Just wanted to expand on my other post above.

2014 was my first full year of bike commuting. Last winter my miles dropped off drastically from mid-November through to the Spring of this year. Part of that was illness. But this year I increased my commuting from 2 to 3 days a week as much as I can, so my mileage for this past November and December was far higher than in 2013.

Also in 2014 I started using my yellow bike for utility cycling much more. I rigged up my son's trailer with a platform and storage boxes and have taken that grocery shopping many times. I'm currently on my 3rd box configuration. First one was too small. Second version added another of the same box, but that ended up being too large, heavy, wind drag, etc. Now I got a slimmer box, but taller than the old ones, and a bit more curvy. It's at least 10 pounds lighter and should be less wind drag. I haven't had a chance to use it yet due to weather.

Also my parents moved from an hour away by car (~50 miles), to just 4 miles away from our house which takes 10 minutes by car or 20 minutes by bike at my speeds. It's been great.

But overall in 2014 I tried to use the bike as much as possible to replace car trips. One day back in the summer I replaced 4 separate car trips with 4 separate bike trips in one day. In the past 3 months I have only driven my car about 1,600 miles, but also commuted 1,200 miles in that same time. Contrast that to 10 years ago, I was living with my parents, driving 100 miles a day to work, putting 3,000 miles on the car every single month (same car I have today). I definitely do not miss those days.