From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2004-11-04T01:57:16+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] (Biking To Work? Was US Presidential Election)

On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 01:45:56 +0900, Ben Giddings
<bg-rubytalk@infofiend.com> wrote:
> 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.

I'd love to bike or take transit to work. Unfortunately, I work
outside of downtown Toronto (Oakville, for those who know), which
isn't that great a distance (about 24km from door to door) -- but
there are factors which work in favour of a car.

(1) The roads that would need to be traveled by bike are heavily
    traveled and very dangerous.

(2) Winter.

Transit works against me in several ways:

(1) I live 5 - 7 minutes -- by car -- from the transit station.
(2) The transit is infrequent.
(3) I work about 20 minutes -- on foot, minimum -- from the
    corresponding transit station.

In contrast, my car ride is 17 minutes exact. My goal is to get a
far more fuel efficient car, but what I drive is reasonable as well.

Would I prefer taking transit? Yes. But it is impractical enough to
make it the worse choice. If I worked in downtown Toronto, I would
transit to work, without a doubt.

-austin
-- 
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
               * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca