Bus/Bike to Work -- I did it!

I just got back from work and I feel totally triumphant -- I bus/biked to work and back home. This is a pretty big deal for me because last week I rode the scooter, but because of the scary traffic, I feared for my life. It also took me about 30-35 minutes each way. Blah.

Today, it took about 45 minutes each way. I rode about 1/2 mile on the way there (between bus stops) and about 3 miles on the way back. So, about 10 minutes more than by scooter. The nice thing, however, was that I was able to spend about 20-25 minutes of that time grading. Productive time. So nice, and so desperately needed now that I am home with the kids all day and teaching at night.

Something I am trying to figure out... how do I go to the grocery store to get the massive amounts of food that we need... with the kids? It just seems SOOO painful without the car.

Austin update: There is a new bike pathway -- the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. It is really nice. It is open from Lamar at Cesar Chavez all the way to Austin High. It is a nice way to stay out of the traffic. It feels so civilized and is faster than riding on the trail. It's also great at night, because you don't have to worry about traffic not seeing you and you don't have to worry about obstacles in the road.

I do have a problem with this bikeway, though, in that it runs parallel to a bike trail. I think there's a lot of other things they could have spent the money on to make cycling nicer in Austin. When it is complete, however, it will connect all the way to the east side of town, which is sorely needed.

Additional update: If you are interested in bike commuting and have a job downtown, Lance Armstrong's new bike shop Mellow Johnny's has showers and a coffee shop. It's right by the farmer's market. It's worth checking out. (I have only looked in the window -- I haven't checked out the facilities.)

5 Car Free Days

My car broke down on Tuesday. C went to "rescue" it and bring it to the shop. We have been car-less for 5 days. And it has been nice. It's been no problem.

How did I get to work?
I rode my scooter. If I had someone to watch the little one, I would have ridden the bus or bike/bussed because I'm a little scared to ride my scooter to work because of the traffic. I'm trying to address that problem for next week.

How did C get to work?
He rode his bike.

How did we get the kids to camp? (The two big ones had camp this week)
J rode his bike and N rode the trail-a-bike behind C's bike.

How did I take E to the park?
On the bike with the trailer. It was fun :)

How did we get groceries?
We only had to pick up a few things. We did it on the bike to the Expensive Mart down the street.

C and I had a date night. What did we do?
My MIL took the bus to our house to watch the kids. We rode our bikes to the springs and then downtown to have a nice dinner. We rode about 6 miles total, which helped cancel out the cake I had for dessert :)

We dropped my MIL off at work at 5 am. How did that work?
Normally, we would have driven her. Instead, she rode on the back of the scooter with my husband. They both wore helmets. It was so cute.

Speaking of, my MIL is the best. She's been car-free her WHOLE LIFE. That's right. She doesn't drive. She doesn't own a car. She doesn't even have a driver's license. Sometimes this is a big pain, but usually it is not a problem. Which is kind of surprising considering that she does not really live within easy walking distance of many things. She can walk to the bank and.... that's about it. If she wants to go to the grocery store, she asks someone to take her. If she goes in early to work, (5 am! No bus runs that early) she either calls a cab or gets a ride with a co-worker. For just about everything else, she takes the bus.

My MIL is in her late 50s, so if she can do it, other people can do it. She's in great shape, probably from all the walking to and from the bus stop. She owns her own house on a very moderate income, and I'm pretty sure that if she had the expense of owning and maintaining a car, affording a house would not be a possibility. Plus, she avoids a lot of danger. About 6 or 7 years ago, her kids (C included) tried to teach her to drive. This resulted in 2 accidents: crashing through the garage door and totaling the washer and dryer, and side-swiping an 18 wheeler. I love her, but we're all probably better off with her not driving.

An added advantage to not driving? If you live in Austin (and this probably is true for other places too) you can have the Transportation Fee on your electric bill removed if you don't own a car. Pretty cool.

Bike Commuting

C is so happy. He is finally a bike commuter. He can ride his bike to work with no problem and gets VIP parking at the bike rack. There are just a few kinks that need to be worked out:

• weather -- it poured rain today. Luckily, that was on the way home.
• flats -- C seems to be prone to flats. Last time he got a flat, he had to walk home 3 miles in the middle of the night. Not so good. He had everything he needed to change the flat except for a pump.
• sweat -- C said he was really sweaty when he first got to work. However, he had to race to work because he was helping me drop off the kids at camp. A more relaxed pace = less sweat.

In other biking news, we are trying to reduce our car use as much as we can. The two oldest kids are going to a camp that is close to our house. They were thrilled with the idea of riding to camp. J (6 yo) rode his bike and I brought N (5 yo) on the trail-a-bike. This only worked, though, because E was being watched by her grandmother. Babysitting and the frequent need for quick turnarounds seem to foil my desires to ride my bike.

For example, this morning, I had to be at work at 8:30. Camp drop-off was at 8. I might be able to ride to work in 30 minutes, but it would really be pushing it. If E had been at home, I would have had to find a sitter at 7:40 in the morning (don't currently have one that early). I ended up riding the scooter to work.

