Who Has Time To Bike?

In honor of the Bike Walk Week, I thought I’d post some stuff this week about my commuting experience ever since my Buick broke down in March of 2009.

In my last post, I talked about all the money you can save by riding bike instead of driving a car.  But not everything is about the money.  One may argue that time is an important factor to consider.  After all, time is money.  What good is saving all this money if you’re adding hours to your daily commute and taking away opportunities to spend all that saved cash?

Obviously, everybody’s commute is different, but I’m going to use my current situation as an example.  The main intersection closest to my apartment is France Avenue and Minnetonka Boulevard.  From there, it’s roughly a 3 mile commute to my office at Copycats Media near the Sculpture Garden, Basilica, and Dunwoody College.

Biking

Biking from home to work is a breeze for me.  My route consists of quiet neighborhood streets and two main bike trails.  I usually will get to the office in about 10-15 minutes.  This is typically the quickest option.  For those not familiar with biking, a trail is the equivalent to an interstate highway.  You can really fly on a bike trail without having to worry about too many intersections, traffic lights, and sharing the road with two-ton automobiles.  If you can map a route from your home to your workplace using trails, it will make your commute a whole lot easier (and less intimidating if you are just beginning).

Easiest commute ever.

Busing

My other option is to take the bus.  While it’s about the same length, this method of transport is the slowest for various reasons.  The first is just getting to the bus stop.  It typically takes me about 3 minutes from the time I step out of my apartment to the time I arrive at the bus stop itself.

Then comes the waiting game.  This is the part I hate the most.  You want to time it perfectly so you leave your apartment and get to the bus stop right before the bus arrives so you have minimal waiting time.  This is also a risky maneuver, because you’ll have to wait another 10-15 minutes if you just miss it.  I typically try to leave my apartment at least 5 minutes before the scheduled arrival.  This gives me about 2 minutes to stand and wait, and also leaves me with some flexibility in case the bus is running early.

Well, fuck.

Next comes the 10 minute ride from my bus stop to the Uptown Transit Station on Hennepin and Lagoon.  Here comes the big wild card: transferring buses.  I jump from route 17 to route 6.  Sometimes I get lucky and arrive right as the #6 is arriving, but other times, I just miss it.  And other times, I arrive with just a few minutes to wait.  I’ll estimate it’s about a 5 minute wait.

I ride the #6 bus down Hennepin Avenue for about 10 minutes until I get to Loring Park.  The last leg of my journey is walking from the bus stop to my office.  My office is unfortunately located in a weird little spot with no bus stops close by, so the walk typically takes 5 minutes.

If you add it all up, it’s about 35 minutes to ride the bus to work if all is well.  Again, there are quite a few x-factors that can make this trip even longer (and more aggravating).  This is why I opted to bike to work this morning through the rain instead of taking the bus.

Driving

And finally, there’s the option of driving to work.  I do this on occasion with my girlfriend’s car, and it typically takes the same time as biking.  The easiest route is taking Minnetonka Boulevard to Highway 100 North, and then merging onto I394 East to the Hennepin/Dunwoody Exit.  The only x-factors that can add time to this commute are traffic jams (which happen quite frequently on those two highways) and parking.  The lot at our office is small and there’s rarely any nearby street parking available.  If you don’t get there early enough for a spot, you have to drive and park at “the loop.”  This is way back by the Blake School and Parade Ice Garden, and will take you 10-15 more minutes to drive over there and walk back to the office.

That’s really where biking holds an advantage over driving or busing.  There are less x-factors that slow down  your commute.  The only thing that could really slow you down is if you have a flat or get in an accident.  But the odds of that happening are probably the same when driving a car.

Going the Distance

Finally, I’ll touch on one other factor that affects the time of any commute: distance.  Living only 3 miles from my office makes my commute pretty damn easy no matter how I decide to travel.  If I have the time, I’ll sometimes even walk to work.  It only takes about an hour.

However, if you live 30 miles from your workplace, it makes it a little trickier to commute by bike.  If you are renting, the easiest solution is to find yourself an apartment closer to your office.   The time you save by living closer to the office will be huge no matter how you commute.

But what do you do if you’re locked into a 30-year mortgage on a house that’s so far away from work?  Here are some tips that will hopefully help encourage you to try biking:

• Remember that bike trails are like freeways and will make any bike ride easy and relaxing.  Try to find trails that can take you to where you want to go.  If you live in the west metro like I do, try checking out the Three Rivers Park District website for info about all the bike trails.
• Find out the time difference between driving and biking.  You may scoff at a bike commute that takes you 1.5 hours to get to work, but when it takes you 1 hour to arrive by car, you’re really only adding a half-hour each way.  That extra hour of exercise will allow you to…
• Drop your gym membership!  If you’re biking for 3 hours on a round-trip commute, no need to waste another hour or two at the gym when you come home at night.  You’ll already have your workout completed.
• Try a mixed commute.  Ride your bike to a bus stop and hop on.  Metrotransit buses and trains are equipped with racks to hold bikes.  You can also do a “park and ride” with your car and bike.  Drive part of the way, park your in a safe spot, and bike the rest of the way in.

Converting to a full time bike commuter isn’t easy.  Like I mentioned previously, I was forced into it when my car broke down.  I don’t expect everybody to go out and bike to work every day, 12 months a year.  I personally think that winter biking is pretty crazy.  But if you make even a small commitment, like biking to work just once a week, you’ll feel real good.  Hopefully, that will make you want to ride even more.

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