It's one of my motivations. And it's even hard to put it in order, but I think the most important ones are that I love cycling, have lots of fun at it, and that I hate sitting in traffic in the car, which never happens on the bike. There's also the health aspect, plus, like WoodWay I can eat fatty foods and stay trim. And the fact that we don't have parking at work, so most folks move their car every two hours. Plus, it actually saves me time, since I'd take an hour of my evening to go exercise if I hadn't commuted by bike. And...

So a lot of the time, I'll just give one answer and not bore people or give them a laundry list. You're right - the money one is powerful. And people hate Opec more than the mob; all those emails about how to force them to lower the gas prices, etc, seem to make the answer I usually give something that most people can appreciate.

I know the guy at the taqueria gave it some thought. I'm certain he won't actually take a bike up, but someone else will.

My car takes premium gas, so the savings are even higher for me then most people.

A few people asked me why I started riding the bike everywhere. If the did I just tell them there are a ton of benifits. If they say something like what kind of benifits, I give them a list.

1. Save on gas.
2. Better Health.
3. Running Sucks.
4. Save on car maintenance.
5. Easy Parking.
6. Build up my Farmers Tan and get my vitamin D.
7. Doing my part to cut down on dependence on fossil fuels and keep my carbon footprint low.

Usually I forget or leave one or two out, but most people say something like I wish I live close enough, or I wish I had the time. Most people seem to gain a little respect for me, and I think people who actually talk to a bike commuter would be less likely to support laws against them or be aggressive towards one.

People used to ask my why I ride my bike and I would tell them:

- Better mental and emotional sanity
- Easy on the pocket book.
- No registration or insurance concerns.
- Ability to see things I wouldn't normally see while driving
- Reduced vehicle maintenance costs
- Reduced insurance costs
- Prolongs the life of my car
- Prolongs my life
- Healthier for myself and others.
- Weight control
- Greater mobility. (No traffic jams or parking issues)
- Running Sucks! (ref: wxduff)
- Most important of all--It's enjoyable to me.

I have a low emmision vehicle (non hybrid) which uses regular fuel and the savings to me are tremendous. I commute about 20 miles each way and I find I'm a much happier person when I ride.

I just realized I have no idea what gas costs now because the last gas I bought was in March. Only driven once since then. I assume it's gone up :)

Well, damit! We ain't NEVER gonna know about your gas price until ya tell us how much ya paid fer th' BURRITO!

It's been two years since I've bought any. It's down a bit since then. I haven't paid close attention, but it seems like it's been bouncing around between 2.60-2.90 for regular for at least a year now.

When you're a poor college student its more like bouncing around from an arm and a leg to a heart and a lung.

Can't beat the savings, that for sure.

Your cheap petrol (I hate calling a liquid "gas") is why there is no public transport, it is also why the stores are so far from where people live.

z

You can call it gasoline if you're talking to a US audience naive to the ways of the world and are afraid you'll confuse said audience.

I'm one of the lucky ones. .3 miles to a 24-hour 7-11, .4 miles to a 24-hr mexican food joint, .4 miles to tasty Russian market, 1.1 miles to a full service supermarket, several other bars, restaurants, banks and other businesses, 3.8 miles to work, 2.8 miles to a source for good hay, two bike shops in a 5-mile radius, 3 comic book shops in a 5 mile radius. And I don't even live in a big city.

Oh, I gotta add some more in here : .3 miles to bowling alley, grow light store, Teriyaki, fish and chips, movie rental.

I'm still not as lucky as some Manhattanites. Many of them have a vast array of goods and services (aside from the hay) at their beck and call 24 hours a day. Much of them deliver, also. Of course their rent would be at least five times what mine is for a similar pad.

I am also in a very convenient place. I have a supermarket 50m from my front gate, numerous bars, coffee shops and restaurants within 200m. I live 12 km from work, but that is by choice. When I started looking for this apartment I drew a 10km circle around work, then a 12 km circle, removed the southern 3/4 of the doughnut, and started searching in the remaining 1/4. I wanted to commute between 10 and 12 km, in a flat city that distance is perfect for me :) YMMV.

z

What was undesirable about the southern part of the donut?

