Today has been a long and amazing day to say the least! I enjoyed seeing so many people on bikes this morning at the Rosslyn pit stop. I hope everyone had great rides this morning and this afternoon. While the 30 day challenge is over – I will continue my effort to live as car-lite as possible. As I’ve said previously I’m very thankful for all who cheered us on over the last 30 days and just honored to have been selected to be a part of the challenge.
I’d like to leave you with a little bit of data I’ve collected over the last month.
I’ve spent $114.43 in money from my SmarTrip card and my bike. (The bike estimate comes from the Car-Free Diet Calculator). The same commutes if taken by car would have been $315.40. That’s a savings of $200! Okay that assumes I did not actually have a car – however I did – it just didn’t get driven (by me). So even if we consider only how much I spent on gas over the same period last year ($130) I still spent less! Gas was also about $2.22/gallon at that time. If you find gas for that price right now – will you let me know?? My gasoline log has been lonely. Actually nevermind. I don’t need it anymore. I found new data for a new log!
Here’s a link actually to see the spreadsheet I used to fill out my commute information – costs and time included.
Aside from the fatter wallet – I’ve also shaved off 7lbs while on the car-free diet. I only went to the gym once during the last 30 days and I didn’t change any food habits. So it’s clear that all that walking and biking has started to pay off. When I first started my bike time was easily 1h 10 mins to get to work. By the end of the challenge it was only an hour!
I think another important thing to consider is that even if commuting without a car takes you longer – you have to consider the quality of the time. If you’re on a bus or a metro train – you’re not driving. You are free to read, listen to your headphones, play games, text, update social networks, watch a video or have a conversation with a complete stranger! If you’re on your bike - well then you don’t have to goto the gym that day – unless you want to!
Finally – in the spirit of Earth Day, which was the day we kicked off this challenge, I have left a much smaller CO2 footprint behind. By car it would have been 501 lbs of CO2. I put out 88% less CO2 by taking the car-free diet.
So I’m no longer a car-free skeptic. I now know it’s possible (and much more so than I thought when I started) to get around just by taking a few steps to think and plan ahead. We have two vehicles currently. A 16 year old Civic and a 6 year old Escape. I feel very confident we can sell our Civic and just be a one-car family. Sure, I’ll use the car at times – but only when it makes most sense (i.e. visiting family, taking Chloe to places we can’t get to without walking). And if I’m using a car or if I’m using another means to get around – I’ll continue to try and combine trips to maximize the time!
I’ve created a calendar to share with you all that shows my commutes over the last 30 days:
Thanks again to everyone and if you want to learn more about how you too can be car-free visit the Car-Free Diet website and try their calculator!
Tomorrow is going to be an early day! I do hope to meet some fellow car-free folks at the Rosslyn pit-stop for Bike To Work Day!
So I’d like to acknowledge some people who have helped me through this challenge.
To all my friends, family and coworkers who cheered me on and helped to spread the word – Thank you for your encouragement and advice! Just your own comments and those of others you passed on to me before this started were very motivating and thoughtful.
Thanks to my company for being supportive and for providing an environment that not only encourages us to thInk about being car-free but also makes the process way easier.
To all the folks who put this challenge and the whole car-free diet together – I am very grateful to have been selected to put myself through this adventure and to share the experiences with the rest of the world. It’s been obviously transforming and given me so much to think about. I hope to continue on being as car-lite as possible and to spread the word.
To Tim from Bike Arlington – thank you for going out of your way to ride along with me and to help me improve my overall biking experience!
To Jay at the Commute Store – thanks for all the helpful information and the SmarTrip card!
To those of you who have followed along – Thank you for your support, suggestions and comments. I hope that you enjoyed what I had to offer and will continue to follow along well beyond tomorrow!
To Ross – Thank you for the loaner helmet (I still need to give that back to you). And congratulations on truly going car-free. While I won’t be behind the wheel as often as I was before – I’ll still be happy to give you a lift if you’re ever in a pinch.