But wait! I said I rode the trail-a-bike. Then I rode the scooter? What's going on? Ah... the complication. So that we could bring the kids on bike, I rode the bike to their camp, then rode the scooter to work. A total pain. In the afternoon, C picked up the kids on bike. (This was actually even more complicated, but every time I write out the whole routine, it sounds too confusing. Let's just leave it at that... C rode his bike, the kids rode their bike, I rode my bike/scooted, and then drove in the afternoon. BLAH!)

There is a trade-off. More biking means more babysitting. I don't use much babysitting right now, so a little extra here and there really makes a difference. I hate to ask someone who's doing me a favor to wake up super early.

Once again, it seems that it all comes down to planning:

• Plan extra time into your morning and you can ride to work.
• Plan to have the necessary supplies to fix a flat.
• Plan to watch the weather -- it might rain while you're riding.
• Plan to have extra clothes at work, just in case!
• Really think about it when you sign kids up for activities that have drop-off times close to the time that you have to leave or return from work.
  

Driving Update

169 car miles this week -- 80 from camping. The rest of the miles were either from driving kids across town to visit MIL or for work (which couldn't be done on bike or scooter).

I'm seeing that it is very difficult to get our weekly mileage much lower. The only way that could reduce it further would be to move closer to my MIL or.... that's really all I can think of. Unfortunately, that's not really going to work because, although I love my MIL, she lives near a bad elementary school. I also prefer living close to town.

image from xtracycle.com

I have thought about getting an xtracycle to make hauling the kids around a little easier, but I'm not sure if it would really cut down on car trips.

What are the main reasons that we drive?

• car pool -- we share with 2 other families, so we only drive every 3 days. If we biked the kids to school, it would not cut out that much mileage. Plus, it would be a big pain. Next year, my daughter will be able to ride this bus so this will not be an issue. If I wake up late, the xtracycle would help get the kids to school without driving, however.
  
• camping -- I'm not in good enough shape to haul the kids and all the gear at least 30 miles.
  
• grocery shopping -- could be done on an xtracycle -- kind of a long ride (10 miles round trip unless I want to go to ExpensiveMart)
• have to pick up large heavy objects and transport them around town. Could be done on xtracycle.
• Bring kids to MIL -- can be done on bus, but takes a long time. Too far to be realistic for xtracycle.
• Going to work in bad weather -- besides the car, the bus is the best option here. Unfortunately, out of the 4 jobs that C and I have, only one can be reached without transferring or walking a long way. All jobs could be reached via bike, but would arrive wet. Hmmmmmm....

Any suggestions?

We ARE Traffic -- Critical Mass and bike riding

Today I ran into the critical mass bike ride. Pretty much literally. I was on the way home from school on the bus and the bus got stuck behind the cyclists. Since my bike was on the bus, I rang the bell, hopped off, and joined in.

About 10 years ago, I seem to remember a debate about critical mass -- some cyclists thought it was good -- others thought it just made drivers hate us. I'm not sure if this debate is still going on. What I do know is that I had a GREAT time, on the ride.

Basically, once a month a bunch of people meet on campus and then ride around town en masse. There doesn't seem to be a real organizer or a real plan. Maybe there is, but it doesn't seem like it. The people in front just decide where to go and the other people follow along. What is amazing is how great it feels to ride through the streets (during rush hour, mind you) and not be afraid. Because usually when I ride my bike in the city, I'm afraid. That's messed up.

So yes, critical mass does mess with traffic. But the people on the ride didn't seem too confrontational. They seemed pretty happy. And the people in cars can just chill out and wait for a few more minutes (because really that's all the delay we caused)... that seems fair considering the huge detours I make on my bike to avoid the busy streets that scare me.

This is supposed to be a "bike friendly" city, but it doesn't seem that way to me most of the time. The bike lanes are full of parked cars. How is that a bike lane? The bike lane on my road is probably 3 feet wide and full of cracks and holes and gravel. When I ride with the kids, I make them ride on the sidewalk because I don't feel like the bike lane on our street (which sees a lot of traffic going at least 35) is safe at all.

I think it's a bike friendly city in that there are lots of trails and there are a lot of people that ride recreationally. But not that many people ride for transportation. It seems like that number is increasing, but it's still a very small number.

Why don't more people ride for transportation? Here's some reasons:

• They can't get all sweaty before work.
• It's too far.
• They're out of shape.
• They think it will take too long.
• It's too scary.
• They have to carry a bunch of stuff.
• Bad weather.

There are answers to these excuses (and more!) here.
My main reasons to ride the bike (instead of driving) are:

• Parking is free and easy!
• Don't need to go to the gym.
• For short trips, it takes about the same amount of time.
• If you are riding along at a relaxed pace, you don't get too sweaty.
• People smile and wave and you can smile and wave back.
• Gives me a good excuse to eat more :)
  

Riding is especially fun if you bring your kids. Last summer we usually rode with the kids to the swimming pool. I would pull my son on a tag-a-long (tandem that attaches to my bike) and C would pull the girls in a trailer. People ALWAYS complimented us when we got to the pool -- "Oh, you're so fit... Oh, good for you." :) Sometimes I would take all the kids by myself, J on the tandem and then attach the trailer to that (bad for bike -- killed my gears) -- people were REALLY amazed by that. That was part of the fun. Then, because we didn't spend any money on gas or parking, we could justify a little treat like popsicles or something.