Alternatives

Well it finally happened on Tuesday.  No, I don't mean that my pipes broke because the temperature dropped into the 20s.  What finally happened was that the levee construction crew started tearing up the bike path at the Orleans/Jefferson parish line, which is basically where we have been starting our morning rides for the past ten years or so.  Since the construction zone extends about a mile upriver from there, and since there are no other safe roads that bypass that area, I find myself looking for alternatives.  One possibility, which I will try tomorrow, is to ride on the very narrow strip of grass that they left between the construction fence and River Road.  Since it's less than a mile, that may be a viable alternative.  This morning, however, I figured I'd ride out to the lakefront like I used to do before the bike path existed.  I was expecting a nice relaxing ride at 6:30 am heading north before rush hour traffic got started.

Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but it was considerably worse than I'd expected.  There was a lot more traffic going a lot faster down Carrollton than I would have liked, and of course I caught every red light. I cut through City Park to Marconi, which was pretty nice, and then hit Lakeshore Drive heading east.  Some of Lakeshore Drive is closed to traffic so that part was nice, but as I got closer to Elysian Fields the cars reappeared and most of them were in a big hurry to get to work.  Then, at Franklin, there were bulldozers working in the street putting the dirt back where it belongs after the last cold front came through, so I had to turn around there.  Likewise, the west end of Lakeshore Drive is full of construction activity where they are putting in sheet piling and, finally, eliminating the mud and grass between the seawall and the street. With all of that, plus numerous stops for red lights and speeding traffic, it was not what you would call a good training ride environment.  The ride home was more of the same, although it was actually nicer along the most busy stretches of Carrollton because by then things were backed up and nobody was going much faster than a bicycle.  At any rate, I lost so much time dealing with traffic signals and cars and intersections that it was hardly worth it.  Once they finish paving Jefferson Davis, that may present a better alternative for getting to and from the lakefront in the mornings.

So anyway, this morning's ride made that 1-mile stretch on River Road look a lot more attractive.  When Ben told me that he was able to ride the grass between the fence and the roadway yesterday I decided I'd give it a try tomorrow.  Under the circumstances, it might be well worth it in order to spend a solid hour riding uninterrupted on the bike path rather than dodging cars on Carrollton Avenue.  We'll see.