much have to live in one of a handful of neighborhoods."

 

  It helps if your job is also in one of those neighborhoods, or is downtown. So many jobs are located in auto-oriented areas outside of bus range.

If you live in the urban core of Columbus (including inner-ring suburbs like Bexley and Grandview) then going car-free isn't hard at all. Even if you work in the burbs you don't necessarily need a car (more on that later) and for those that live in the burbs there are options, though certainly more limited. For example, where I grew up there was a Kroger on the main arterial street and easily accessible by nearby residential streets, yet virtually no one would bike, walk, or ride a scooter there. Everyone drove.

 

All the best neighborhoods in Columbus are right next to each other, so it's easy to get from one to another for the most part. The biggest snafu here is Downtown which has too many roads with too many lanes, almost always the one-ways, though it's very manageable on two wheels and negates the large scale and disconnectedness of our Downtown. Actually, the biggest problem here is the fact that low-income neighborhoods have had their main streets turned into sprawl, encouraging car-dependency from people who need it the least (although I've ironically found they're also the most hostile towards cyclists, aside from OSU students). Even so, I find biking is the best way to get around, although scooters, mopeds, and motorcycles are viable options that are too often overlooked. Those were barely mentioned at all in this thread.

 

I have a decision I need to make since winter is coming and I'll be getting the car back from my brother who I lent it to for the entire summer, since I got to the point where it was only used to visit my parents. Wouldn't mind a few extra grand myself.

What's funny is that being an urban planner is one of the most auto-dependent professions when you have to drive all over the place to go to various meetings.

 

Its easy to say it's no problem being car-free if you manage to have a job close to where you live and have great reliable transit options. Many people have to commute very far to work. Many people have kids who need to go places. They have spouses who have jobs in other parts of the city. When you have a family, you have different priorities and have to make compromises about where you live. In Ohio, even in the inner cities, it is very hard to make a car-free lifestyle work under those conditions.

All right, my first test has begun.

 

I needed to get a bunch of various items out in the suburbs.  I mounted a crate on the back of my bike and took bike lanes out of the city then out to the mall where the lanes went off street and became very wide sidewalks.  It wasn't bad at all..although most of my shopping will be short trips since we have a couple corner grocery stores in the city.

 

Have you tried out that new bike lane in Detroit?

Most trips into downtown core don't include car

Randy Shore

Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)

Friday, September 05, 2008

 

It's finally time to turn over a new leaf and walk at least part of the way to work.

 

You can drive part of the way and walk the rest or combine walking and transit. You will burn calories. You will not pollute. You will feel a bit smug...

 

 

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=d6b99c1f-553d-4ab4-8cab-e90086900dd1&k=56069

Communists!!!!!  :whip:

KJP- how did your experiment end- Stayed carless?  Upgraded to Hummer? Compromised with scooter?

I've gone car-lite. I walk, take transit, drive/ride with others, drive solo but I don't ride my bike. For some reason I always forget to use the bike...what's up with that?

I like walking over biking. For some reason it just didnt take with me. I spent early child hood in a rural area, and then the rest of if in places w/o sidewalks so I never biked much. I have a bike here, but it is heavy as hell-a 70's Schwinn, and I just never felt safe riding around the city due to oblivious or aggressive cars and ignorant pedestrians that seem to always jump in your path. Riding causes so much anxiety it was rarely worth it.  Oddly I scooter w/o issues.

I've gone car-lite. I walk, take transit, drive/ride with others, drive solo but I don't ride my bike. For some reason I always forget to use the bike...what's up with that?

Dude, do please continue to walk and bike.  You mentioned earlier that you felt better and that you lost weight.  Use that as motivation.

Don't you "scoot"?

Yes. as I mentioned I scooter w/o any problem. This is mostly b/c it keeps up with traffic. Sure drivers are idiots, but since I started riding I became a mind reader and anticipate most of their dumb moves.

That was one of the glaring difference I noticed between Cleveland and Milwaukee when I was there.  There're aren't any bike lanes to speak of and I saw VERY few bikes on the road during my visit.  Here, there are bike lanes on almost every road, and the drivers are well aware of bicycles.  I struggle to think of an intersection that doesn't have both cars and bikes waiting at a stop light together during rush hour.

