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What are your options for getting to work?

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View Poll Results: How could you get to work other than riding?
Train
16
7.66%
Subway/Light Rail
50
23.92%
Bus
112
53.59%
Carpool
39
18.66%
Own Car
148
70.81%
Walk
57
27.27%
Work from Home/Telecommute
33
15.79%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 209. You may not vote on this poll

What are your options for getting to work?

Old 12-08-06 | 12:39 PM
  #1  
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What are your options for getting to work?

Other than riding in, what are the other choices you have for travel to and from the office or other workplace?

I would never drive in, though I do have a car (traffic and parking are absurd), but there are other options to get me here... how about you?
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Old 12-08-06 | 12:53 PM
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Of the 7 choices, 5 are available to me besides riding.
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Old 12-08-06 | 12:55 PM
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My choices are bike, bus, telecommute (only if I brought laptop home the day before) and my own car (if not being used by someone else)

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Old 12-08-06 | 12:58 PM
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Bus/light rail combination is available for me but due to the location of my office it would be a very long commute with infrequent service. I live very close to a light rail line but my office is in a less well served suburb. So my only pratical alternative would be to drive which I have done less than 6 times this year. Usually because the wife's car needs service or emission inspections.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:00 PM
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I could light rail, bus, drive, or walk. 3 days a week I could ride in with my wife.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:03 PM
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I selected walk because I have walked to or from the bus stop several times. I already ride to the bus, car-pool, or drive in on occasion.

Last edited by ax0n; 12-08-06 at 01:11 PM.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:04 PM
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What about horses?! I can ride my horse to work - it really isn't that far - about 3.5 kilometers. He doesn't use any gas too - but I wouldn't say he is environmentally friendly since he definitely produces it...
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:09 PM
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From: Beacon, NY

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I didn't include car for me, because the logistics are impossible. Technically I COULD drive, but it would cost me $20 to park per day, aside from the question of potential tolls and gas expenses. There is a running bus in my neighborhood that goes directly into Manhattan, but the easy way is the subway... I don't know any people who carpool, so I just picked the bus + light rail.

I have walked from work to home after the blackout a few years ago, but it is about 11 miles, so not a really feasible option

I wondered just because a number of people I know here who could bike to work have said they don't because they liked getting either sleep or getting work done on their train ride. Strikes me that places where it's not just car vs. bike have a more complex set of variables.

I'm definitely not riding through ice/snow season. I'm starting this process in the wintertime, have fixed up a solid beater, gotten cold weather gear and lighting, and am ready to roll (last part arrived last night...) but studs are not in my future.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:11 PM
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I only chose "own car" because although I could technically walk six miles, it wouldn't really be practical (heck, I'd have to run it in the winter to stay warm). And, I could also take a bus, but it would drop me off in a place nearby where I'd still have to walk about a mile and due to it's only decent departure/arrival time, I'd always be late.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:15 PM
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I can drive (30-90 minutes each way depending on traffic, start time, act of God, etc.).

I can ride or drive to a park/ride and take and express bus to Metro. (1 Hr each way)

I can ride/drive directly to a Metro stop 50-60 min each way

I can bike in to work (75-90 minutes each way)

I can telecommute (0).

On my non-biking days, I drive in, timing it to hit the HOV-restricted highway right as the limits expire, putting me into work @ 9:10-9:15. I leave the office at 3:40 to take advantage of the HOV rules, then work from home until 6.

Biking days I leave the house @7AM, and the office at 3:30, arriving home @ 5PM, working online until 6 or so.

Fridays I almost always telecommute....so I'm driving 3 days max.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:16 PM
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Originally Posted by mscommuter
although I could technically walk six miles, it wouldn't really be practical (heck, I'd have to run it in the winter to stay warm).
I work with a guy who cycle commutes 6.5mi each way, but some days he runs to and from work for varied exercise.
Al
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:25 PM
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I can take the T, which I did for the first time in about 6 months because of this disaster. It didn't take me long to want to get my bike up and running again after the slow down because of a new farecard system, one of the doors on the train failing to close, being packed in like sardines, having to change trains because the one I was on was being "expressed" beyond my stop, and a 10 minute wait between stations for God knows what.

