Skip to main content

4 reasons I commute by bike

This is my bicycle there are many like it but this one is mine.

Since roughly the beginning of summer I have been exclusively riding my bike to work as opposed to driving.  I'm starting to see that I may not need that second car to get from my house to my job everyday.  Here is a nice little four part list of why I've decided bicycle commuting is for me.



Its good for my body

It is recommended that adults have at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise per week.  Without biking I'd have a hard time justifying taking time away from my family or job to go run on a treadmill or do whatever other boring thing people do to stay in shape.  Biking to work takes me about 15 minutes down hill, coming back 20 something minutes uphill...  I'm sure I have 150 minutes of moderate intensity excessive in there somewhere ;)

It's pretty incredible to see the difference I have in endurance after just one week of picking up the bicycle again.  Not to mention its a lot more fun than going to the dreaded gym.


Its good for the planet

Commuting by bike allows me to not need to burn fuel to power my 3,000+ lbs car 6.6 miles every weekdays just to get my 200 lbs body to and from work.  Not driving those days reduces my CO2 emissions by almost one ton per year.


Its good for my wallet

Again commuting by bike allows me to not drive my car everyday.  This cuts down on both fuel costs and maintenance.  It costs me about $0.60 to drive my car a mile (big whoop right), but over the course of a year that could add up to over $1,000.  If I had a nicer, less fuel efficient car, had to pair for parking, tolls or if I had a loan on my car this would be considerably more.

My ultimate goal is to make it through the winter without commuting by car.  Mostly to show myself that I really don't need it so I can go ahead and get rid of it.  If I sell it this will put money in my pocket which I can use for better things like paying down debts (buying freedom), buying flowers for my wife, etc.  I'll also have to stop paying insurance on it making my monthly budget slightly less tight.


Its good for my sanity

I tend to be one of those people who requires a little solitude every once in a while to stay sane.  Biking everyday gives me 30 minutes everyday doing the mindless task of peddling my feet allowing me to alone with my thoughts.  (Unless I'm trying to avoid being hit by a car while turning that is.)

Its also just plain nice to spend some time outside.  I tend to stay indoors unless I have a very good reason to go outside, realizing that I spend most days in my house getting in my car to go to work, which is indoors, then getting in my car to go back home, totally missing out on the benefits that fresh air and sunlight bring.   Biking to work (and having kids) gives me a good reason to spend at least some of my day outside.


Update:  I did end up selling my car.  Now I have no choice but to bike... Or bug the wife into driving me ;)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Warm season running goals

  Now that it's possible to step outside without fear of slipping, falling and cracking my head open on some ice it's time to put back on the running shoes and go enjoy the sun (or rain as the case may be) again.   Distance   There was a time last summer when I could run 30k in a week.  It felt great to be able to run 10k every other day without feeling 100% miserable the entire time.  After a break lasting several months I am nowhere near having that kind of a base.  My plan is to start things off with a goal of 15k per week moving up 10% every week until I get to 40k a week.  I can't really see myself being able to run more than that.  A t some point this summer I'll be adding regular biking and swimming into the mix.   I should probably leave time for family, work and sleep somewhere in my schedule... Pace   I'm pretty slow.  I've never really gotten much better.  Even when I was in decent running shape I was h...
2 comments
Read more

If you write a blog and never post it to Facebook will anybody read it?

My guess is no...  Let's test the hypothesis! Facebook and similar "social" feeds feel so bad to my soul.  I find them as a total waste of time and it's time to really really delete these things once and for all.  I've been hanging onto Instagram as I find it much less toxic.  Pictures often give off a more positive vibe than your aunts reshare of politically slanted news or your neighbor's cousin's wall of text complaining about how there is not Olive Garden within 100 miles of their house.  However, that doesn't change the fact that I am the product being sold on this Instagram.  Algorithms are being worked out to find just the right number of post to leave in between advertisements for me to feel most engaged and most likely to click.  Which news parody sites or webcomics I should like next are also constantly being updated and reconfigured based on my behaviour.  Facebook and its subsidiaries are not the only companies with this massive ...
2 comments
Read more

Writing Goals

  Recently I came to the conclusion that I should write more often.  That is, I believe, I should start to consider myself a "writer."  That's the main reason there's been a bit of an increase in publishing to this blog (going from zero over the past few years to a couple times a month is a pretty huge jump).     I, like most humans, have thoughts and opinions which are a product of the times and places in which I live.  I figure I can do my part for future historians and write a few of them down.  I also just might have enough creative juice to pump out a story or two. This blog   I'd like to post to this blog at least once a week from now on, or at a minimum once a month.  Really, anything at all would be better than what I've been doing.  I'll mainly write about my life, family, interests, and opinions about, current events and local and state politics (I'll try to steer clear of national issues for my own sanity).  Pretty...
2 comments
Read more