And here’s a picture from the other side of the bridge from this morning’s bicycle commute. The weather is still looking good!
I did a similar picture from the other side of the bridge a couple days earlier during the evening bicycle commute capturing the sunset. It’s here.
Here’s a picture from yesterday’s bicycle commute. I have to admit, we do have it pretty easy in California. It’s been in the 60s or 70s all week. Not bad for January.
I’ve been struggling for motivation to commute to work by bicycle this winter, and by good fortune I came across a blog dedicated to the bicycle commuter called Commute by Bike. I posted a comment asking how others motivate themselves to get on their bikes during the colder, wetter, and darker months of the year and they were kind enough to start a discussion about it.
There were lots of really great responses. A couple of my favorites were:
“Simple. I have no car. My choices are ride a bike or walk to work. It’s 4.2 miles. Staying home isn’t an option. I’m simply too busy at work and if I stop showing up I’ll get fired and I’ll lose my house and I’ll have to sleep under the bridge and will have to not just ride my bike in cold, wet weather but LIVE in cold wet weather. So my < 20 minutes each way ride really isn’t so bad.” – John
And…
“I have made a very public goal of riding to work for 500 work days in a row. I am currently at 351.
People at work (and elsewhere) often ask me how many days I have under my belt, and I don’t want to have to admit I opted out.
So, two days of riding with the flu, last week…not pleasant, but doable. Driving the car…not an option.” – Jon Grinder
Browsing elsewhere online, I also stumbled upon stories of people commuting to work on their studded tires through snow storms in well below freezing temperatures. Wow, if they’re doing it, there’s no excuse for me not to ride in.
And plus, look at the view along the way to work:
Slowly over the years, my bicycle commute has grown a longer and a little more consistent. It started with five miles each way a few times a month and now I’m proud to say that on a good week, I put almost 75 miles on my bicycle commuting to work.
Bicycle commuting has always been a fun way to get to work and now with the rising price of gasoline, it’s starting to become the sensible option.
Because the commute to work has become a steady part of the week (25 miles round trip), it’s easy to see that all those miles can add up pretty quick. Let’s say I drove to work by myself every day. I figure that’s about $5 in gasoline (20 mpg at $4 a gallon). Now, in addition to that I cross the Golden Gate Bridge every day. Let’s add another $5 (it’s $4 with Fastrak), but this makes the math easy. That’s an average of $10 a day and that doesn’t include any maintenance for the car itself.
$10 a day times five days a week times 50 weeks a year. (Math gears spinning). That’s $2,500! Whoa! Not to mention that’s post tax. Now we’re looking at over $3,000 easily. And let’s not forget that I still haven’t factored in car maintenance. Although insurance, parking, car payments, etc. are pretty much fixed and independent of how much you drive, that will increase that number even more.
Okay…realistically, I’m not going to give up my car. And as much as I want a hybrid, I think driving less is more practical.
So we’re looking at a good $3,000 pre-tax that I can work with. Let’s say I ride my bike on average of two days a week (more during the sunny months and less during the wet ones). And those other days I find people to carpool with to work (it so happens that I’ve found three other co-workers to carpool with). Now that means that I drive on average 1.5 times every other week.
So some more mental math here. 1.5 times every other week is 0.75 times per week. That’s $7.50 in gas and bridge tolls per week. Wait! The Golden Gate Bridge lets you cross for free if you have three or more people during commuting hours. Now it’s $2.50 per week. Multiply that by 50 weeks and you’re looking at $125 a year.
Wow! From $3,000 to $125. Maybe that’s not enough to make you rich, but it adds up quickly.
So there you have it. Reason number one. It saves you money! And if you carpool it saves you even more. There are plenty of other reasons too, but it’s getting late and I have a bicycle commute to do in the morning. Stay tuned.
