The B-Side of Communiting

About two months ago my company management informed us that they had been scouting around for a new building -- for numerous reasons -- and the perfect choice had become available. They made the purchase, informed our current landlords and, yes, they said, we will soon relocate.

The bike commuter part of my brain immediately felt disappointed. The current route is almost a straight shot on a bike lane. I only have to navigate a couple of extremely busy intersections and congested streets for the 7 mile, one way trip. Now it's changed.

The new building has no such direct connection. In fact, it stands right off one of the busiest, 4-lane Federal Highways in our state. That would be the infamous Airline Highway, for decades the only way to New Orleans from Baton Rouge before the interstate days and, of course, now in the history books as the location that found the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart doing his not-so-Christian-like acts at the Travel Inn back in the day.

After a bit of Google mapping, though, persistence to Ride and Tell prevailed and, sure enough, I found a way to the new building that allows me to ride outside most of the terrifying traffic of my city. Terrifying as in: driving 60+ MPH to get to the next stoplight on narrow city streets.

So I hit the road this weekend to try out the route in vitro. Below is my pictorial documentary of what I now call The B Route, for reasons that soon will be obvious.

Not a bad commute at all, and in fact is more shady that my current one.

It will be a few weeks before I am encounced permantly in the new building, but when it happens, my bikes will feel more comfortable knowing that the route has been mapped, traveled and deemed suitable for Bike Like Me.

Much of the route still has a bicycle path, so I'm still very fortunate, more fortunate than 99% of all bicycle commuters I suspect. The path is on the other side of these cars.

The worse intersection on the new route is this one. This shows a very, very slow Saturday. At rush hours, cars will be sceaming down this highway to be the first at each light.

Onto the neighbor side streets. Frequently you will see an interesting Southern Louisiana Catholic tradition: a statue of the Virgin Mother or some other saint, or both, promonently displayed - for divine protection - in the front yard of the home.

On my trial run, the Google map actually had this little side street, but it just stopped. Now I see why. I could easily navigate around the barrier, however, onto an unfinished street on the other side. This is the exit of the crowded townhouses that are blocked off by the above barrier. In a car, No Exit. On a bicycle, options abound!

At least there is a snow cone stand to stop by on the way home!

Now to the B-Part of the Ride.

The primary subdivision I will ride through is a twisting and turning little number that must have been built by someone named "Bell." Get a lode of the "B" streets that were all over the place.

Note that this is "Bellfor" and not the "Bellfort" above. So my written directions - written, because my mind is too small to remember all the "B" names and directions - were something like, "turn right at Bellfor, go to Bellridge, left at Bellmeade, right at Bellglen" and so forth. Finally made the "B Trip and" here stands my bicycle in front of the foutain outside the office. Back home, and the odometer shows 17 miles -- but the trip by car only shows 14 miles, round trip. That's 3 miles of winding around those "B" streets when I got turned around going home!

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