Posted April 22, 2005   Email this page

Commutes to envy

Big-city ride

Commuting into Manhattan, The Big Apple, as a great commute? Hey, NYC isn’t that bad once you get beyond the traffic.

Riding into the city almost every day is a battle of nerves and patience. But remove yourself from the traffic jams and the honking horns and you have the world's greatest skyline shimmering before you.

The views only get better as I approach the Midtown Tunnel, which is the beginning or end, depending on your point of view, of the Long Island Expressway, a.k.a. I-495.

This photo was taken a mile before the tunnel that leads into Manhattan. I am riding a 1987 Harley Softail. I registered this bike in the Northwest Territories of Canada many years ago, as can be seen by the Polar Bear license plate that spells ARCTIC.

Bob Friedrich
Glen Oaks, NY

The meet-and-greet commute

My commute back and forth to work is scenic, unique and enjoyable!

After selling the truck six years ago, I replaced it with a motorcycle. So, the bike is my transportation back and forth to work. I average 15,000 miles per year, which also includes vacations. I ride rain or shine (except during lightning and snow—which we do not get much of in North Georgia).

What makes my commute unique and enjoyable are the people who I see on a regular basis. During the school season, I have come to meet several of the law-enforcement officers. Now, as I ride by, I get high-fives and funny comments, especially when it is 20 degrees. It has also let me out of one or two speeding tickets! As I was stopped by one of our local county LEOs, he saw who I was and said, "Oh, it's you!"

Then he began to show me his new toy, a wireless radar gun.

Also on my commute to work I always see several people I know and get to wave and say "Hi" to them at a red light.
As I go out and visit with customers, sometimes they will say they saw me, and then we get to talk shop.

Yes, dodging the people who run out in front of me is annoying, but as your December edition of American Motorcyclist
mentioned in an article, a lot of times those accidents can be avoided.

In the afternoons, I take a different route home, which takes me through the Chickamauga Battlefield. As on my route to work, a few people I see frequently will always wave and I don't even know who they are! Often, on the way home I will see whitetail deer, which I have to watch closely. I saw six on the way home tonight.

In the summer, since there is a tree canopy the whole way through the park, the temperature will always be 5 to 8 degrees cooler. The trees during the fall are full of color and a sight to see.

Anyway, I definitely enjoy my commute to work and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Brett P. Salmon
Ringgold, GA

A rare, 600-mile commute

Although my commute is not a daily or even a weekly commute, I am sure it ranks among the very best. I am an outside sales representative for a specialty paper and board manufacturer based in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. I have the luxury of working out of my home and living in northern New York.

My riding season is probably one of the most limited in the nation, as we can expect upwards of 200 inches of annual snowfall due to our proximity to Lake Ontario and the phenomenon known as lake-effect snow, which begins falling in November and lasts into April. I believe this limited riding season gives me greater appreciation of the opportunities that I do have to enjoy the road on two wheels.

Weather permitting, once or twice a month, I make the 600-mile round trip to Vermont via a beautiful tour of both the Adirondack Mountains of New York, including the 6 million-acre Adirondack Park, and its many lakes and fantastic scenery, to the equally impressive Green Mountains of Vermont, with a ferry ride across Lake Champlain in between. During the riding season, I make this trip on my 2003 Yamaha FJR1300.

Patrick O’Brien
Lowville, NY

Backroads ride to work

I have a 17-mile ride to work, all on two-lane roads through rural areas. From home, I ride through Rogues Hollow, which is full of ghost stories and legends from the 1800s. Very spooky at 6:20 in the morning!

Up and down some hills, through another small town, across railroad tracks, past corn fields, over creeks and streams until about a half mile from work, (I'm a machinist), where usually for the first time I'll see more than one car at a time.

I forgot to mention the winding roads, too. The only drawbacks are the deer and fog, so I just watch my speed.

Scott Bunn
Doylestown, OH

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