Striking 2,000

For those of you who don't live in Philadelphia, we're in the throes of what I like to call "SEPTAocalypse," the seemingly yearly occurrence where transit union workers strike in an effort to garner better wages, healthcare benefits, hours, etc. (News flash: it doesn't happen every year). It's made commuting a living hell for most of the populace (more on that in a second), but at the very least, the weather has been amazing:

Not pictured: me wearing shorts. In November.

The Bicycle Coalition has been doing a "Bike the Strike" initiative, and though I haven't been able to participate formally, I have been riding (of course). I'm glad they're choosing to use this as an opportunity to get more people interested in biking because...

The commuting, as mentioned before, has been awful. Our company has had to scramble just to get people to the office (in fact, I gave several of them rides with a company-issued Zipcar), and I'd say the amount of cars on the streets has tripled. I bring all of this up because this has affected everyone to varying degrees, even cyclists, who you think would be the least affected. People are driving cars in the bike lanes, I've had several close calls and my friends have had several more (I guess more traffic means more chance of incident - who'da thought, common sense?), and I've gotten the bird flipped at me or yelled at more times than I usually do in a month. Most of those weren't my fault. Anywho...

But hey, on the plus side, I went over 2,000 miles on Strava this year since I started logging in May:

This doesn't account for January - April, where I know I rode well more than 1,000 miles even in the Winter. Hell...I logged nearly 600 miles in April alone. And, in spite of the increased traffic, it's motivated me to ride even more. Bikes never go on strike.

All that said, I do hope this strike ends soon, because I do use SEPTA from time to time, and it's incredibly valuable for keeping our city safe and more environmentally friendly. Cycling remains my most effective means of transportation, but I know not everyone is that fortunate, and riding in this muck the last 3 days has been less than pleasant even in great weather. So yea...here's hoping.