More bicycle investigations

[pegkerr]

Yesterday was busy and stressful, but I managed to squeeze in 20 minutes for a bike ride before I had to take Delia to Girl Scouts. I am getting steadier. I added my purse to the back pannier and was pleased to discover that I was able to do it with no trouble now.

I rode to the 38th street station light rail stop, just to see how long it would take. The trip took only five minutes. I see that some people park and lock up their bicycles there. I would prefer to take my bike on the train, since I have a little ways to go once I get off the train to get to my office, and that way I would have my bike with me down town, to run to the bank machine, to ride during lunch, maybe over the Stone Arch Bridge or to the farmers' market. The thing is, although I know I can take my bike on the train, I don't know how really feasible it is, since I believe it can be rather crowded in the morning.

Timing is another issue. How long would it take me to ride to work and back, once I get my stamina up? Would taking the bike on the rail part of the way be that much faster? Going by car, I'll admit, is faster still. I get up at 6:00 a.m. as it is, and given that I have a lot of trouble fitting enough sleep into my busy schedule, and given that I have to stay at the dojo late cleaning several nights a week as it is, I am worried about cutting into my sleep even further. I get off work at 4:30 and I have to be home in time to get the girls to the dojo by 5:40 for lessons on Monday and Friday. Right now, during Lent, we are supposed to be at the church for soup supper by 5:15 and we have to be there then since Delia is taking classes to prepare for First Communion. I don't think I could possibly bike home on Wednesdays and get her there in time. Once Lent is over, we revert to karate at 5:40 on Wednesdays again.

Then cost: parking is $115 per month (with in and out privileges, very handy if I'm going out for lunch or to the bank machine), or $5 if I purchase by day (no in and out privileges). Light rail and/or bus is $2.75 each way. It is hard not to look at this and think, gee, it's just about the same cost as driving, although I'll admit that doesn't factor in the cost of gasoline. And yet, I don't want to pay anything at all, since I'm so damned freaked out about Rob's layoff, which argues for bicycling. Yet can I hack resorting only to the bike, both timewise and staminawise?

Just bicycling allows me to get physically conditioned faster, which is a strong consideration--I still want to lose ten more pounds. Light rail allows me to listen to the radio or my iPod--I had mentioned that I would miss the radio dreadfully in the morning. (Is it a bad idea to fasten a transistor radio to the bike handlebars and listen to that, as long as I am not using ear buds and so I can hear traffic? Or is that too annoying to passersby, or still dangerously too distracting for me? annieways or johnridley, what do you think?)

So it looks like, as I'm getting my stamina built up, I'll bike to the light rail station in the mornings, and take my bike on it, and then try to bike back home on days that I have time to do so: Tuesday and Thursday, and if I can do it fast enough, Mondays and Fridays. I will probably have to drive on Wednesdays through the end of Lent.

So the first day I plan to try this is tomorrow. Annoyingly, it is supposed to drop in temperature and be raining, maybe even snowing.

Comments

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Not just gasoline, but oil and wiper fluid and some other parts of car depreciation that are sort-of-proportional to the distance driven or number of times the car is turned on and off.

It is too bad that insurance companies don't seem to give you a break for sometimes not driving to work - the ones I've encountered wanted me to say that I never drove to work.

[sraun]

If you reliably sometimes drive to work, you can get a break from the insurance company by telling them your weekly commute mileage. They'll convert that to whatever they desire to generate your insurance.

[trogon.livejournal.com]

Is there a monthly transit pass that would be cheaper than paying as you go?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

There might, and I can buy it through my employer.

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

That's what I was going to ask. Because $ 2.75 each way is actually $ 5.50 a day, and over a year (if you figure 260 working days a year) that comes to $ 119.17 a month (although, again, you aren't burning up gaseline and putting more wear and tear on the car, requiring more maintenance). Here we have discounted tokens ($13 for ten tokens, instead of paying $20 for ten fares) and discounted weekly and monthly passes, depending upon what people prefer. Plus, of course, you can use the passes at any time, not just on weekdays for your work commute, so you could save on gas and parking fees on the weekend, too, when you run errands or just go downtown for whatever reason. (Or if you're downtown while working and need to run errands that you can do on the bus or light rail system.)

Too bad we can't all just get around by swinging on webbing. (:points at icon:)

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

There is. My experience was that it wasn't actually cheaper than pay-as-I-went, because it required me to commute every single workday of the month to break even. So any vacation, holiday, sick time, taking the car to do errands before/after work, business travel, or whatever ruined it. (If you used the bus for all your travel, it'd be a heck of a deal, because all your night/weekend travel ends up "free" that way.)

So I used stored value cards, which are good for about a 10% discount and don't have that problem.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

You can put your bike on the front of a lot of buses these days, too. You don't have to take the train to bring your bike.

