Second time this summer I've needed to drive for some reason. This time it was to drop my wife off at the airport. I waaaas planning on driving home then ride to work but decided since I had to drive past work to get home I'd just go straight there.
WRONG DECISION

Seems the hatch didn't fully get closed and locked the light on so dead battery again! 2 for 2. It was closed enough to not trigger the it's open sensor but not enough to turn off the light.

Bah.. Well I think I gotta find a taxi and get a ride home then bike back with a small battery to power it up like I did last time, last time the taxi was my wife though

I have road side assistance through my insurance company very inexpensive, and they will come and jump you.

However, last time I ran my battery down I just found a co-worker to jump me.

shhh. I'm trying to rationalize not driving my car anymore

edit: I guess I should get that option though.. It is my wifes car and the free service just expired. When she drives she goes to the middle of no where.

My car is almost brand new, works perfectly fine, and is well-insured, and I've *never* driven it to work.

You don't need your car to be broken to not drive it to work.

My car is a 2003, my wife drove it for 2 1/2 years and racked up about 45k miles on it and I put about 6k miles on it last year. I'm on track to cut that in half this year. I'm starting to do oil changes based on time rather than miles.

I should really get a cover for it because letting it sit out in the sun all the time isn't doing much for the finish and I'd like to keep it in good shape for when I finally sell it.

+1

For a time I refused to purchase a car so that I was forced to ride to work. Stupid.
I ride to work because I enjoy it. Now I am adding a car to make things easier when I need to make it to organized rides or pick up the kid in winter. Just don't drive it to work.
Besides... driving a car to work every now and then is not a big deal. It is not like this forum is living car free. Cars have their uses. Bikes are simply more fun.

I am just the opposite. My car is 18 years old and hasd 170,000 miles on it. I rarely drive it so I'm not concerned with replacing it.

If your battery is in good shape it should be able to power a hatch light for days and days. You may want to check that battery.

There must be someone else with a car at work that can give you a jump start. Heck, back when I drove a car to work hardly a week went by where I didn't give someone a jump start, or pull some idiot out of a hole, or something.

Yeah it shouldnt' have been such a big deal but I always have rotten luck/timing.
Last night when I left the _only_ two cars besides mine in a parking lot for 300 or so cars was the security guard and the cleaning crew. I had dropped my wife off at the airport that morning and working right next to the airport just drove over and parked. I stayed late because I had nothing better to do and had some stuff that I could do at work.
I asked but the Security guy said he couldn't help and I gave up after what seemed like 5 minutes of asking for help from various cleaning people.

It is the second time this has happened. The first time I think it was in accessory mode and drained it so it is probably weak already. It only took 1/2 second of having a 4 amp battery jumpered in off my bicycle to jump it. I will be replacing the battery this weekend. It is a really small battery in the car as the Prius doesn't use the 12v battery for anything but keeping the computers running and such when it is shut off. The big high voltage pack through the DC/DC converter power everything when the car is on and starts the motor.

I've only driven about 50 miles in the last 30 days but I'm trying to cut that down. Since my wife rides to work and has a company vehicle that probably doesnt' help the Prius 12v battery either I may have to top it off every a week.

If it has a manual transmission, push start it.

Not a manual tranmission unfortunately.
I think the Prius starts by the 12 volt engaging a series of relays to turn on some stuff included the DC/DC converter which then power everything on the 12v circuit plus the inverters and all that stuff on the high voltage side. Then it's alive.
When the engine needs to start it spins the electric motor up to some optimum speed like 2000 rpms and then pumps fuel into the ICE and it takes over powering itself.
When I came back last night it actually had enough power again for the electric door locks to work so when I touched the hatch it unlocked and I could open it and jump it from my bicycle. Just for some reason it either didn't have enough power to pull in all the relays it needed to or something said the voltage was too low and didn't allow it to pull in.
There really should be some manually switch somewhere to click on the DC/DC to start the whole process. But well that is all stuff for the prius discussion list not the bicycle commuter list.

Something strikes me as ironic that Toyota can make a car that handles the shuffling around of voltage that a Prius does like it's nobody's business, yet the car can still get killed by a door left open.