Commuting up South Hill

Morning commute up South hill: 530 feet of climbing over 1.2 milesFor at least the past ten years I've been commuting to work in the morning up South Hill. The first mile or so of my ride, through downtown, is pretty flat, maybe 20 feet of climbing over about 3/4 of a mile. But then the climb begins.

The steepest part is at the start, heading up Aurora St and then turning onto Hudson. The maximum grade here is 13%. The average grade of the entire climb is about 6%.

I do this commute summer and winter. When it starts to get snowy and icy, I put on studded snow tires (Kenda Klondikes).

When I first started doing this commute I wasn't so comfortable biking in traffic, especially up this climb. When you're biking up a hill like this, you're going maybe 5-6mph, while traffic is going by at about 30mph. It took me a while to get comfortable with that.

Coming downhill is a breeze, no climbing at all, just a 530 foot descent. In fact, I have to use my brakes as I go by the elementary school -- a friend of mine got a ticket there for biking over the 15mph speed limit.


Uphill bike lane on HudsonAlso, up until last week, Hudson St was pretty treacherous. The downhill street was full of potholes, bumps and other paving obstacles that meant you really had to slow down.

But then, last week, they repaved Hudson St. It's great now. Smooth. Very smooth.

And they've added an uphill bike lane!

The city seems to be getting serious about encouraging biking. The city buses have had bike racks for quite a while now, and they're discussing putting uphill and downhill bike lanes on East State Street (Rt79), which is a relatively gentle climb out of downtown.

When I saw that Hudson was being repaved, I emailed the city employee who deals with bike lanes, and he confirmed their plans.


My commuting bike: 1992 Univega Activa Country Hybrid, with Arkel Dolphin 32 panniersSo I was happy to see the bike lane a reality this morning as I headed to work. I know that separate bike lanes are seen as controversial by some biking advocates, but on these uphill stretches, where there's no way you can bike at car traffic speed, they're important. I think they'll slow the cars, and give bike commuters some breathing space.

I didn't get into road biking until last summer, but what I found is that my morning commute really helped me; climbing 530 feet is a great workout, and now that I'm doing longer distances, I find that I can take the hills on most rides at a pretty good pace. Actually most of the time those hills are not as steep as my morning commute.

Of course the commute up South Hill is not as steep as some of the routes up East Hill. But I'll cover that in another blog post sometime.