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04-27-06, 05:09 PM
So, last summer I started commuting by bike (part-time: 1 way, about 3 days a week). There were some problems with this. Mostly that my commute is 17 miles each way. It was so much riding that it wasn't fun anymore. Especially coming home in the evening in the dark, riding next to the freeway, with a headwind.
Due to the difficulty, the bad winter weather, and some personal problems (my fiancee, who had been the one driving me one way, and we'd been driving together on my non-riding days, decided she liked another guy better than me, and left), I stopped riding my bike to work in October of last year. I haven't ridden since. I've just been driving.
However, things are looking up. The weather's nice again, I've got a new girl I'm interested in (we'll see how that goes. She did ask me to help her buy a bike last weekend, though!), and I think I came up with a solution to the distance problem.
Here's a picture. I'll explain below the pic:
http://static.flickr.com/56/136113606_662fe54a31_o.png
The red line is my bike route. The blue loop is a bus route. There are buses running both clockwise and counter-clockwise around that loop everyday, roughly hourly. You'll notice that a large percentage of the two routes overlap.
If I take the bus from davis to sacramento, I can got my bike riding from 17 miles each way to 5-8 miles each way, depending on where I get on and off the bus. This cuts out the worst part of my commute -- the long strech where I ride alongside the freeway, which really isn't that much fun.
Also, as the place I'm commuting to is a university (I both work and attend classes there), I can take advantage of the fact that I can get a 6-month bus endorsement on my university ID card for $10. That means I pay $20/year to ride the bus, instead of $3/day. That's a good savings.
Also, the buses have bike racks.
This whole thing is looking promising. I'm thinking of giving it a shot. Look good to you guys?
Due to the difficulty, the bad winter weather, and some personal problems (my fiancee, who had been the one driving me one way, and we'd been driving together on my non-riding days, decided she liked another guy better than me, and left), I stopped riding my bike to work in October of last year. I haven't ridden since. I've just been driving.
However, things are looking up. The weather's nice again, I've got a new girl I'm interested in (we'll see how that goes. She did ask me to help her buy a bike last weekend, though!), and I think I came up with a solution to the distance problem.
Here's a picture. I'll explain below the pic:
http://static.flickr.com/56/136113606_662fe54a31_o.png
The red line is my bike route. The blue loop is a bus route. There are buses running both clockwise and counter-clockwise around that loop everyday, roughly hourly. You'll notice that a large percentage of the two routes overlap.
If I take the bus from davis to sacramento, I can got my bike riding from 17 miles each way to 5-8 miles each way, depending on where I get on and off the bus. This cuts out the worst part of my commute -- the long strech where I ride alongside the freeway, which really isn't that much fun.
Also, as the place I'm commuting to is a university (I both work and attend classes there), I can take advantage of the fact that I can get a 6-month bus endorsement on my university ID card for $10. That means I pay $20/year to ride the bus, instead of $3/day. That's a good savings.
Also, the buses have bike racks.
This whole thing is looking promising. I'm thinking of giving it a shot. Look good to you guys?