A Revolutionary Day

The price of gas has spurred me to think and act green. I am coming to hate that word. Everyone wants to be green and make you think they are green. Who can be greener. When it comes right down to it, the green I am interested in saving is money.

Anyway, I rode my bike to work today. This is normally not practical because work is 14 miles away and I am a pussy. But, if I ride the bike downtown and catch the bus, it is a much more attractive proposition...in a pussy kind of way.

Today was my trial run to see how long it all takes. I have pledged to do it every work day for the month of July. I'm not giving up my car. I'm just not riding it to work. The challenges will come when something comes up that requires me to have my car. Will I be able to work around it or will I be forced to capitulate and drive to work.

For now, here is self portrait of me riding to work.

I have some additions to make to my earlier entry. I arrived home at 5:50PM. That is 50 minutes later than my normal arrival if I drive. I probably would have been home about ten minutes sooner had there not been a major slowdown at the Freeway Exit. It took 15 minutes just to get from the exit to the Bus Plaza.

One must take into account the money savings against the time spent. I also must factor in the exercise aspect of this bike/bus riding...which for me is very strong motivation to do it.

Here are some numbers for your cyphering enjoyment.

I figure my car consumes two gallons to go to and from work. It's a little less but let's keep this in round figures. At today's price, that is a savings of $8.00. It cost me $2.00 to ride the bus.

In the month of July, there are 22 work days...22 days where I have the opportunity to ride the bike/bus. A monthly bus pass costs $33.00. If I ride all 22 days, it costs me $1.50 per day.

If I drive all of those 22 days, it will cost me $176.00 for gas for the month. Generally, I spend about $240.00 per month on gas. That's based on $60.00 per week, which is about what I have been spending. So I am looking at saving about $130.00. I will of course, be keeping track of my actual savings. It's going to be all offset by the amount of bike gadgets I buy.

Then there's the whole carbon footprint thing, which I am not going to get into here...because I don't care about that.