Monday, February 04, 2008

Too long since last post.

I need more time in the day to do everything I want to do, plus do all those things that must get done.

I rode the Worksman through the summer of 2007 until I had a little mishap when my cable lock got caught in the rear sprocket and popped the sprocket off the rear hub. Well with fall and winter fast approaching I reverted to riding my ex-Tidal Force/Montaque folding mountain bike. Still 5-, and sometimes 6- days a week the bike enables me to get back and forth from the train station with occasional stopps for bread and milk on the way home.

Basically, I have gone 11 months with very little change to my routine. Except for the Worksman which needs a little attention, I have only performed basic maintenance on my bikes.

During these past months, by riding my bicycle the approximately 396 miles back and forth to the railroad station and taking mass transit to work, I have avoided buying almost 660 gallons of gasoline. From a carbon standpoint, I have avoided spewing 6.27 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere (based on 40 CFR 600.113-78). Not too bad.

The economics of my bike-train-bike commute are really good. My mass transit commute is $240 per month. Whereas the cost of driving, with just the cost of gasoline and tolls being $350 per month, is much much more - I haven't even included the cost of wear and tear at $0.80 per mile, or any of the social* costs at $0.33 per mile ( http://www.commutesolutions.org/calc.htm, and http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm66.htm#_Toc18284958) which would bring my drive to work up to $1,700 per month. WOW!!!!!!

The point here is, ride a bike, don't drive a car.

*The social cost does not include the cost of Foriegn Policy, or the war in Iraq.

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