Why I want to move back to Massachusetts (Denver: living, moving)

[The Homogenizer]

Originally Posted by Sonnenwende

...it is way overblown, the PNW rain thing.

I'll believe it when Portlandia does a skit on the weather. LOL. I can see it already: they'll be standing at the bus stop in rain coats and suffering from SAD and talking about how great the weather is while they're getting Prozac prescriptions filled.

Do you love birds?

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by Sonnenwende

Yeah, I agree with the previous posters who said you should have moved to Portland if you were going to move. I don't know why you wrote off either Portland or Seattle based on rain alone.

That's a darn good reason in my book.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by hamster21

Boston is hugely more roadbike-friendly than Denver. Denver has basically no bike lanes in the city compared to Boston, and I can see why.

You obviously don't actually ride a bike in Denver. Denver has more miles of off-road bike trails then probably any other city in the world. Which is good for both bikers and motorists. Painting a line down the side of every major street, and marking it for bikes is just a cheap nothing solution that doesn't really benefit anybody. Denver's bike trail system should be a model for other cities, and an example of how to do it right. I wish cities in California would separate bike and car traffic the way Denver does.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

I wish cities in California would separate bike and car traffic the way Denver does.

AS the driver of a car, I wish they would too.

[hamster21]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

You obviously don't actually ride a bike in Denver. Denver has more miles of off-road bike trails then probably any other city in the world. Which is good for both bikers and motorists. Painting a line down the side of every major street, and marking it for bikes is just a cheap nothing solution that doesn't really benefit anybody. Denver's bike trail system should be a model for other cities, and an example of how to do it right. I wish cities in California would separate bike and car traffic the way Denver does.

Yeah, I didn't really know about the 'trails' honestly. But then again Denver has nothing it it for me to bike to anyways..as in, a job. Unless I work at the Denver Post, Century Link, a restaurant, or some financial institution, etc.....=/

[hamster21]

Originally Posted by Sonnenwende

Whine if you want, but I live on Kitsap which gets a lot more rain than Seattle. I hike about 20-25 miles a week and I can count on one hand how many times rain has stopped me from being outdoors this past year and I hiked all winter. I think it is way overblown, the PNW rain thing. From about now until October is the dry season. Very sunny, dry air, not hot, and hardly any bugs. Paradise, for real.

I lived in Indiana before Washington and I really didn't notice any significant difference in winter gloominess. It does not rain constantly, non stop in the winter either. Most of the rain comes in Pacific systems that dump several inches at once. But once that is cleared up, the weather can be quite nice considering the rest of the nation at a similar latitude is usually in the ice box. There may have been slightly more sunny days in the winter in Indiana, for instance, but they were usually very cold and windy and hardly worth leaving the house for. When it is sunny here in the winter (happens even more often than I thought it would), the temps are usually well above freezing.

I know your mind is made up and closed off to the idea of the PNW, but just thought I would clear that up. Enjoy Boston. I have never been, but I have some family there who like it. I'll get around to visiting eventually.

It seems like rain doesn't bother you as much as it may others. I gotta say, Seattle was a cool city. Nice culture in it. And the lush green beats the sparse boring dry climate of CO. The near constant cloud cover/drizzle of the winter months would definitely be a turn off, but if there was something worthwhile in Seattle to move for, it'd be an option, maybe. If it was a short term option like a master's degree, it'd be a little more of an option, since you'd know it'd at least be for a short term with something worth it to strive for while figuring out if you'd wanna stay there for longer.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

AS the driver of a car, I wish they would too.

Yep, nothing like a bike lane on the shoulder of an expressway. With 55+ mph traffic entering and exiting across the 15 mph traffic in the bike lane. Who ever thought that was a good idea? Here in the Bay Area, auto-bike crashes happen on a daily basses, and at least once a month there is a fatality to a bike rider.

[The Homogenizer]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Denver's bike trail system should be a model for other cities, and an example of how to do it right.

Have you tried to commute on those trails? They are good, but there's a freaking stop sign at every intersection with a street, you have to wait for the cars to clear, and then there are the blind turns and double wide strollers. They're less dangerous than sidestreets, but just as slow.

They're not bike trails; they're recreation trails.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by The Homogenizer

Have you tried to commute on those trails? They are good, but there's a freaking stop sign at every intersection with a street, you have to wait for the cars to clear, and then there are the blind turns and double wide strollers. They're less dangerous than sidestreets, but just as slow.

They're not bike trails; they're recreation trails.

When I lived in Denver I knew more then a few people who commuted to Downtown on the Cherry Creak Bike Trail. I walked on the trails a lot of times, and I saw very few stop signs. To me it looks more like a bike freeway. Which has got to beat riding on the side of a busy street. At least it would for me.

[The Homogenizer]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

When I lived in Denver I knew more then a few people who commuted to Downtown on the Cherry Creak Bike Trail. I walked on the trails a lot of times, and I saw very few stop signs. To me it looks more like a bike freeway. Which has got to beat riding on the side of a busy street. At least it would for me.

Cherry Creek has few, if any, stop signs. But that's one route, which ends in some of the most frightening cycling conditions I've experienced. Riding anywhere with cars is a hazard, but if you stay on the road at the end of the trail, you're sure to be cut off multiple times within any given mile, and if you take the sidewalk, you're risking someone stepping out from the door of a business and onto the 30" sidewalks, which are not conducive to quickly reacting.

In any case, you can't use that trail as a representation of Denver's biking. That thing is so expensive, they couldn't do anything like that throughout the city. All of the other trails are of good quality and excellently maintained, but they're really designed for strolling.

What's strange about biking Denver is that the good routes are excellent, but the bad routes are hazardous to one's life. The people are the same too: I'll be approaching a four way stop at 20mph, and the opposing driver will be waving me through like I'm on the Tour. But then there are psychos who race up to get beside me, slow down to my speed, and start screaming curses at me.

But for all around quality, the retro-fitted painted bike lanes are best. But we don't have many of those.