To my Mom for being supportive and for teaching me the value of letting others know when you’ve arrived somewhere safely – Thank you. But seriously, thank you for teaching me to be a good person – and to think of others before myself.
To Chloe – for hanging out with me late into the night while I try to think of something to share with the rest of the world. (She’s currently going back and forth between eating from her bowl and licking my legs – I feel so blessed to be a part of that cycle).
Lastly – to my wife who is my #1 fan and supporter – thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for me and helping me get up and out the door in the mornings. Thank you for agreeing to be a part of this – especially when it meant hiking through Foggy Bottom with a ton of groceries because we just missed the bus! I love you so much!
Have a safe Bike to Work Day everyone – and thanks again! After the challenge ends I will post some data from… wait for it… a spreadsheet I’ve been keeping with all sorts of great data.
I wanted to share a more in-depth post this evening but I’m pretty pooped and I know I need to be up extra early tomorrow to bike into work. I’ve been shooting video on my commutes and I’m hoping to get a bit of time before Friday to edit them together and share with you all. There are just two days left on the 30 day challenge – but I already know once it ends I will still be commuting without the car! You can say I’m not so skeptical anymore about it! What’s funny with all the construction in Tysons, I could say I was pretty observant of what changes were happening almost daily because I couldn’t ignore it while driving through in crawling traffic. Well my bike route doesn’t really give me that opportunity to stop and take in the changes and when I ride the bus… well I’m just not paying attention to the road anymore. So today when I just happened to look up as our bus merged onto 267, I was just amazed at what has progressed on the Dulles Metro construction project. I know what hasn’t progressed. The amount of traffic and the impact on congestion caused by the construction. Oh well not my problem anymore!
Hope to see you all Friday on Bike to Work Day! We’ll be in Rosslyn during the morning to meet people and to find out the winner of the challenge!
My wife and I hold a special spot in our hearts for Mount Vernon. We visit the home of our first President each year especially for the Christmas at Mount Vernon evening mansion tour. It’s where I also put a little dirt on my knee while kneeling down to ask Jenn if she would marry me. During the spring and fall each year they hold a wine festival. We started going to these a couple of years ago (at least the spring one). It took some consideration and a little bit of planning to figure out how to get down there without a car. I probably spent 15 minutes playing with WMATA’s trip planner trying to minimize the time it would take. The best I could get was about 1h 40m long and would involve changing metro trains and a lengthy bus trip. Our neighbors who joined us for our outing were on board with the idea (and I can’t think them enough for their patience on it). It ended up taking a full two hours – but we had allocated enough lead time so that we were still early for the event. We took the metro from Courthouse to Rosslyn and changed trains there to the Blue Line. Again we changed trains at the King Street stop – jumping on the Yellow line which would take us to the end of the Metro line at Huntington.
We mis-timed the connection here and unfortunately probably missed the bus we wanted by just a few minutes. While there are 3 bus lines that service both this Metro station and stop at Mount Vernon – they all would be at least another 40+ minute wait. Finally the Fairfax Connector 151 arrived and it was another 30 minute ride to Mount Vernon. Overall though this only cost us $2.80. So we just used the time to chat with our neighbors while saving money!
For the trip home we knew it would be a minor challenge in sobriety to make all those connections and get home with ease so we opted to split a cab ride home which was reasonable since there were four of us. Overall it was a great evening. The weather was perfect and the vino did flow! We remained car-free and everyone got to enjoy the festivities without having to draw the short straw to be the DD!
I’ve got one week to go and a rainy start to this week will keep me on the Metro until I can get back on the bike to finish off the challenge on Bike To Work Day!
Check out the latest video checking in on me during the challenge:
Our 30 day challenge ends next Friday on Bike to Work day nonetheless! It’s been a quick month really – albeit there were 5 days where I was in Florida. I actually started the challenge a few days early to gauge what I needed to pay attention to gather material for blogs and updates. Additionally, I intend to finish out at least the last full week of May in good old car-free style.
I dug into my spreadsheet from last year to see how much driving I did during the same period. In April/May last year, I put about 800 miles on the car and spent about $130 in gas purchases (not including insurance and other costs). The most expensive gas at the time was $2.39 and the cheapest was $1.74 so those same fill ups would have cost me closer to $190 this year. So far during the challenge we’ve put $60 in gas in the car (my wife has been enjoying the sudden availability of the car plus we had at least two trips out to Ashburn and back). My commutes so far during this challenge have cost me only $45.60 and with only a week left during the official challenge, I anticipate spending at most another $20. Right there I still beat the cost in gasoline from last year when prices were much lower.
While the costs to commute have been less, the time spent commuting has actually been a little bit longer. In my application video I noted that the average commute time was about 35 minutes. It seems my average time commuting by public transportation lingers around the 45 minute to 50 minute mark depending on how long I have to wait for the next train or bus. Biking takes a little over an hour. But I have to look at this time differently than I do when sitting in a car where the only thing I’m focused on is not hitting another car. The obvious difference in biking is that I’m getting exercise at the same time. Let’s say by car I spend 1h 10m commuting in a single day and I get home and goto the gym for an hour. That’s about two hours – which is the same if I bike to and from work. Still commuting and still getting great exercise. With using public transportation (once you feel comfortable with your route) it’s suddenly all about you. What have been dying to catch up on? Perhaps a favorite podcast , some reading, emails, balancing your checkbook or just listening to a favorite album. I have a DVR full of shows I haven’t watched yet – but all I have to do is convert the video over to a portable format and make sure to load up before heading to work and now I suddenly have time to watch them!
While Ross, my competitor, has indeed followed through on his promise to literally go car-free, by selling his vehicle, I think I will continue to use alternate means to commute to work – while filling in the gaps (trips to see family or taking Chloe to the vet) with our car. I definitely see that the benefits of a car-lite diet can make noticeable impacts on your money, your health and the environment.
I need to get to bed – I overslept this morning and therefore didn’t bike in – so tomorrow I’m all about the morning workout/commute!
I’m headed into the home stretch of the 30-day challenge and at this point I feel quite confident that I can get around the area without the use of my car. So maybe I’m not such a skeptic anymore. Over the weekend I ran a number of errands and while it took just a bit of quick research and planning I was able to accomplish plenty in just a short time span without getting behind the wheel. Before the challenge began I rarely rode any of the bus systems in the area. It always felt like it would be a major inconvenience to use the system – especially before they took the SmarTrip card. Who would want to worry about always having correct change on them? But all the systems I’ve used and I think pretty much most of them take it now and even though it may not seem that obvious – there are bus routes everywhere! It really just boils down to spending a relatively small amount of time getting used to the bus routes that service where you live, work and run errands.
I’ve also found the value in combining trips. Before I even started the challenge – I tried to make as much use out of driving to do errands as possible. Saturday I thought I did a pretty good job getting around and hitting a number of weekend items on my to-do list. The first involved donating an older bike to one of the three locations that Phoenix Bikes was collecting. I chose one of the locations in off Lee Hwy where I could take one bus from Courthouse (putting the bike on the front of the bus since the bike really wasn’t in a condition where I’d want to ride it that far). Checking NextBus on my phone I saw I had 13 minutes until a return trip bus would stop by. I headed across the street to the grocery store to get some quarters for laundry. All this biking means I need to keep up with laundry a little bit more! I headed back towards Clarendon on the return bus and walked a short ways to get my haircut in Clarendon. I’ve been going to this barber shop for the last 8 years and I get my haircut usually every 4 weeks so it’s nice to have such an accessible location to get a quick trim. Finally I hit up a drug store to get a few things before walking back to Courthouse. Only took 2 hours (including the haircut and all)!
Sunday I convinced my wife to come along for a grocery run. Up until now I’ve been making smaller trips on foot to get a few essentials. We needed to make a trip to get a lot more things and our grocery store of choice isn’t quite accessible by foot. Thankfully the 38B WMATA bus picks up in Courthouse and dropped us off in Foggy Bottom just two blocks from the store. The nice thing about not having a car (and having to find a parking space here) means you are a little more conscious about what you’ll eventually have to transport home. The more you buy (and subsequently spend money on) the more you have to carry home. Suddenly a box of cookies may find it isn’t welcome in your shopping cart. We unfortunately missed our return bus by two minutes because the check-out line just took longer. The good news was we had a backup way home. The Foggy Bottom stop was a quick 5 minute walk away and it was just a matter of toting our groceries a little further to get back home. I was very thankful for my Mom making an adjustment to her schedule so she could come see us for Mother’s Day instead of us having to use the car to go out to Ashburn. Don’t worry we cooked up an awesome dinner for her! So needless to say – I had a great Sunday evening with my wife and my mom (and Chloe of course)!
Day 19 (Monday):
Seriously… didn’t we just finish up a whole week of work like two days ago? Oh well. Ross and I actually thought it’d be cool to bike together (since we live in the same neighborhood and take the same bike route for almost the whole commute). I don’t know if anyone else noticed the general lack of warmth in the air – but I sure did and I was very happy that I had prepared myself for the ride. Only one small issue. Previously I’ve stated that I’m absent minded in the morning. Well, I made it all the way up to where we agreed to meet (which for me involves a few heart pumping hills) and realized… I didn’t have a helmet on. Thankfully Ross offered me a spare helmet (his place was just around the corner) so it didn’t kill 20 minutes of me going back home to get mine. Despite the cold, the ride went just fine and we both talked about what a difference it makes to have nice facilities at work to get yourself cleaned up (which we both have thankfully). Anyone out there letting a lack of shower/changing facilities hold them back from biking into work?
Morning Commute:
5 out of 5 stars – it was cold but I enjoyed having the company… not to mention that Ross came through with the spare helmet! Also thanks to my employer for the breakfast provided on Monday (THANK YOU)!
Cost – $0 Evening Commute:
2 out of 5 stars – no, the bike trip home was just fine – but I had thought I would combine a trip to a Clarendon bakery to pick up a cupcake for my wife (and uh for me too) – but they aren’t open on Mondays!! Cupcake Enjoyment Fail!
Cost – $0
Day 20 (Tuesday):
Today it was another adventure on the Orange Line and the FFC 425. Both morning and evening commutes were under 50 minutes each and I knocked off some errands in the process (mailing out a birthday card and getting some more soda – we were critically low on the stuff). I try to at least greet the drivers on the bus and ask how they are when I’m getting on and paying for the trip. I realize they’re driving some of the routes that I used to and I know it can be mild heart attack like experience. I figure I should at least say “hello” and “thank you” if possible.
Morning Commute:
5 out of 5 stars – there was no wait for the Orange Line Train this morning!
Cost – $3.35
Evening Commute:
4 out of 5 stars – it was a little bit drizzly out – but I was prepared with a rain coat and again there was no wait for the Orange Line! Car-Free Win!
Cost – $3.35
If you happen to be riding Metro out towards Vienna tomorrow morning keep your eyes out for Car-free Ross and Car-free Todd sightings!
Also – if you’ve thought about biking in but also thought “I should get a free t-shirt out of this” then you’re in luck. Next Friday (May 21) is Bike To Work Day. Check out all the details here!
And if reading any of this has inspired you to take your own challenge – get yourself started by visiting Arlington’s Car Free Diet website!
