Tyvek and G. Green are at Witch Room on Thursday folks
I really wish that the walk to the tracks for Amtrak and the bike racks on the train didn't anger me every time. I won't say rage because that is too strong. I have yet to successfully put up and take down my bike without hurting myself in some small way. And it takes so long for 3 people to get theirs down or up that there is always a backup of people waiting and being annoyed that you are running into them, etc.
I wish it were possible to have a whole car for bikes with seating on the top, but then more people would have to ride Amtrak, but more people would ride if it was more convenient or cheaper so it's a catch-22.
Time: Even the 5 minute walk rather than the none there used to be means an extra 50 minutes a week which is 3.3 hours a month which again pushes my commute to quite a bit more time than driving, even with occasional traffic. I estimate I spend 22-24 hours a month commuting by car, and about 30 if I took the train. So the time would only about three hours apart if not for that walk. But I may be underestimating the traffic. I'm so used to it.
Cost: If I enroll in the program UC Davis offers, my train ticket would cost 7 dollars a day. So 140 month. I would save 55 in parking (going up soon, I think), and it's nice that the UCD train thing offers one free parking pass a month for when I have to drive. I would save about 40 in gas a week (I think, I'm not good at calculating these things). Hmmm...I would save at least 75 bucks by taking the train and that is not factoring in wear and tear, and much more wear and tear on my car will mean I have to buy a new car within the next couple years because mine has like 180,000 miles. So that could mean the difference between a car payment every month in like a year or maybe like 4 years. I'm glad I rambled and figured this out.
Right now they are offering discounted tickets for 6 bucks a day, I wish they could do that all the time. That would save 240 bucks in the course of the year. This is all based on me not taking vacation, sick days, not factoring in holidays etc.
I was also thinking about sometimes biking to the UCD Med Center Shuttle, which would add about a half hour of biking today and put me in the same traffic, but is wayyyy cheap.
Most interesting post ever! What are your commutes like?
10 comments:
I'm so glad my commute is only like 3 miles one way. I rde my bike, and park it at work. Unfortunately, "May is Bike Month" has placed several IDIOTS along my route for the next month. They got the fancy duds and pretty bikes, but they sure don't know how to ride. I'll be happy when it's June.
-The Neighbor
Haha neighbor! Is there a name for the phenomena you describe, in which someone with money but no real skill or experience or humility just buys their way into something? It has always annoyed me. I'm sure over half if the kitchens in Granite Bay demonstrate this as well. What is it called, other than fat-assery?
As someone who rides every day of the year, i am also annoyed by the "may is bike month" riders that dont know what they're doing. It also doesnt help that they changed the signal timers on a bunch of lights over by the the fix50 area.
that's really funny about may is bike month! I have never noticed that.
It was interesting in the SNR article that Jim Brown mentioned how many more male riders there are than female. I wonder why that is?
I've been lucky enough to mostly work at places that are a 10 minute walk from my place. The longest commute I've had since I worked in the Monkey Lab about 10 years ago, was a 20 minute free bus ride. They picked us up after a 20 second walk outside my front door. Ha, that makes working in Saudi wondering if al-Qaeda was going to attack, sounds good.
If you have an A/C permit right now for campus, you can park in the lots around the Med Center and catch the shuttle from there. Although the catch is that the lots closest to the hospital usually fill up super early, so the best bet is usually the lot across from the Sacramento Chicken Company. Which is a 10 or so minute walk to the bus stop in front of the hospital. And they are doing a "last mile" connector bus between the Med Center bus stop and the train station for people who are taking the train to avoid the construction traffic.
interesting. I think I will just take the train until construction is over and then maybe try the medcenter bus to save money. It sucks that I would have to leave my bike at the med center if I do that. 3 bike racks per bus just doesn't do it.
My commute is a two-block walk, although after work I take the train to my wife's office and we walk home together, but that's not really a commute, it's exercise (except when we stop for dessert on the way home.) She takes light rail to work (10 min) and walks a few blocks (another 10 min.) I don't bike to work because the ride is too short to bother with a bike.
I think the mostly-male bike thing is due to the perceived danger of cycling, and males are supposedly more willing to engaged in behavior perceived to be risky. Women cycling is supposed to be an indicator of a relative degree of bike safety. I picked up a book called "Bikenomics" by Elly Blue that addresses that issue and others associated with promoting cycling among those who aren't considered "typical" cyclists.
My commute in Sac was never more than 15 min., regardless of mode. Here in L.A. it's never less than 1 hour, regardless of mode. I want to come back !
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