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Comment by grandmczeb | Hacker News Reader

I live in Palo Alto and this is frequently true even though biking is definitely an afterthought in most cases. By car, I can get to work in about 30 min (+/-10 with traffic) but can bike there in consistency less than 20.

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Same here in the east bay, driving to work in Emeryville takes 15-25 minutes and then add another 5-10min to park, even in the garage. If I bike to work its less than 25, usually around 20 and I can leave my bike in the small garage in the basement or just take it up to my office. Takes me longer to get home since have to climb back up 300ft to my place in Piedmont. The bus is pointless and would take about 20min of walking + the time on the bus.

Spinning is winning. Instead of using high torque shift to easier gears and spin as fast as you can while seating on the saddle. You’re going to get there with fresher legs though a bit hotter in general—it’s a nice cardio—but that shouldn’t be a problem because you’re steps away from your shower.

Yup, 46/30 subcompact double and an 11-36 11spd cassette. Got a decently low gear to get home after a long day.

I've been doing higher RPMs for a while now (I'm going to guess about 80) but I think this may have impacted my knees more. I've shifted to higher gears to try and reduce the number of repetitions my joints have to do, to shift load to the muscles

Palo Alto biking is helped by the pedestrian/bike bridges that join it to Menlo Park and Mountain View on either side and by Bryant St. being blocked off every couple of blocks, making it a bike thoroughfare.

Years ago, I used to bike from Sunnyvale to Menlo Park once or twice a week, and 85% of the route was away from traffic. The delay was in crossing Embarcadero.

Oh yes, definitely an afterthought, but it only takes a few concessions to make previously unusable side streets a bike highway.

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