I have been a bike commuter now for two weeks. Every morning as I tuck my right pant leg into my sock, strap on my helmet, and head off for work, I feel so metropolitan and environmentally conscious. I quietly give myself a pat on the back, even though the truth is I could not drive if I wanted to--if you live in student family housing, you aren't allowed to buy a ridiculously expensive campus parking permit.
The ride to work (which will be exactly the same as the ride to school) is between ten and fifteen minutes, depending on which way I'm going. The way there, for some reason, is quite a bit more difficult and thus slower. The majority of the ride is on a paved bike trail and if there's an incline it's visually imperceptible, but each morning as I ride to work my legs burn and I feel like the wheels are dragging. Perhaps it's the direction of the wind, or the condition of my legs in the morning as opposed to the afternoon, or simply the fact that in the afternoon I'm done with the day, on my way home, and thus feeling lighter.
Regardless of the reason for the difference between one way and the other, I don't manage to keep up with the other bikers going either way. This is due to a combination of the fact that I hadn't owned a bicycle in about fifteen years before moving to Seattle and the fact that I don't wear tight little biker shorts. Everyone knows that tights make you faster. Maybe after I've been riding a while I'll get in better shape so I can go faster and feel confident enough in my physique to wear tights in public.
The problem now is that all this might have become moot this afternoon. I was running late to get to work so I asked Foxy J to drop me off--a mistake, as we realized as soon as we saw the unmoving cars lined up along 45th Street. She ended up dropping me quite a distance from the library, but I still made it to work much faster than if she had tried to drive me any closer. I was only about a minute late, in fact. If I've lost you by now you should know that the last three sentences are a tangent. The point is that I didn't have my bike, so I walked home from work. It took me less than fifteen minutes.*
So now do I continue making a ten-minute bike ride to campus every day, only to spend five minutes on each side strapping up and down, tucking in and out, and locking and unlocking, or do I just take the fifteen-minute walk? Riding a bike is good exercise, but walking is nothing to shake a stick at. The advantage to biking is that I will likely get faster as I get used to it, while walking is walking is walking. I'm as fast a walker now as I'll ever be. The advantage to walking is that I wouldn't have to worry about finding an open space on a bike rack, or repairing flat tires, or running over squirrels.
Any thoughts from the blogosphere?
*If you're wondering why it takes me just as long to bike as to walk, just picture the very big hill that I ride around the long way on my bike but have no problem going up or down on foot.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Well, from my point of view, one consideration is what you will have to carry.
If you will be going straight to a class after work, and have a lot of books to carry, I think biking is easier than walking. I love to walk, but I feel 'weighted down' if I have a lot to carry. Though it would still add weight to your bike, it doesn't seem like it would interfere with enjoying the ride. 'Just my perspective.
Mix em up!! Walking is great for your health all the rest of your life but biking will get you places faster when you need speed (well, maybe not in the U-district).
One son-in-law did a Pasco to BL bike trip a few weekends ago followed by a hike on Mt. St. Helens a couple weeks later. And there is always the Seattle-to-Portland if one is feeling frisky.
My son bikes to work every day but he has been biking for years. He has some goo in his tires so they never go flat as does the Pasco family who bike together often.
Variation makes life interesting.
On a side note, I passed the U-district yesterday at 1:21pm and wished I could come by and meet you. Another time, for sure.
Ride your bike until you're stronger. That Very Big Hill will become a Very Small Hill.
After bicycle commuting this summer, I average about 16.5mph on my bike over the 14 miles I ride in. I started much slower than that last year. You do get faster... Much.
I bet you'll be down to 7 minutes by the end of Fall :)
It's true that you will get better and faster on your bike as the weeks progress. Eons ago, I wanted to accompany some teens on an 80 mile/3day bike trip, so I bought a cheap bike, got up early, and rode on the bike trail near our home that took me 1.3 miles to the beach. The first two weeks, I'd end up getting off and pushing my bike up the ramp onto the fishing pier that stretched out into the ocean. I was too weak to peddle up there. After 6 weeks, I could fly up the ramp and I had a blast on the 80 mile trip three months later. And sometimes walking would just be nice, because it is quiet and calm.
I think you should bike, because then you can come down the Very Big Hill at the end of the day, and nothing makes a bad day better than going very fast with very little effort and maybe almost dying in an exciting way.
bike when the weather is good and there is still some light; walk when it is dark and rainy. works for me.
I'm sure that you already know my opinion but I'll share it anyway :) Stick with the biking. It won't take long for that 10 minute ride to turn into a 5 minute ride and that hill will be nothing at all. Is it the one that I rode up when I was out there? And definitely get some biker shorts. They may not make you any faster but you will sure feel sexy :)
.
I've just started riding a bike after, mm, a 12-year hiatus, and I'm discovering long-forgotten muscles. The thing I miss about walking is reading whilst I walk.
along with reading, walking is also better for thinking about posts and comments and making up your pollitically correct, job-preserving, yet pointed response to an annoying coworker or customer. Biking requires too much attention to car door openings and potholes.
Post a Comment