It's usually not that bad and a not bad worse option than riding.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:31 PM
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Bus and own car for me, but for "bus", I have to walk 2.5 miles (one way) to the end of the line. I'd still rather do that than drive, especially if there's a snow storm. The walk is nice. Woods/MUP.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:32 PM
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From: Beacon, NY

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Just FYI, you can pick multiple options... don't know if that was clear.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:47 PM
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I drive when needed, but it usually takes longer unless traffic is light.

One of these days, just out of curiousity, I might see if I can get there on a bus.
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Old 12-08-06 | 01:59 PM
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I would walk, one trip is 5 miles, the other is 7 ...

so 1hr at a brisk 5mph pace, and 1.2 hours for the 7 mile trip ..

I could also ride my unicycle, but that would most likely produce some serious chafing.


lol
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Old 12-08-06 | 02:06 PM
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I ride 2.75 days/week. One day I have class and I ride in, ride to class after work, then take the train home. Then I ride in Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I take the Metro. I ride there and ride home. It is about 2 miles to the Metro Station. Mostly downhill to get there so getting home takes awhile when you factor in hooking up the lights.
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Old 12-08-06 | 02:07 PM
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I have a 3 mile commute. So walking is an option. Even in winter. I don't need to wear a suit so can go full arctic gear if need be. With an environmentally significant area between me and work snowshoes and xc skis during winter is an option too. Today and yesterday I exercised that option as London got 18" of snow last night. As no one bothered to call me and tell me the plant was closed for a snow day I am here alone. Woo Hoo, a whole night of surfing the web at a high rate of pay.
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Old 12-08-06 | 02:11 PM
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I could technically take the bus, but I'm a mile and a half from the bus stop. I'd then need to take a connector to the main line, to downtown, back outbound to work. The entire trip would be in the two-hour range.

Doesn't seem like a feasible alternative.
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Old 12-08-06 | 02:15 PM
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Other than riding, it's only car or carpool for me, and that's why I ride > 95% of the time. The buses don't go that way.
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Old 12-08-06 | 02:18 PM
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In retrospect I suppose I could have put car. I can afford to buy a second family car, I just choose not to.
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Old 12-08-06 | 02:48 PM
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Can one of the options be: Ride a different bike?

I could walk. - <2 hrs.

I can drive or have the wife drop me off. We've done both, but her dropping me off depends on if there is some compelling reason for me to not ride and she needs the car that day. - <15 min.

Running to work is out of the question. I'll call a co-worker to pick me up or call in sick before I'll run to work, although I could physically do it. I don't run. With my past experiences, I loathe running. Somebody else can run. That's fine, as long as I don't have to.

I'm with Cooker on the second car.
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Old 12-08-06 | 03:32 PM
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If I take my own car in, it's at least $400/month for parking fees, plus gas, plus stress, plus extra insurance. In bicycle equivalency $, that's 2 custom steel road frames per year, or 1 FS mtn bike with XTR. I can walk to work in about an hour, but cycling just kicks too much ass.
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Old 12-08-06 | 03:36 PM
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My town is too small to have public transportation. It's bike or drive, but we also don't have to pay to park anywhere; we don't even have parking meters, or time limited spaces.

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Old 12-08-06 | 03:45 PM
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Originally Posted by superslomo
Other than riding in, what are the other choices you have for travel to and from the office or other workplace?

I would never drive in, though I do have a car (traffic and parking are absurd), but there are other options to get me here... how about you?

Basically, I can walk. My car would need a battery, tranny fluid and a seal somewhere on the tranny. I live very near a bus stop and my work is fairly near a bus stop, but I would have to take the bus all the way into town and back to make a connection. So riding the bus would take twice as long as walking. One co-worker lives near so that might be possible, but his driving is scary and he's not always timely.
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