Taxes; Bixi

[jbailey]

Finally filed our Quebec, Canada, California and US taxes today - two stops for local tax agencies and then the post office.

Another "How awesome is Montreal" moment: Biking downtown on a rental bike for which I pay ~$80CAD/year, going past cars that were stuck in traffic, past the jazz festival on a warm sunny day. Drop off the rental bike a stand, and walk the 2 or 3 blocks to the destination, pick it up to return.

Less than an hour of time to make up for work, all included.

Bixi takes a bit of getting used to since they don't have all the supply and demand quirks worked out, but I've been remarkably lucky with it.

Comments

[macoafi.livejournal.com]

$80? Down here in DC, SmartBike is $40USD ($45CAD) a year.

[jbailey.livejournal.com]

Neat. $78CAD here, although I got a $10 discount for also being a member of the car sharing service. I could get a further 50% off that if I could somehow commit to getting a bus pass every month for a year, but the web site doesn't actually say how to do that. So far I haven't cared enough to reduce it further.

How bikable is DC? I remember it being a bit iffy for driving with all the tourists looking at maps instead of the road. =)

[macoafi.livejournal.com]

The laws have changed since people went and wrote them up on the internet. It is now legal to bike on sidewalks anywhere in the District, so you're not forced to be near the cars. Most of the 14th Street area has bike lanes. I've only ridden here a couple of times, but my first time I asked some other lady on a bike about it, and she said that although they tell you to ride in the right 1/3 of the lane, it's better to take the whole lane. I read later that the "right 1/3" thing only applies to wide lanes, which are not common in the District and so taking the whole lane is the norm (otherwise cars may try to pass you, and that's bad...).

I live at the top of a hill. I haven't tried biking up it yet, just between here and other places also at the top of this hill.