Outside of the second ring road, fewer services, further from friends, more noisy, and longer cab fares home after a night out on the town.

z

Bollocks. In Australia, they've had extensive public transport for decades, and it was implemented when gas was relatively inexpensive. The reason the US doesn't have public transport, is because most metro areas in the west had tons of land when they were formed, and there wasn't a need for population density, leading to urban sprawl as everyone sought their own 1/4 acre. When that started to change in the middle part of the 20th century, no one had the forethought to implement public transport infrastructure. Now, the cost of that implementation is much higher than it used to be. In many places in the middle of the country, public transport is associated with the lower class and poverty, and the car is a status symbol and indicator of freedom. It's a mindset problem, not an economic one.

Australia does not have a great public transport system. Melbourne trams are not bad, but are slow. Sydney trains are infrequent. Both cities with smallish populations. The public transport in Brisbane and Hobart sucks, Adelaide is not much better.

z

Only in Seattle would someone do that! In the steamy south, we get under trees for shade and avoid the hell out of them when it rains - due to lightening. I have spent some time in Seattle and must say I really liked it despite occasional drizzle to near constant light precipitation. Not sure I ever heard thunder there come to think of it.

I have friends in Greenlake just FYI. Love skating the Burke-Gilman too, especially through campus then all the way to Redmond and back. Been up a few peaks near Rainer, some rock climbing south of town, and backpacking in the Cascades. Makes me wish I was under a tree there right now as it is 110°F in NOLA right now.

..

I tell them that I used to get jealous and envy those who rode their bike while I was driving. Now I receive the same familiar expression from driver while I smile at them from my bike :)

GAS? What's that?

For me I've have little to no interest in driving. Maybe one day I'll get get a motor bike license. Some people will talk to me about gas prices, and I'll have to ask them what its at. Since I never look. $1.15/L Can.

I've lived here since 2003, and could probably count on one hand the number of times I've heard lightening in Seattle. On the other hand, it's been a pretty gloomy "summer" here ... the average temp throughout June has been about half of your high point in NOLA. Yesterday I went out for a ride wearing a wool base layer under my rain clothes, and a wool head band.

I can't go back to driving. My commute (in Northern VA) while driving could vary from 2 minutes to 20. Biking has a variance of maybe 2 minutes. Like a hot knife through butter.

I've lived here since 1986 and I have never heard lightening :) I have heard thunder once or twice, but it is pretty rare here.

Seattle Forest is right in that we have had a miserable spring. A few more weeks though, and it will be like somebody threw a switch and then summer will really start here. It's SWEEET. I cannot wait...

You have no idea what you're talking about. I used to commute for 90 minutes in and out of Sydney every day. There's an extensive network of trains from Wollongong to Newcastle, Bondi to Penrith. Trains carry more commuters every day in Sydney than any other form of transport. Smallish populations?? The Sydney metro is home to 4.5 million people. That's a large city by most standards. Please, stop talking about a place you have no idea about.

Whether you like it or not, the price of petrol has impact on you from foods being transported to the tire tube at your LBS.

I lived in Australia for my first 42 years of life. I have never lived in Sydney, but have been there countless times, my father lives there. I was there in Febuary. I have driven there, ridden bikes there, and used the public transport system numerous times.

However, I have lived the last year in a city of 11 million, a smallish city for China, and the two previous years in Seoul. The greater Seoul metro area population is 24 million. Sydney is small.

If you want to see what public transport can really be like, go to a big city. In Seoul there are no subway timetables, you just go there. If you missed the last subway, you might have to way for three minutes. There are some great public transport benefits that come with population size, and, in Seoul's case, this is increased by population density.

Now this is a metro system:

Passengers carried per day: 5.6 million.
Cost to get from one side of the city to the other USD$1.50


z

All I can say to the above is.... US has lobbyists. And they wield some incredible power.