Peabody, I was attempting to play English teacher by getting you to use an actual verb "scoot" rather than turn an established noun "scooter" into a verb. And yes, I know I need to get to get laid.

 

ajknee, you may be disappointed (or encouraged?) to hear my observation that I've a lot more people biking this year than I've ever seen before.

 

MTS, unfortunately RTA is going to eliminate my bus connection to work. So I will be driving to work every day after Nov. 2 -- unless I move. I'm hope the state comes through next year with some decent funding.

Here, there are bike lanes on almost every road, and the drivers are well aware of bicycles.

 

Try riding in the northern suburbs and your opinion might change.  Here there are still bike lanes, but they end at random points with no warning and seem to only be on roads where it makes no sense for them to be.  I've also almost been hit twice and was driven off the road once in the past two weeks.  Drivers definitely don't know what to do when there are bikers on the road.  There have also been three bikers that were killed by motorists who weren't paying attention in Ozaukee county in the last month.  I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it to get rid of my car if it means risking my life every day. 

Well what the hell are you doing in the northern 'burbs?  I wouldn't expect Ozaukee people to have a clue, except maybe in Port Washington.  I wouldn't dare try to ride a bike in Mequon, but then what the hell is there in Mequon that's worth going to? 

I made the unfortunate choice of attending Concordia University in Mequon.  I'm going to graduate in May and then I'm hoping to move back to Cleveland.  I actually live in Port Washington, so thanks for the compliment.  I've always thought we're the smartest people in Ozaukee :-D.  Mequon's actually not the worst to drive through.  It's the Grafton drivers that will kill you...literally.  All three fatalities were in Grafton. 

Well, I've been car free for about 2.5 years now.  People don't believe me at work!  I never bring it up unless I'm asked, until now haha

Here, there are bike lanes on almost every road, and the drivers are well aware of bicycles.

 

Try riding in the northern suburbs and your opinion might change. Here there are still bike lanes, but they end at random points with no warning and seem to only be on roads where it makes no sense for them to be. I've also almost been hit twice and was driven off the road once in the past two weeks. Drivers definitely don't know what to do when there are bikers on the road. There have also been three bikers that were killed by motorists who weren't paying attention in Ozaukee county in the last month. I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it to get rid of my car if it means risking my life every day.

 

So you're not in Cleveland? There's always a risk riding a bike, but it's minimized when you ride like you'd drive a car. It's easier for cars to read you and for yourself (not having to also worry about passing cars and parked car doors). Being in the center of the lane, people can't squeeze by and sure, I get honked at every now and then, but I just give them a wave and if it's clear on the other side I motion them to pass me. Better to be honked at than to give that asshole a chance to sideswipe you. I stick to 25 MPH roads and only 35 MPH ones only when necessary. Of course, I'm talking city cycling.

No, I'm a temporarily displaced Clevelander.  I do my best to minimize any danger to myself and obey all the rules.  When possible, I try to ride far enough over to the right for cars to pass me without having to go very far into the next lane.  The problem here is that drivers are completely ignorant of the fact that bikers have any rights.  People frequently turn into me and then yell at me out their car windows to get off the road.  The funning thing is that this usually happens when I'm going through an area where there aren't any sidewalks at all.  Where do they think I'm going to go? 

I'd steer clear of biking in sprawl, a scooter might be a better option to look into.

I always have trouble convincing my fellow bikers to stay away from the curb at an intersection.  Cars are supposed to pass  to the RIGHT of you when you are waiting to go forward.  And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE would all the bikers out there stop ignoring traffic signals.  It's SO dangerous.

I always do stop at traffic signals, and I've never had a problem with someone making a right turn into me.  Every problem I've ever had with this has been with cars making a left turn into me when I have the right of way. 

Has anyone considered creating a "how-to handbook" for carfree living in your Ohio city?  Here are a few that I recently discovered:

 

San Diego

http://sdcarfree.com/

 

Santa Barbara

http://www.santabarbaracarfree.org/