Not biking today

I rode the bus today - not all the way to work, because even the buses couldn't get through. By the end of the day, we had nearly a foot of snow. There was one cyclist out riding, but it didn't look like much fun.

Peaking early?

Riding to work at 28 degrees F (about minus 2 Celsius), I thought it might be too warm to photograph any cars running on remote start. After all, this is Minnesota, where we don't think of ourselves as weather weenies. Here's a multiple choice question:

When the driver came out, was it
A) an arthritic old lady with a cane?
B) a young mom with twins in car-seats?
C) a 30-something guy smoking a cigarette?

Road Rage

Thinking about the profane driver who "buzzed" me for not using the bike lane on a quiet residential street, I wonder how to reach that sort of person. The photo here shows what that lane looked like -- sheets of ice and snow, and piles of loose sand, on an uphill stretch. What sort of idiot, I'm wondering, would consider that a suitable place for a commuter with a heavy set of panniers to ride?

But labeling this guy (however much he deserves it) as an idiot and wishing for a well-placed patch of ice to take him off the road does not solve the problem. He'd probably be even nastier if he were reminded that Peak Oil will have him biking or walking to work himself soon. Does anybody know how to tame the raging American Road Hog?

Remote start

Exhaust coming from a car gets your attention when you're biking - but more and more, I'm noticing that those cars are empty. "Remote Start" is running about a half dozen cars every morning along my 5 mile commute. This has been a warm winter in Minnesota, with temperatures rarely getting to zero (F, or 13 below C). It's certainly not too cold to bike. How come it's suddenly too cold to get into an unheated car?