Days 8 through 12:
It’s been a good week since I last gave a nice update. I apologize for the delay – however my wife and I took a small trip to Florida to be with family. We were in separate parts of the state over the course of five days and found it necessary to rent a car to get between the two places. I tried to rent a hybrid – which I thought at this point should be pretty common with rental car companies in major cities. Not so much. They are available – but they charge you an arm and a leg as if you were taking a convertible from them. Again, my wife selflessly took the wheel and did all the driving during our trip. While in Cocoa Beach (where my grandfather lived for quite some time until he passed last year) we did a lot of walking from his house up to the beach and to a coffee shop. He did a lot of walking himself even up into his mid 80’s! Further up the state in Gainesville (where I was born) my grandmother lives a very active social life playing bridge with her friends. They kind of rotate the location each week – taking turns hosting the group. I asked her if they walk to each others’ places – and she said they do whenever they can!
Day 13 (Tuesday):
I’ve been haphazardly keeping track of how long my commute is when taking the Metro and the Fairfax Connector measuring the wait-time in between. I wanted to focus on the wait time both on the metro platform and then again for the bus. I’ve started keeping track of this (yes in a spreadsheet) so that I can compare the times and figure out where to focus my attention on fine tuning. So as an example on this particular morning I blindly left the apartment headed for work without looking at the web to find out when the next train/bus would arrive. The results? Well the commute took 1h 06. My combined time waiting for both metro and the bus was 16 minutes. Most people are okay with time like this – they can occupy themselves with reading and what not. I’m not one of those people. I want to keep moving. So headed home that day I actually took the time to look at the trip planner on WMATA’s homepage to get a better plan together. The results were obvious as my wait-time was only 6 minutes and the overall trip only took 45 minutes.
Morning Commute:
2 out of 5 stars – not taking a few minutes to look at when next trains are arriving before just walking out the door is not helpful.
Cost: $3.35 Evening Commute
4 out of 5 stars – taking a few minutes to look at when I should plan on getting on the bus (and the bus being on time) IS helpful!
Cost: $3.35
Day 14 (Wednesday):
I needed to be at work very early. I had a meeting I was leading at 10am and I wanted to be into work and ready to go by 7:30. So the big challenge was making sure I woke up on time and was ready to leave in the morning. Somehow I managed to pull this off and I took my bike down to Rosslyn where I picked up the 15K bus. (I didn’t feel like wearing myself out with an early bike ride before the meeting – but I wanted to bike home that afternoon). This was by far the best non-bike commute I’ve had. I arrived just a minute or two before the bus did at the Rosslyn station. There was this inconspicuous line of people and I had a feeling it was for the bus I wanted. Sure enough the bus arrived and this whole line of people exited the station to queue up for the bus. I plopped my bike on the rack after getting the driver’s attention and filed in at the end of the line. There were roughly 25 people on the bus. All but two of us got off at one of the first stops which happens to be a large government facility off of Rt 123. You may have heard of it. The total trip time was really about 37 minutes. That’s pretty close to what my drive time average was. And this only cost me $1.35! By the way the meeting went just swimmingly, thank you very much!
The bike ride home was my first time on the bike since our trip so I wasn’t quite diving right into it and within 10 minutes I was regretting having left work without filling up my trusty water bottle! But I kept with it and made it home in 1h 15 mins. I did squeeze in a stop at Chloe’s vet to get something for her. Thankfully the vet is located just a block from the trail. Anytime you can combine trips is a win – but doing it on a bike is a real win-win!!
With the weather being just perfect – my wife and I headed up to Ballston to enjoy a little Cinco de Mayo celebration. With about a few hundred other people who had the same idea! But it was a good time and since we didn’t drive like we used to – we could enjoy a couple of cool cervezas! Being car-free certainly has its advantages!
Morning Commute:
5 out of 5 stars – are you kidding this cost only $1.35 and it takes the same amount of time as if I drove myself?!!
Evening Commute:
4 out of 5 stars – the good news is – that was the last bike ride I did without getting some better apparel better suited for sitting on a bike for extended time periods!
Cost: F-R-E-E
Evening Outing:
5 out of 5 stars – awesome weather, beautiful wife, chilled cervezas and car-free!
