Recent high gas prices have increased my interest in finding alternative methods to commute to work.  I live about 12 miles from where I work, so walking is really not an option by time constraints.  I thought biking to work would also take too much time, but as I examined my options and considered various scenarios I found quite the opposite to be true.  Biking to work is actually saving me time and money!!

It usually takes me about 25 minutes to drive to work and 25 minutes to drive home.  Once at home on at least 3 days a week I do some sort of cardiovascular exercise for about 30 minutes (maybe running or riding my bike or an exercise bike inside).  This adds up to 80 minutes of driving and exercising, if instead I ride my bike to work it takes me about 45 minutes to ride the 12 miles so 90 minutes for the round trip.  I am fortunate enough that my employer has on site shower facilities so I can shower when I get to work.  Since I have already gotten my exercise by biking to work and back I don’t need to exercise when I get home.  So for only 10 extra minutes a day, I can save the gas from driving and bike to work, but 90 minutes is really more exercise than I want in one day and this offers me no flexibility for bad weather conditions.  So I wanted a better option. I don’t need to cut out my gas consumption to work completely just reduce it somewhat and get a reasonable amount of exercise.  Here is the plan I currently use:  on day 1, I drive to work with my bike on the car.  Then that afternoon I ride my bike home.  Then on day two I ride my bike to work and drive home with the bike on the back (or leave it at work, but I like to have my bike at home for use on the weekends).  Now for timing on this plan I have 25 minutes to drive one way and 45 minutes to bike one way, for a total of 70 minutes.  (Compared to the 80 minutes required for commuting and exercising previously discussed.)  Biking to work is actually saving me time and I am getting more exercise (but in the range of what is comfortable for me) both good points.  This plan also allows me more flexibility to drive if necessary due to bad weather.  I began thinking about biking to work in order to save some money on gas but I actually found out that I am saving time and getting better exercise in the process.      Getting back to the point of the whole thing I need estimate my gas savings for my new method of travel to work.  When I am able to implement this scenario twice per week (each round-trip takes 2 days), I cut my gasoline consumption for work by 40%.  This is accomplished because my total work trips for 5 days to and from is 10.  Now I am making 4 of those trips on my bike.  (Each time I complete a round-trip that is 2 bike trips instead of driving.)  Each round-trip saves about 1 gallon of gasoline (my car actually gets a little better than 24 mpg on average but the fuel efficiency when first starting is lower than normal and I have not considered costs for wear and tear, oil, tires, battery etc. so I think 1 gallon per round trip saved is a fair estimate).  That saves me 2 gallons of gas per week: 2 gallons x 50 weeks/year x $4.00/gallon = $400/year saved on fuel cost.  For me that is significant.  Especially when you add in the environmental benefits that the reduced gasoline consumption provides and the health benefits that the exercise provides. Biking to work is not only good for the environment and my health it is also saving me time and money.  I know that this type of scenario will not work for everyone but I think it is a good example of something we do often which is just assume that doing something beneficial for the environment is going to cost a lot of time and money when in fact it can be beneficial from both respects if we examine it closely.  Another thing that I hear from people is that just one person can't make a difference or if you can’t cut out your consumption completely there is no point so why do anything.  In my example I didn't stop using gasoline but I did significantly reduce my consumption and that is a step in the right direction. 

If we refuse to do anything because we can't do everything nothing will ever get accomplished.

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”