Cold Commuters

Diana Hanks is no fair-weather cyclist. In fact, the Winooski resident, an operating-room assistant at Fletcher Allen Health Care, actually prefers bike commuting in winter. Never mind the cold season’s potential dangers and discomforts.

For one thing, “There are fewer thieves around,” Hanks says, noting that her bike was stolen one warm day outside the hospital. “There are fewer creeps, too,” she adds. “Some guy chased me one night. That doesn’t happen when it’s freezing out.”

Hanks finishes her shift at 11:30 p.m. and then pedals along Colchester Avenue to her home. In winter, she rides on the sidewalk to avoid the perils of icy roads narrowed by snowbanks. “The sidewalks are almost always plowed,” Hanks says. “It feels a lot safer than being on the street.”

Charlene Wallace, on the other hand, sticks to Pine Street in the snow and slush when cycling between her South End home and her job at Local Motion on the waterfront. “The sidewalks are dangerous because of all the driveways,” Wallace says. “Cars don’t expect to see you when they’re backing out or pulling in.”

Hanks, however, says she prevents unpleasant encounters by shining her front light directly into the face of a driver exiting or entering a driveway. Plus, Hanks notes, “I give everybody the right of way.”

But why would anyone go to such extremes? What’s the point of biking into Arctic headwinds and through rain, sleet, snow and gloom of night?

Convenience is one reason. “It’s much faster and easier to go by bike than by car in winter,” says Lisa Aultman-Hall, an engineering professor who cycles a mile and a half to and from the University of Vermont nearly every day between December and April. “You’ve got to scrape off your car, and parking and then walking to your office can be a real hassle,” she says. “I love biking right up to the door and then just hopping on my bike when I leave.”

And cycling is certainly quicker than walking. “I just don’t have the patience to go by foot,” Wallace says, adding, “I’ve got to get some exercise to offset all the time I spend sitting at the computer. It’s a healthy and satisfying way to commute. Also, it’s way fun.”

All-weather bike commuters such as Wallace have come to make up a fellowship rather than a freak show. Many more cyclists will take to the streets this winter than have previously, predicts Glenn Eames, owner of the Old Spokes Home bike shop in Burlington’s Old North End. One factor promoting cycling beyond Thanksgiving is that “global warming has changed the seasons a bit,” he observes. “It stays warmer a little longer.”

For Mike Beganyi, a wintertime pleasure cyclist, the rewards take the form of “therapy or meditation.” Biking on snowy trails reveals “a whole different world,” Beganyi says. “It gives me head space that I really need.”