Cost: $3.20* (*does not include cost of cervezas)
Day 15 (Thursday):
Wow – am I really halfway done with the challenge? Thankfully this is a challenge that I can keep on doing after it ends! Today I took the Metro/Bus combo again and it was the first time where things just felt really natural to me. Like “Hey – I do this all the time now!” The morning commute was 1h 11m. This is a bit skewed because I got off the bus before my office to hit up the grocery store for breakfast and lunch. Then I walked the last half mile to the office. My “wait time” as I’m calling it now was 8 minutes.
The return commute was 45 minutes and I got a great example of how sitting in the first seat of the bus pays off. My wait time for this trip was 3m 50s and that was entirely waiting for the bus. Since I was the closest to the front door of the bus – when we arrived at WFC I was the first off and while not really running but walking at a brisk pace – I was able to make it onto an Orange Line train just in time. I’m pretty sure that everyone else from my bus would have missed that train. That saved me 7 minutes right there!
Just curious were any of you on I-66 headed east on 5/6 around 4:30pm? If so check this out – you might be able to spot your car! Sorry if it’s hard to spot your vehicle. We were going by so much faster than you guys were:
Morning Commute:
4 out of 5 stars – listened to a new album along the way and checked on some more work emails.
Cost: $3.35
Evening Commute:
5 out of 5 stars – Who got on the train? That’s right….. this guy!!
Cost $3.35
Today I’m going to telecommute so it will be the shortest commute known to the human race! I’m excited to take Chloe up somewhere in Courthouse to sit outside and get a little wi-fi action going. And I think I may hop on the bike to meet my wife for some lunch in the district!
Oh and just a quick couple of plugs:
1. Used bike donation going on this Saturday! I’m taking an older bike out to donate to Phoenix Bikes
2. Friday – Rosslyn 90’s Film Festival. Uh yeah – I think if you’re out there tomorrow you might just spot Car-Free Todd enjoying a little Bohemian Rhapsody! Excellent!
3. While on our trip I started reading How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Balish. They gave us this great book with all of our other gear when we started the challenge and I’m getting a lot out of reading this! It’s about the cost of 4 gallons of gas – so I highly recommend picking it up and learning how you can go car-free or car-lite!
Time flies when you’re not sitting in your car! Yesterday I rocked the bike trail back and forth to work and had some company along the way. Many thanks again to Tim from Bike Arlington for taking time from his morning to tag along my commute and to give me some advice to help make going car-free even easier and safer. I think the biggest advice of all from Tim was where to position myself on the road when I’m using a shared lane with vehicles. I’m what my co-worker referred to as a Gutter Bunny. I prefer Gutter Hugger myself. But basically hugging the curb does more harm than good. It invites cars to pass you while staying in the same lane which gives you little room for safety. Instead when I’m unable to take a trail, path or bike lane – I should take the lane by riding in the middle of the lane.
Tim also suggested I attend some of the free Confident City Cycling Classes held at the Central Library and hosted by WABA. So I’m planning on doing that in one of the coming weeks. I’ll be sure to share what I learn from those classes!
My ride home was uneventful – just burning calories and saving money!
On both rides my gps tracking app failed and I’m guessing I need to reinstall it. I get annoyed when I can’t track my data!!
Commute Rating/Costs:
Morning Commute 5 out of 5 stars – it was free and I had great company! Who could ask for more?
Evening Commute 4 out of 5 stars (free) – okay it was fine but grrr… why won’t my gps app work suddenly!
Lessons Learned:
1. Take the lane and don’t be a Gutter Bunny!
2. Buy some bicycle shorts!
Day 7:
This morning I used the Orange Line and Fairfax Connector 425. My wife was kind enough to give me a lift up the hill to the metro entrance as she was leaving for work. This worked out to my advantage as normally it takes 11 minutes to get from my apartment to the metro platform. This took me 7 instead. Here’s how I benefited from the ride:
1. Time between apartment and metro platform: 7:11
2. Time waiting for Vienna bound Orange Line Train: 0:51
3. Time traveling to West Falls Church: 10:43
4. Time to get from Metro platform to bus bay: 1:53 (I’ve learned where to stand on Metro to get off right at the escalator now)
5. Here’s where it pays off… as I arrive at the bus bay – so does the bus!! If I had walked to Metro from my apartment I would have missed this bus and had to wait for the next one.