What route are you thinking you'd ride to get to and from downtown from your place? There's limited access crossing the freeway from Midtown, but I don't know how much of Phillips neighborhood you're comfortable riding in. 11th is the logical bet. Busy streets are more of a hassle to ride, but have less chance of dealing with any neighborhood weirdos.

K.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

If I ride all the way, I plan to take the Park/Portland route, since those have designated bike lanes.

Yes, I can take the bus, but I think the light rail would be faster.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Riding over to Park and Portland makes it a longer route than just riding straight north from your place. If you want to make your ride longer, consider the river road bike trail, 'cause that's off the street and out of traffic the whole way. Plus, it's really pretty over there. Maybe later in the summer, once you're comfortable with the ride.

K.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

The nice thing is that, except for the monthly parking pass, it's not all or nothing. Granted, $2.75 for the train one way is not that much cheaper than $5 to park but it's an investment in becoming able to ride all the way. But even when you do get to where riding all the way is feasible, you still save money and get exercise even if you ride only 3x per week and drive on days you have karate or other committments.

Also, hopefully Rob finds a new job before the old one ends and this all becomes academic except for exercise purposes (for those, my philosophy is that any day you ride is better than a day you don't ride - again, not all or nothing). But if not, then is when the cost savings become critical - and if he's out of work, you won't have to worry about getting home in time to do chauffeur duty.

[faeryguinevere.livejournal.com]

I've been following your bike commute posts with interest. I was a bike commuter in the warmer seasons and bus-rider in the winter until I got pregnant in 2005. I haven't been able to pick it back up again, as I've only been back to work since January. But I did find it to be a great way to get some exercise in. I am planning to start again, hauling the baby in the bike trailer to take her to childcare, as her center is very close to my work. I am hoping it will work out, at least on a part-time basis.

When I biked to work before, it actually took less time than driving, because I have to park pretty far from my office and then walk.

I don't have much to add in the way of suggestions - I used a bike messenger bag because I didn't need to haul too much to work - just my wallet and lunch, really. But I'll keep on reading and cheering you on, hoping to join you in a couple of weeks.

[pameladean]

The train has ingenious vertical bike racks, inside.

I've seen people go to considerable trouble to let bikers put their bikes in the racks, when it's crowded, but I don't know how crowded the train gets at rush hour.

P.

[folk.livejournal.com]

I adore the battery radio I taped to my handlebars, which blared out BBC Radio 4 on my way to work when I used to cycle. (Alas, my current commute is bikeless.) I loved listening to it...and it also served to let people know I was there, perhaps even better than a bike bell!

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

you might be able to pick up a pass through work at a further discount than the "monthly." Metropass is something that is through companies only, and you should see if they have the option availible. That's an annual pass at a set fee that employers usually ammortize and deduct over the course of the year from your paycheck, and it's much cheaper than a monthly pass. I know that I use mine if I want to hit both ends of Nicolette Mall over lunch.

[annieways.livejournal.com]

I don't think there would be any problem with fastening a radio to your handlebars. It shouldn't annoy any passersby, and you would still be able to hear traffic around you.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I wear a cheap MP3 player with FM while riding all the time. I use it for two things: NPR (news/talk only) and audiobooks. I put one earbud in my right ear. it does not impact my ability to hear traffic at all. I have tested and I can hear vehicles at least 20 seconds before they get to me regardless of whether I have it in or not.

I would NOT recommend using the radio at first. I drop it in the bag if the weather is bad (fog/rain, whatever) and I think I'm going to need every nerve attuned to the road. I also drop it on days like yesterday when it was 78 out and the commute was sure to be a joy rather than just another day getting from A to B. On days like that I want to hear the birds in the trees and the rabbits scurrying along the side of the road. But there are many other days where the radio keeps me happy.

I would emphasize that I consider a mirror to be essential to commuting by bike. I don't believe that you can reliably hear the difference between a car that's about to drift into your tail and one that's going to miss you by two feet. No car passes me that I haven't been watching for a few seconds and I'm sure they see me. If they don't see me, I do what it takes to make sure they do.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

To summarize that somewhat scattered post:
I'd personally ride with a small radio and ONE earbud, on the non-traffic side. Loud enough so that you can understand without straining; straining to understand over ambient noise would, IMHO, distract attention from the road. If it gets tense you can pull out the earbud, your helmet strap will keep it from flopping around.

I think hearing is vastly overrated as a means of keeping track of traffic. I think it's been emphasized historically because people didn't use mirrors. Mirrors are way better.

I'd recommend not doing it until you get some degree of comfort riding in traffic, just as I wouldn't recommend a beginning driver have the radio on while learning.

[annieways.livejournal.com]

Ditto on the mirror. It's an absolute must.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Remember, if you only commute one day per week, that's 20% of the time, which is substantial. It doesn't help the parking if you're paying by the month, but it's something you can work up from.
Good luck with it all.