Originally Posted by
InTheRain
I'm having a hard time grasping this... normally you take the ferry? How is your bike faster? I can't imagine you take the same route.
Originally Posted by
FBinNY
Sorry about that. It got screwed up in editing. The Op never mentioned where he lives and I meant to list the Puget sound area as the kind of place where there are land routes or a ferry. I figured that since you lived there you could imagine the possibilities.
Obviously it would be hard to go around the direct crossing and come out ahead, but hypothetically one may live or work away from the ferry on either leg, in the direction of the land route. Ie. live on Bainbridge Island, and work at Sea-Tac (though that distance is probably too long for a bike commute.
By example, here in NYC, one may live up near the GW bridge and work across the river near the ferry, or even between the bridge and ferry. So it's very possible that the routes are roughly equal in distance, and a decent cyclist can easily beat the ferry/bus combination.
I'm the OP and I live in Sydney, Australia, not Puget Sound - although the latter sounds very picturesque!
My ferry routes does meander around the Parramatta river and it is indeed slightly quicker to get to some points by road, than the take the ferry, which travels at about 25km/h, but stops frequently along the river. I have various riding options and sometimes take a combination of bike *and* ferry, and cycle to a much closer ferry wharf to my destination. This saves time and some money, but requires better time and pace keeping to make sure I catch my connection.
John.