6. Time from West Falls Church to bus stop outside of my office: 21:37
7. Time to my desk: 3:54 (I had to stop and get my morning soda first).
Total commute from apartment to desk: 46:12
Now I suppose if I had walked, it would have maybe only cost me another 15-20 minutes waiting on the next bus – but every little bit can help.
Here’s a shot of the full bus I was on this morning. I did a very unscientific count from the back of the bus and estimated 30 passengers got on with me. Imagine if all 30 of us drove our own cars to Tysons this morning!
This evening I found my first real challenge in trying to stay car-free. Unfortunately – it was necessary to use our car to get to my Mom’s place in Ashburn (out past Dulles if you are unfamiliar). My wife picked me up at my office and did the driving. I needed to take our dog, Chloe, out to there and to also do some household chores for my mom. The only ways I could find to get out there were either driving our car which has a pet sling in it or utilizing a car share program. The car share program requires you crate your pet when you put him/her in the car. Unfortunately we do not have a crate right now. I have been researching bike trailers that are built for your pet and I think I’d like to try that out once I get better used to the bike. If you can figure out another way to get from Arlington to Ashburn with your furry four-legged friend – I’m open to suggestions!
Commute Ratings/Costs:
Morning Commute: 5 out of 5 stars ($3.35) – I hit everything just right this morning!
Evening Commute: 3 out of 5 stars (about $14.75 gas & tolls) – Yep using the car costs a pretty penny. But I was able to help my Mom out with a few things and our dog Chloe got some playtime in with my Mom’s golden retriever Gracie (who is more like a horse than a dog in terms of size).
Lessons Learned:
1. Buy a crate so I can bring Chloe with me using a car share program!
One last bit of news just to pass along in case you haven’t already seen it. There are new tools available to provide real time tracking of ART Buses. Heck yeah!
I will be away from blogging for a few days while I visit some family! Hope everyone has a great weekend. The weather looks perfect for staying out of the car!
It’s getting a tad late and I do need to be up early tomorrow. I’m biking in with someone who has generously donated his time to help me improve my bicycle commute. Right now it’s taking me about 1h 10 mins it seems each way (granted I’ve only done the full ride home once). I’d like to see how I can shave off at least 10 minutes from that time.
The commute this morning via bike went very well. Better than last Friday because I made sure to pack up the night before. It really does help when you don’t have to go running all over the place trying to think of things like “I need to make sure I bring a change of socks” or “Have I fed Chloe yet?” I did take some extra steps to pack items to protect my stuff in case it started to rain hard. I packed my laptop in an oversized ziplock bag that I keep actually in my camera bag for just such an occasion. I do want to check into some more bicycle approved rain gear – so I’m very open to suggestions. This means both in apparel and any kind of a saddle bag / backpack cover. I also realize I want to get three other things. Better visibility clothing (something in safety green), a rear-view mirror and GLOVES. Man my hands were cold this morning.
I used a small no frills video camera that I can attach to my helmet to videotape the ride. So as not to bore you with a one hour video of me riding a bike – here it is in time lapse. (Warning if shaky cam videos make you nauseous perhaps you should leave the room. You should still play the video though for the benefit of your computer)!
If only the commute went by that fast!
Also – here’s the map and associated date for my commute this morning:
My commute home had to be changed up from bike to bus because I didn’t feel the weather was going to cooperate as much as it did this morning. I’m okay with getting a little wet if my stuff is protected. But if a thunderstorm or hail came out of nowhere – I want to feel better about my surroundings and know of safe places to get off the trail and into some cover quickly. So last Friday I used the 15K to get home. Today I thought I’d try the 23A which goes from Tysons to Crystal City but by way of Ballston. This route wasn’t as pleasing as the 15K. In fact I left my desk at 5:50 pm and didn’t walk into my apartment until probably 7:15pm.
