Orny's Cycling Journal

Friday was an interesting day. Aside from a little October 29th flurry, it was our first real snow of the year. The forecast indicated some snow in the morning, possibly turning to rain, then back to snow by evening, with a total accumulation of 6-10 inches.

It was, of course, my first chance to freak out my coworkers by biking in to work through a storm. When I woke up, there were a couple inches of snow, but I had planned to get up and out before it got too bad. The roads looked passable, so I went for it. The ride in was complicated by the snow standing in the road margins where I usually ride, but for the most part it was completely navigable. I got in well before anyone else arrived at work, secretly pleased with myself.

When we went out at noontime, as promised it was raining heavily, mixing with sleety ice pellets. The streets were a wet, slushy mess. However, as the afternoon wore on, it turned back to snow. Really heavy snow. So heavy that you couldn’t see the ground from my eighth floor office. Just outside the city there were reports of snowfall at a rate of five inches per hour. Falling sideways because of the wind. Howling wind that exceeded fifty miles per hour. With lightning. It was very impressive.

By 5pm, the storm had entirely passed by, and the skies were clear. Of course, there were still eight inches of snow on the ground, and havoc on the streets. City public works hadn’t bothered plowing, and the snow on top of ice on top of snow had been packed into an inch-thick sheet as slippery as any skating rink. Drivers typically forgot everything they’d ever learned about driving in snow, and the result was city-wide gridlock.

I left work at 5:30, taking an extra moment to deflate my tires a bit to get extra traction. At first, Edwin Land Boulevard was a slog, because no one had driven in the right hand lane, leaving it a pile of impassable snow. However, once I turned onto Binney and all the way up Vassar I was on top of hard-packed ice. I could make great progress on that hard surface, so long as I didn’t try to stop or turn.

The only problem was that the same was true of the cars around me. It was kind of like a game of dodging dumpsters flying around at random in the dark of a winter night. Fortunately, I got safely to Mass Ave, which was solid gridlock.

The entire way from Vassar Street, across the Harvard Bridge, and up to Comm Ave was a riot. Mass Ave has two lanes in each direction, and it was packed solid with parked cars. Under normal circumstances, I’d ride up the right-hand margin—the breakdown lane—but it was full of unnavigable snow and the cars were blocking it. Instead, I went right up the middle, between the two lanes of stopped southbound traffic. My best estimate has me passing at least 250 cars in less than a mile. I can only imagine the thoughts that ran through drivers’ heads when they saw me ride by after they’d sat for hours without moving!

After that, Comm Ave was pretty easy, since it was mostly cleared. I count it an extremely successful ride: fun, safe, healthy, something that’ll awe my coworkers, and a source of endless amusement at the expense of stupid people who drive cars in the city.

If you haven’t biked in the snow, you’re really missing out on something special. You don’t have to head to the roads; many of Boston’s bike paths are plowed in the winter (the notable exception being the Minuteman). Although you’ll get lots of mystified looks, honestly it’s no colder than nordic skiing, and the experience is very similar. For more info, there’s a Boston bike path conditions report, a winter biking page on Massbike, and also the classic Icebike site.

I will say, however, that the expanse of ice on Binney and Vassar has me thinking about buying some Nokians…