From: Ben Giddings <bg-rubytalk@...>
Date: 2004-11-04T01:45:56+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] (Biking To Work? Was US Presidential Election)

Zach Dennis wrote:
> Ben Giddings wrote:
>> Right on.  I bike to work every day as well, I used to own a car, but 
>> I sold it years ago and haven't looked back.
> 
> How far do you bike to work? I live 12  mile from work, and I'd love to 
> drop the car if I could....and enjoy the extra $600 bucks a month I pay 
> in car payment + insurance.

Right now it's less than 2 miles.  Before I moved it was a little over 2 
miles.  The last place I worked it was probably 8 miles.  I end up 
paying more for rent and get a smaller apartment in order to be closer 
to downtown, and closer to work.  But when I hear what people pay for 
car-related expenses, I think I still save money.

Unless you live in a really hilly area, or have a lot of traffic lights 
going against you, you can easily average about 15 miles per hour on a 
bike.  Going back and forth 12 miles every day might be a bit much 
though.  But you could always try doing it once a week or so to see how 
you like it.  For me, 2 miles is almost too close.  I barely get to wake 
up before I get to work.  I actually liked the 8 miles.  It ended up 
being a 30 minute commute, but it made sure I was awake when I got to 
work, and got a good workout every day.

Have you tried biking to work?  I'd say go for it a couple of times to 
see if you could maybe do it (and recognize that if you did it regularly 
your time would probably drop considerably)  If it's too far, and 
there's public transportation available, you could also use a 
combination of biking and public transportation.

Ben