We're nearing the end of August. Have you significantly changed your transportation methods?
I have, and I'm looking forward to continuing to ride my bike rather than drive my car as much as possible. Thanks to the electric assist and the carrying capacity of my Xtracycle bags, I have been able to use my bike for many errands and trips around town, no matter what the temperature is outside and whether I've got a lot to carry.
As usual, though, transporting the dogs for obedience training was responsible for some of the vehicle miles. We are pondering ways to transport the dogs securely by bike but we don't have anything set up at this time and, quite frankly, I am not physically capable of hauling a travel full of dog right now. That will have to wait a bit.
Eegee's, a local sub shop chain, sells their empty 5 gallon pickle and pepper buckets at their corporate headquarters so I drove down to the south end of town this week to pick up 20 buckets for my sweetie's gardening projects. I think I could have fit 10 buckets in my bike bags (5 on each side) but not all twenty. Could I have figured out some way to bungee some to the snap deck? Possibly, but since it was almost 10 miles each way, I decided driving was the more prudent choice this time.
Unfortunately, I also had to drive to my self-defense class one time this week. The previous day, my bike seat had come loose and began tilting upwards at a very uncomfortable angle. I swung by my sweetie's office on my way home for an adjustment and we thought the problem was solved. The next day, however, it tilted again about 3 miles into my trip to class. I had to return home and drive the vehicle to make it to class on time.
Interestingly, this made me very irritable. I was all set to bike there, mostly on the pleasant quiet bike path, and was not at all happy that I had to drive through crappy traffic instead. It's a good thing we get to punch and kick things in the class because it gave me an outlet for my frustration. My sweetie later solved the problem with the bike seat and it seems fine now.
I had one other problem on the bike this week. I did not eat enough food one day (or the night before) and consequently ran out of energy on my way home from the next self-defense class. I was very relieved that I had the electric assist available as the heat from the midday sun was also making me feel a bit light-headed. This was an important reminder to eat plenty of good, healthy complex carbohydrates to provide fuel for my body while doing so much exercise.
Here are this week's numbers.
Miles by bike: 92.4 (most of any week so far)
Amphours used: least of any week so far
Mile driven: 63
Miles per person: 53.5 (more trips alone - to class and for buckets)
I love that I'm using my bike more than I'm driving. When the weather gets cooler in a few months, I can start walking more for close errands, too.
16 comments:
I'm impressed at your transformation in just this month alone. I was looking for an old comment you left on my old blog and found that sometime last year you were having a lot of difficulty committing to bike riding for a variety of reasons - primarily the heat. So I hope you're patting yourself on the back and enjoying some cool sorbet because you've made great strides in reducing your auto usage.
Beany, I'm impressed, too, and I can't stress how valuable the decision to get the electric assist was as a part of this transformation. I've whined on my own blog about biking issues (like the heat) but having the option to speed up with some help makes it more tolerable. Tune in on Monday to read a love letter to my bike...
What Beany said. It's been really fun to watch your numbers for bike riding go up and up and up. I can't believe you can bike so much in a week - or find so many places to go!
Unfortunately, after a month, I can't say I changed anything about the way I bike :( But I already pretty much do bike/walk only 5 days a week since I don't have access to a car (that includes all our errands all over town mostly on a bike).
I have started going further that I normally would have thought I could travel and this week included one day of borrowing my Dad's truck to hall 3/4 of a ton of compost - yeah, not doing THAT on a bike :)
The good news is that I kept up my normal biking routine, and even stretched myself to longer distances, all through the hot Texas summer. I suppose that's a feat in and of itself.
Stephanie - I keep track of my numbers on a spreadsheet and include my destination for each trip. I'll share that sometime soon to give an idea of how the numbers rack up so fast.
Heather - you were already doing so much by bike, it sounds like it would be hard to add much. I'm impressed, though, that you are venturing out further on the bike. Way to push out of the comfort zone!
I don't understand about the compost, though. With a nice bike trailer and a gazillion trips, you could have easily gotten all that compost. LOL!
No kidding. I mean, I could have logged enough miles in bike trips to cover exercise for a year...
Hi Chile - Well, we've got our transport kms down a little, but not as much as we hoped. Bugger!
Total kms per week over the past month have averaged 145 kms. Split between four people, (if I want to make the numbers look better!), as we only have one car, that's 36.25 kms each - all by car though.
That's 22.5 miles each per week.
