Bike Bus Bike Commute

Transit Option

In looking at going to Transportation Advocacy Day, I realized that I had an option to commute to work by adding the bus into my transportation tool kit. Seems obvious, but I hadn't realized it was an option.

Years ago, I biked, walked and rode the bus all the time. I didn't own a car. That wasn't an option to get around. Other than renting a car for vacations, I didn't drive. Then we got a car and driving became the rule. In fact, hardly a day passes when I don't spend time in the car! 

Time in the car gets you where you're going. That's about it. I know some people listen to talking books, I tend to tune those out. Mostly, time in the car is sedentary, maybe enjoying the scenery, except it passes by so fast. And you're isolated from it, enclosed in the car.

Riding to work means a ~17-20 mile ride each way depending on the route I take. Ten miles down the Yelm-Tenino trail, and then another ten down old highway 99. Or head down the Chehalis-Western trail and then over on Waldrick to 99 again, or down the CW trail to Yelm Highway and over. Nice rides. Except then after work I have to turn around and do it again, and it's uphill going home!

That's a harder distance to ride. I've been building up my strength, but riding back from Olympia the other day wore me out, and that was only one way!

Finding out that the Yelm transit route ran more than I thought, however, opened up another possibility. Ride to Yelm (which is weird, because I'm going away from work) ~4.96 mi, catch the bus (bike on the rack) and ride it down to Boulevard in Olympia (closest stop to work), and then ride to work ~3.7 mi. In all it adds up to about 17.47 miles, as tracked by my Endomondo app. About the same distance as it'd take to ride one way.

As far as the time it takes, well, it works out essentially the same as if I had ridden to work. That is, the time it takes to ride to Yelm, catch the bus, ride the bus to the nearest stop, then ride to work, is pretty much the same amount of time it would take for me to ride all the way to work from home. There's no time savings there. 

Yet, it cuts the daily mileage down to ~17 miles instead of ~34-40 miles. And the mileage is broken up into four shorter segments that pass quickly. 

Added bonus, on the bus ride I can read! That's at least 30 minutes each way when I have time to read. Between work, writing and everything else, it can be a challenge finding time to read. So I spend an hour and a half riding the bike, and at least an hour reading each day. 

Cost savings

I'm considering getting a monthly bus pass next month. Each day I don't drive the car saves ~$4, just in gas costs. If I was getting mileage reimbursements for driving it'd be more like $23 a day. Just figuring the $4 in gas, though, means $20 per week, up to $80-$100 per month. A bus pass is $36, a savings of $44-$64 dollars a month if I didn't drive to work.

Taking that out further, considering mileage reimbursements. That's not only for gas, but overall operating costs of the vehicle. If I'm driving the car less, that reduces our other expenses related to that also. I'll still drive it for errands, but that's usually one trip a week instead of the six days a week I've been driving.

What about health? We're talking about making health a priority in our state DOT policies, shouldn't it be a priority in our own personal transportation policies too? If I'm riding to work, with or without the bus, I'm going to be healthier and in better shape, and hopefully then less healthcare expenses. 

Moving forward

At least looking at the option of combining bike-bus transportation gives me another option when looking at how I get to work. It isn't that I have to ride the entire distance each way. If I'm tired, if I want to read, I can take the bus. If I'm just in a mood to ride, I can ride the whole distance. Or take the bus in the morning and ride back in the evening. Or the other way around. It just gives me another option.

This next week I'll probably do that at least one of the days, maybe more, but it's a short week. A week from today I'm heading down to Oregon for a writing workshop and I'll be off work until March. If I get the bus pass then I'll have that next month and may put in quite a few more miles!

Transportation Advocacy Day

Yesterday was Transportation Advocacy Day. I usually feel too busy to volunteer for various causes. Like many people I get so caught up in my daily life that I don't tend to stop and think about this sort of thing. When I heard about this, however, for once I thought about it.

I could take the day off, and spend a day advocating for something I feel is important. Safer streets, health as a priority when we think about our transportation system in this state. Maintenance of our existing transportation structure. It isn't all about riding bikes. It's transit and sidewalks, and road design.

If I was going to spend the day advocating for this sort of thing, I also wanted to see how our current system locally works.

Option A. Ride my bike to and from the event. I wasn't sure I was up for that, so I picked Option B.

Option B. Ride my bike to Yelm, catch the bus down to Olympia and reverse on the way back.

Option C. Drive. I didn't really want to deal with parking and everything else downtown, and I'm trying to use the car less.

I rode the bike to Yelm and got on the bus fine. There was one other bike on the rack, no issues there. After looking at schedules I realized that this might be an option to get to work. Ride to Yelm, bus near work (<4 miles), ride to work, and then reverse going back. It'd be about 16 miles of riding each day. I'd also have time to read on the bus. Something to consider.

