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

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lunch time in The Dirty!

    The Dalles has quite a few restaurants relative to it's size.  Some are great some are down right bad.       These are my five favorite places to eat lunch in The Dalles in no particular order.  Some are old favorites and others are relatively new establishments.  All serve delicious food and drink. Montira's Thai     Montira's is the only thai place in town.  But that lack of competition doesn't keep them from delivering a quality product.  Other restaurants of the Asian  variety  have them beat as far as portion size and price go but they  serve  a quality product consistently.  I can't say that about many other places in town.     Montira's serves really great food for a decent price.  Just be warned if you ask for extra-spicy you will feel it all the next day...  But its worth it if you really like spicy. Spooky's     Spooky's is one of t...
2 comments
Read more

Ubuntu Games: Purplemines

    Do you love mines but your current game of mines just isn't colorful enough?  Maybe you'd like it to be a bit more purple?  Oh have I got a game for you!       Purplemines  is a little minesweeper game that uses  pygame .  It is pretty much just classic minesweeper with some cool purple affects.     Sound like fun?  Can download the source here .  Like bitsnake just unzip and execute the game.   There is also a .deb available but it is an older version (1.4 the latest is 1.6) but it will probably be just fine.     This little game is pretty fun in my opinion.  And hey why not have yet another minesweeper game? 
Post a Comment
Read more

Free thoughts on a parking garage in downtown The Dalles

 The last thing this planet needs is more rebar and concrete poured out to support our automobile centered world.  Yet the City of The Dalles has concluded the need for a mutli-level parking structure in downtown The Dalles i s inevitabe .  The task force outlined several options to increase parking availability downtown especially for employees of downtown businesses.  Most of these ideas repurpose existing infrastructure in order to increase availability of automobile parking downtown.  The task force concluded that ultimately none of the existing infrastructure will support the needs of downtown long term; a parking garage would eventually be necessary.  Let me assert there is a longterm solution to the downtown parking problem that does not require investing further into the fading automobile age.  As the task force stated we do need employee only parking and time limits for general parking.  The problem I have is the task force sugges...
Post a Comment
Read more