Here’s the map from my ride home this evening (I left my gps program running while I was on the bus too):
Morning Commute: 3 out of 5 stars – It was a little dreary weather-wise and I haven’t improved my time yet.
Evening Commute: 1 out of 5 stars (cost $1.35) – It took far too long to get home to see my wife!
Lessons Learned:
1. Packing the night before and packing for the weather are a big plus!!
2. If you’re going to put your bike on the bus rack and it’s the only one on there. The driver may prefer you put it in the slot furthest away from the windshield. If your bike is the only one on there – and you put it in the slot closest to the driver – he/she may not be able to easily tell how far out that rack sits. It just gives them a little added depth measurement. I had seriously thought the opposite – that if there are no bikes – you should put in on the one closest to the driver to aid any subsequent cyclists that load their bike on to the rack.
So for the rest of this week, my plan is to commute via bicycle on Tuesday and via public transportation on Wednesday. On Thursday I actually leave for Florida to spend sometime with family and return on Monday but I will probably pop on and give a quick update while I’m out of town (and obviously before then as well).
Today was a perfect illustration of why I’m skeptical about doing this for a full 30 days. May I present to you Exhibit A: my morning personality. I’m not about to launch into an explanation about how I’m a grump in the morning. Not at all. I’m usually quite happy. But I am terribly clumsy, slow and forgetful. I also can sleep through a lot of noise including my alarm clock, the television and joyous sounds of car horns outside. The only noise that I seem to be able to jump out of bed for is the sound of Chloe about to ralph all over the carpet – that I can hear pretty well. FYI you usually have about 10 seconds to react and relocate her to somewhere easier to clean up.
Anyway, like I said I’m not exactly a smooth operator in the morning and if I plan on biking into work I need to do at least one of two things: pack up a bag the night before or get myself up on time! I didn’t get underway for my 1h 10 min bike commute until close to 9:30. Albeit I lingered around until my wife left because I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible – since she was flying off to visit her family in Cleveland this weekend. (Hello everyone in Cleveland and Tracy I hope you are feeling better!) So because I lingered and because I didn’t pre-pack a bag… I was sadly running behind. Thankfully I have a great boss who doesn’t mind so much as long as I let him know when to expect me. Still I really do want to be better about arriving at a decent time!
Headed down W&OD Trail
The ride itself was uneventful. I use a tracking software called My Tracks on my phone (Droid). It’s pretty nifty (and free) and easy to use if you want to upload your map and data to Google. Here is this morning’s ride! (Hint: click on the end point to see related trip data!)
Coming home… I wanted to take it easier and take less time. I figured out that I could ride my bike over to Tysons Mall and hop on the 15K bus (putting my bike on the rack in the front of the bus). The bus goes up Rt 123, makes a quick pit stop at a certain government facility (which shall remain nameless) and then scoots down the GW Parkway and lets me (and the bike) off in Rosslyn. Yeah I know I’m on the same page as you – there’s a little well known burrito place right there and I knew I would hit them up for some grub before taking the last leg of the journey home on the bike.
Waiting for the 15K Bus @ Tysons
Commute Rating:
Morning Commute: 2 out of 5 stars (again cause I was so late)
Evening Commute: 5 out of 5 stars
So lessons learned:
1. If I’m going to ride my bike – pack the night before or learn how to wake up on time!
2. Using a combination of biking and commuting via the bus is a great way to mix up the commute! (also probably incredibly useful whenever the weather goes sour on you!
3. You have 10 seconds to get Chloe off the carpet before it’s too late. I already knew this – but just wanted to reiterate it for your enjoyment!
Don’t forget you can participate in choosing how I commute on Monday (see previous blog entry)! Have a great weekend!
I did a very unscientific count from the back of the bus and estimated 30 passengers got on with me. Imagine if all 30 of us drove our own cars to Tysons this morning!
