I occasionally read some bike blogs or the bike forums for bike commute inspiration. Sometimes I really need inspiration like this morning, when I was feeling very tired and just wanted to sleep in and take the bus (I wound up riding, and felt better once I was rolling). I usually read them because the posters are people with much longer and more difficult commutes than mine.
On the forums, there are references or nicknames for complaining about specific annoyances. For example in threads about most annoying things on the commute- they usually complain about cars, specifically, pickup truck drivers (from Southern posters), male bmw drivers (urban posters) and female SUV drivers (everyone).
But in one of the threads there were references to Salmon. I didn’t know what they were talking about at first- I thought “hrm, a lot of riders from Seattle and Portland are on the boards, must be a PacNW thing?”
I realized they were referring to people who ride against traffic (in the street or bike lanes).
I thought- “surely no one is that foolish, especially during rush hour or in big cities.”
But sure enough, I started seeing them. And so far, only a have been lost or confused tourists on those rental bikes coming off the bridge and taking the wrong trail. But this past week I’ve seen quite a few downtown on Market and some on Fell going the wrong way.
If you’re interested in Salmon spotting in SF, I’d suggest the afternoons. Look for them traveling East with the wind trying to swim upstream against the other commuters heading West out of downtown. Anywhere between 5th St – the Civic Center on Market would be a good place to start.
