In 2016, I started a new job which meant a new commute. My previous commute was a 12 minute walk which I enjoyed year-round, in any weather (rain, snow, cold, heat, etc.). I knew my new commute would be quite different but I was determined to find a way to avoid getting in my car and to include some time in nature each day.

Hence, this is where the scooter came into play. So after some research online, I bought a Razor A5 Lux in blue and began playing with it. Fortunately I had a few weeks in between jobs to test it out and pick out my ideal routes.

My commute then included a 1.7 mile scooter ride in the morning through my quiet neighborhood and then down a beautiful bike path full of wild life to where I catch the county bus to work. In the afternoon, I alternated between taking the county bus followed by that same 1.7 scooter ride from the morning or taking the coach bus to the park and ride followed by a 2.5 mile scooter ride on the sidewalk along a busier road. They both had their advantages and I liked the flexibility.

Now you may ask yourself, how much of the year could I really scooter in such a cold weather state? The answer is most of it. The cold didn't stop me. It never has. Snow covered trails would stop me though but fortunately my city plowed the bike paths, so they don't stay snow covered for long. And I don't scooter on wet pavement in the morning as the spray up turns the back of my dress a bit muddy. (In the evenings when I can go home, clean up and change, I don't mind the rain or wet pavement.)

In November of 2018, I moved to a new city, Birmingham, AL in a much warmer climate, where my commute is now 7 blocks. It is amazing to now have a 4 minute commute to work! Such a change from my one-way hour commute in Milwaukee!

Let me tell you how I came up with the name for this blog, "The Scooter Lady". I was downtown Milwaukee afterwork one day riding my scooter. (I don't even remember why I was hanging out downtown that day.) I stopped in the local mall and was carrying my scooter when someone yelled out, "hey there's the scooter lady!" When I told a colleague at work this story, he told me I needed to create a webpage for The Scooter Lady. So without further ado, read on for my experiences commuting by scooter.





Saturday, June 24, 2017

Construction

I have the pleasure of watching two bridges being built.  One is a half mile walk from our house and so we go check it out from time to time.  The other is directly over the bike path where I scooter each day.  Especially with the latter, I don't know if I have ever been able to watch up close a project like this.

Logistically, you might wonder how they can keep the path open during construction.  Fortunately, there are two bike paths parallel to each other, one on each side of the creek.  And so, except for the week they demolished the old bridge, they have been able to keep at least one path open.  Because of this, I have had to budget a few extra minutes because day to day, I never know which path will be open and one is a slight longer trek (but nothing extraordinary).  But in my opinion, that is a small price to pay to watch the building of this bridge.

Here are some photos from about 3 weeks ago:



The columns supporting the bridge are made from poured concrete.  First, they build an internal frame with green metal rods and place them.  Then they build a wood frame around it.  (In the first picture you can see they are doing that to prepare for pouring the top cross beam.)   Then they pour the concrete.  The four columns were built start to finish in only about 2 days.

Here is a photo from about 1.5 weeks ago:

As you can see, they had finished the top cross beam.

This past Wednesday overnight into Thursday, they placed the metal support beams.  Here is a photo:


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