On Monday I got a late start on my bike ride. Which explains, at least in part, why I was out here in the dark.
To start with, what about these pedestrian crossing buttons during the coronavirus crisis? How many unwashed hands have touched them, and how often do they get disinfected? The answers, presumably, are lots and never. So how safe are they?
In Oregon law there’s an offense called “failure to use a bicycle lane or path.” It’s a Class D traffic violation, but there’s no practical way to enforce it. And the Albany Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission last month agreed to recommend education rather than trying to hit violators with tickets.
It’s nice to find a bench nearby when the rear tire of your bike suddenly goes flat and you have to change the tube. So I’m grateful to the family of the late Robert Stanley Hart for having caused this one to be set up along the Dave Clark Path.
If you’re waiting for something to happen in this short video, you are waiting in vain. Nothing happens. Which is the way we cyclists like it.
I was on the section of Seventh Avenue paralleling the Union Pacific’s mainline. And I nearly jumped over the handlebars when a UP freight, pounding up the tracks behind me, let loose with its horn, twice. Then I stopped and watched a long line of war-fighting equipment being hauled north.
One dead end on my riverfront beat
This is the north end of Harrison Street in Albany’s Willamette Neighborhood. Beyond the guardrail there’s Bowman Park, but don’t try to get there this way.
Tags: Albany cycling, Bowman Park, Harrison Street, Willamette River