We've reduced mainly by getting my husband onto the bus, eliminating unnecessary journeys, and combining journeys.
I don't know how many bus kms my husband has travelled, but most of his travelling is by bus, to and from work.
I'd like to reduce our kms more, but don't really think it will be possible at the moment, while the kids are so young, without a lot of awkwardness. But I have written letters to our council, lobbying for better and more affordable public transport.
So that's our summary thus far.
Oh, I should add that the kids *do* have bikes, but we don't yet. Something to work towards. The kids are not yet road-safe on them yet (they're only 4 and 2!).
I think something else we need to do is to save up for bikes for the two of us adults, and to use them! Maybe electric bikes, as Dunedin is so hilly!
Daharja - great numbers. I certainly understand the limitations when young children are involved. We go through the same thing with the dogs. The way I'm looking at it is similar to what I think you're saying: it's temporary. Probably a little longer with your kids, but for our dogs, the extra driving will only be while they are taking the obedience classes. Then we'll taper down to just going to the dog park once or twice a week.
An idea with your kids in hilly Dunedin would be Xtracycles with electric assist like mine. You can set the snapdeck on the back up for the kids to ride by getting foot rests and these neat little handlebars for them to hold on to. With the assist, you could handle the weight of the children plus any goods you've got in the bags on even the steepest hill.
Hi Chile - I think, once the kids are older, that electric bikes are the way we will go. Yes, I've been looking longingly at yours! ;-)
One of the things that is really holding us up in buying a house is that we want a place that is cycling distance to the city, but has a few acres. Not easy! So we're still hunting :-(
Still, I figure it's worth it, to buy a place that will be really sustainable. And hopefully we'll be able to go 100% car-free as soon as the kids are old enough to be bike-safe.
Another Dunedinite here saying yes, it definitely is hilly!. William biked home from school twice this week - all 8 and a half kilometers. There is a really good bike track down the harbour - purpose built and nowhere near the road. His main problem is the streets at either end - ours being Baldwin Street and the other being Jessie street which is the second steepest! He is still a bit short for the bigger bike but hopefully will be right for next year. He likes to think of himself as more independent now (at 11) which is good but I do think I'll miss my little boy :(
I'd love one of those bikes but finance is a bit of an issue at present. I need to get a certain bathroom finished first!
viv in nz
ps. those dogs look ....brainy?
Hmmmm...I'm wondering whether even the toughest electric bike would go up Baldwin street, reading Knutty Knitter's comment.
However, there's a Youtube of a Segway going up Baldwin Street here, so maybe!
Well, with my electric assist, you can still peddle. So, perhaps with it in the lowest gear peddling for all you're worth plus using the full power of the assist, you could make it up the hill. I sure as heck wouldn't want to ride down it; going downhill really fast scares me.
We watched that! The voice in the background is my mum who lives next door where the camera man was.
Bikes go up with difficulty but it can be done with the right gears and lots of fitness and down like jet planes! There is a good run off at the bottom fortunately. skate boards tend to go nowhere - useless really due to wheel problems. Unicycles tend to nose plant about where we are. The electric wheel chair was fine but small motor scooters grind to a halt at the two thirds mark.
It is rather fun watching things here :)
viv on Baldwin Street.
Here's my (very late) check-in!
We didn't stop driving as much as I anticipated. Most of this I chalk up to the fact that we still haven't tuned up our bikes due to "the budget." I am thinking about asking our neighbor for guidance on tuning my own bike, to save on money. However, we did purchase the bike trailer, which I feel is a great stride towards freedom from our car.
We're back in the swing of walking to many of our destinations, since my morning sickness has finally abated. This has the added benefit of slowing down our lives so we don't feel so frazzled.
We were recently on vacation with my family, all together there were 18 of us. A lot of carpooling happened, even in getting to the beach house, so that made me feel really good.
The only set back I have to report is we somehow lost the key to my husband's scooter, so he's been taking the car to work, since driving the car at this point is cheaper than taking the lightrail. However, his next semester of school is starting soon, so he'll be getting a public transportation pass through the college which will make taking the lightrail monetarily feasible for us again.
Thanks for having this challenge! Even though I didn't do as well as I thought I was going to, it has certainly made me more aware of how and when we travel.
Viv - ouch on the unicycle nose plants!
Krista - glad to hear the challenge increased your awareness of how you choose to travel daily. Becoming aware of that is the first step to making a choice whether to continue or change.
Post a Comment