The day went well. I went around with two other folks from my district to talk to our representatives and senator, which ended up meaning that we talked to legislative aides and dropped off material. That was fine. The breakout sessions at the event were informative and interesting.

I finished up at around 3:00 PM and went to catch the bus. I'd lost my pass earlier, so I stopped first at the bank to get change. Then I waited for the bus back to Yelm. When it came the bike rack was full already.

That was the flaw in the plan. The next bus was an hour later. It was chilly. I could have killed an hour downtown, except I didn't really want to do that. I decided to ride out to Yelm Highway, and see how much longer it'd be until the bus came along. I headed off, through Olympia, and riding up the Woodland Trail. It was nice to ride the trail again. I haven't done that in a long time. I took it up to the Chehalis-Western Trail, and from there out to Yelm Highway.

When I got there I still had over a half-hour to wait for the bus. If I caught the bus (if the bike rack wasn't full this time), I'd still have a five mile ride home from Yelm, plus it'd take at least a half-hour to get to Yelm. So that'd be another hour, at least, plus the half-hour ride home from Yelm. And Rainier road was right there, just down the street. If I rode I could be home probably before I would get home if I waited for the bus.

That's what I did. Set off riding home. There's quite a few hills. I wasn't sure I could make it, given that I'm still healing from the surgery and haven't ridden this much in months. Of course once I was on my way there wasn't a good bail-out option. No buses to catch on this road. No one to call to get a ride. Pretty much committed at that point.

I kept going. Slowly. Slow does it. I made it home. I'm not sure it was faster than waiting for the bus, but it was fun all the same!

Build Up

First Thing

I want to get back to riding to work at least three days a week. Actually, that's not right because I hadn't been doing that before the surgery. I'd ride one or two days, but inconsistently. So I guess I really want to build up to riding three days a week. That gives me alternate days to rest, run, or do other exercises. 

To help make it happen, I think I need to get out first thing. It's dark, often cold this time of the year, but too easy to put off otherwise. And it is a great way to wake up. This morning that's what I decided to do. I got ready and went out right away.

Recovering

Since going to the doctor's and confirming that, even if it hurts some, I'm not going to create a problem with the surgery site, it's easier to ignore the pain. I'll still watch it and back off if it gets too much but it wasn't that bad this morning.

Distance

My commute is at least 17 miles, possibly 20 miles, depending on the route. One way, meaning that any commute day is ~34-40 miles long. I'll need to build up to that, so going out first thing gives me more freedom to do that too. I can get up, spend the time, and then come back and get ready. It's hard to fit in everything I need to do with exercise and health, but oddly it seems like the more I do it's easier to get focused on getting things done. I've installed the free version of Rescue Time too, just to see what it can do to help. I do a lot of work on my iPad so it'd be better if there was a client there, so that it tracked things while I switched between devices. I believe they're working on that.

In any case, I'll be building the distance until I feel comfortable with being able to go to work and back without feeling too wiped out.

License to Ride

Yesterday I paid a visit to the doctor, to ask if the pain I was feeling from the surgery was normal or not. It was a good news, bad news answer. Yes. I suppose anyone that's had surgery knows that recovery can take quite a while. Nothing's wrong, it's just going to hurt as I increase my activity level. Eventually it'll stop, but not right away.

At least what I'm doing isn't going to mess it up, which was my main concern.

So with that news I'm getting back on the bike. And the trike. And running. And body weight exercises. I'm not, however, going to try to do a streak or any of that. I want to get back up to riding the bike (or trike) to work, so that's my goal. I'd like to get to the point where I'm riding to work more often than driving. If I get too sore, though, I'll have to take rest days off. I'll just see how it goes.

The other good news from today's ride - my business license for Glittering Throng Press came through! The website is being revamped so that we'll be able to sell e-books and print books directly to readers. Stay tuned!

Deleted, Restored, Renamed

After my last post I became frustrated with being in pain and thought I'd remove the blog for good. I deleted it, but Blogger gives you a 90 day recycling bin. After a few days I decided to restore the blog and changed the name. Why the name change? Mostly because I started "Read Leader" when I was doing the Thurston County Bicycle Commuter Contest, and since I'm no longer participating in BCC, it didn't seem to work any more.

Fiction Rider worked better for me, playing on fiction writer.

Yesterday I went for a short ride out and around town. It wasn't much, but it was nice to get out. This next week I'm going to see the doctor, and make sure that I'm healing normally. I think so. I think it just isn't as fast as I would hope.

In the meantime I'm not going to do any streaks or challenges. I'll ride and run when I can. I'd like to get to a point where I'm commuting regularly by bike and I'd like to take up some of my challenges to ride to the libraries and state parks.