Since reading How to Live Well Without Owning a Car a few months ago, I made a serious effort to change my daily commuting habits. I bought an awesome new bike, and I’m really liking it a lot. Plus, my employer offers free bus passes to all employees, so I decided to get one of those.
The net result? Since April 9, I have only driven a car to work 3 times. That’s an average of less than once per month!
Most days lately, my routine is to ride my cool bike to the bus stop (1.3 miles), then catch the bus, then ride from the other bus stop to the office (0.3 miles). And in the afternoon when I come home, I reverse it. So my commute is free, and I get at least 3 miles of cycling in daily without even thinking about it. All told, it takes me about 35 minutes from door-to-door. Obviously, that’s more than the 15 minutes it takes when I drive or ride my motorcycle. But 10 or 15 minutes of the commute is reading, so I’ve been able to read more books this summer than usual.
And those 3 times I drove our Dodge pickup to work? One of those days was when I needed to carry home my space heater from the office, and it definitely wouldn’t fit in my backpack. And one of those days was when I was leaving for Nebraska right after work, so that hardly counts.
Feeling virtuous? You bet I am!
And I just tune out all the complaints about high gas prices.