Dreaming Of A Car-free Life
 

Today was my 4th commuting day, and 2nd in a row. That's 4 days in 3 weeks, not so great but of course an improvement. Also got here faster (54:43 ride time, 1:01:28 counting lights) than ever.

I believe if I had no choice but to ride everyday, I probably could (weather permitting, not too keen on riding in hard rains). But knowing I have a car unfortunately allows me the "I'll sleep longer and drive" option.

One thing I've started doing is recording my daily driving miles. It's encouraging to see my biking miles increase, so I'm hoping the same will occur to help my driving miles decrease.

I remember living just 2.5 miles from work and DRIVING, simply because I wanted to sleep longer. Gosh, I was such an idiot!

But yea - having a car makes it tough. Our car died this past December in PA, so we've been without car ever since. Of course, living in NYC makes getting around pretty easy (subways and busses). Plus, the subway is just two blocks from my apartment... sigh...

And don't sweat the riding in the rain stuff. It's just one hour of being wet.... heh... after awhile it feels nice, and you laugh at the people you see running from their cars to their front doors :)

Good for you for striving to improve yourself, but recording/tracking commuting time in seconds? Lighten up and enjoy yourself. I suggest poop canning the bike computer.

It depends on the your personality type. Personally, the computer motivates me. Is that so wrong?

Oh yeah, the bike computer absolutely motivates me. Commuting has been a nice natural side-effect to my original purposes for biking, exercise and triathlons. It's definitely a personality type, at all times I know how many miles I have this week, this year, what my avg. per day is ('bout 11.45 this year) and what I'd need to average to reach 5000 (16.6)

I love riding the bike. I think if I had access to a car and *could* drive to work, I wouldn't, even if it meant more sleep. In fact, I dropped out of a car "pool" (I paid a share of gas and toll expenses) during a job last summer just so I could ride (and yes it took longer to ride!).

I, too, like to use the computer. If my commute is mostly a steady ride, I try to beat my best times, etc. The latest job involves riding through Midtown Manhattan, though, so the competitive aspect is shed in favor of surival. :D

Nothing wrong at all. As you correctly state different personality types. I only advise not letting clock watching detract from cycling fun. Commuting does NOT have to be a test of endurance or a competitive event; to inclusde any obligation to "better" your own time.

i like the computer so I can keep track of my miles. besides giving me something to brag about I can see how many miles I ride each week and how many the previous week and such. It motivates me.

also, about the rain, I love when people ask me "What do you do when it rains?". I just say "I get wet" and watch their expression, sometimes it's laugher, sometimes almost horror.

This is why I finally put my foot down and got rid of the cage. I'd end up lollygagging around all day then have to get stuff done, woops time's short so can't the bike, oh darn, take the car, next thing I know I've driven around all over, too late for a bike ride ..... etc. then I realize I haven't ridden my bike for a week......

Now, no car! Hey, if I need a car for a weekend trip, I'll go rent one. If I REALLY need one in a hurry, I'll call a cab. Hit up a neighbor. Whatever. I have it planned to rent a car once a month to do a swapmeet, I wonder how much I'll actually do that....

I've only recently started commuting by bike to work - approx 20 miles a day.

I still have a car but rarely use it now, except every couple of weeks where I drop off 2 weeks supply of shirts at work.

For me, I find if I set the alarm and get up as soon as it goes off, go through the routine of getting ready and out onto my bike, I never get the urge to use the car instead.

The key thing for me is getting up as soon as the alarm goes off. No snoozing for 10 mins etc.that is a recipe for disaster (which I spent years doing!)

My commute bay car is just two or three minutes faster than by bike, so being able to sleep in is not a factor for me. I'm still trying to decide whether my wife and I could give up one of the cars, but I don't think it'll be possible considering her crazy commuting schedule and the cold, cold Canadian winter.

I don't know how the harsh "cold, cold Canadian winters" can be, but I remember riding in 0 degree F weather in PA... with windchills down to like -5F or something... Get some solid winter riding gear and it won't be so bad.

UNLESS your phrase "cold, cold Canadian winter" means 2' of snow on the shoulders of the road, well then... keep the car :)

If it takes you about an hour to go one way, and you travel about 12 miles an hour, you must go about 24 miles a day. If you normally would drive a larger car, you would use about a gallon of gasoline a day for that trip, at 24 miles per gallon. As a motivational tool, you could try what I did for a while. Get a bunch of dollar coins from the bank, and every day you ride put two of them into a jar (representing two dollars per gallon gasoline price).