Six point eight miles in under a half hour. That’s the distance and time to my new job on a bicycle. Early on Sunday morning, I decided to actually ride my route to work. If you’re considering riding a bicycle to work, it’s really important you actually do a bicycle test-run and not just map it or drive it. There are some surprises you should be aware of that will only pop-up when you’re on your bike.

One of the first things you may notice, especially if you live in an apartment complex, is that you can’t get out of the gated complex! Have you experienced this yet? You pull up to the gate, just like you would with your car and the gate does not open. Why is this? Your gate is very likely triggered by metal in a car, not pressure or a laser beam. If you don’t have your “clicker” look for a rectangular marking in the road and put your bicycle on it. If your bike is aluminum or carbon fiber, you’re going to be there for a while! Try laying the bicycle down on the ground. Really, this has worked for me. If that doesn’t work, you have to come up with a “B” plan. It’s a great reason to try this on a day you don’t have to work.

Another obstacle you may notice and it’s my biggest peeve is how un-friendly traffic lights are in this town when it comes to bicycles. Traffic light “coordination” works a few different ways in Las Vegas: timed, camera controlled, ground sensors. It is very possible to sit at an intersection in this town and the light will never, ever change for you; oh, Wigwam and Pecos comes to mind. Short of running the light, which I never recommend, don’t drive yourself crazy. Roll over and hit the pedestrian button. In some cases it will trigger the light immediately, or at the very least it will give you extra time to roll through the intersection. Do you ever notice that left hand turn signals sometimes only last six or seven seconds? They’re programmed that way. You see, each intersection only is allotted a max number of seconds. To improve flow in any one direction, less “green” time is given to lower priority traffic flow. So, if you’re heading south on Spencer, crossing St. Rose Parkway and there are no cars behind you to trigger the camera or the ground sensor, where do you think the priority is going to be given to? Yep, the major road: St. Rose. If you press the pedestrian cross button when you get to your green light, you’ll get more green light. If not, sorry bicycles, hope you brought enough water.

One of the main reasons I do my test ride is to figure out terrain, specifically: hills and road widths. Las Vegas is a peculiar town when it comes to roads. Take a ride south on Eastern on a bicycle and then do the same ride on Pecos. Pecos has wild, rolling hills, Eastern appears to be flat. A lot of the town is like that and it’s great if you can find a nice downhill as part of your route or something as flat as possible. Using those two roads again as an example, ride either with traffic. Pecos has bicycle lanes and wide shoulders. Eastern, well, Eastern reminds me of riding a bicycle on 7th Avenue in New York City. It would be to your benefit to ride Pecos, even if it means taking a little extra time to get to it. Again, you might not notice this driving in your car, but when you’re on your bicycle nuances like these become obvious.

It pays to ride-your-ride. You’ll save so much energy, time and you’ll be safer. In future posts I’ll provide more tips and tricks to help you get around on your bicycle, but until then, ride safely and always wear a helmet.