My Own Private “Bike To Work” Week

The city’s annual Bike To Work Week usually takes place sometime in May, but I’m running my own personal version beginning tomorrow and cycling to work every day, in part because this might be the last week of my El Segundo gig (technically the contract is up Friday, but might be extended), and also because of the early arrival of daylight savings time today means my trips home will be a little bit better illuminated.

And also because dangit, it is statistically the fastest way for me to get there and back. Check out the  times of my combined morning and evening commutes (sampling the average of the fastest and slowest times of each option):

  • MTA (No. 2 bus to Blue Line to Green Line) — Morning: 72 minutes; Evening: 82 minutes = 154 minutes
  • Car (101 to 110 to 105 freeways) — Morning: 45 minutes; Evening: 74 minutes = 119 minutes
  • Bike (route) — Morning: 48 minutes; Evening: 68 minutes = 116 minutes

Three minutes faster than by car ain’t no big whoop, but when you factor in each mile in my truck costs around about half a dollar or so to operate, versus only several pennies (if that) on a bike and about a 130 calories burned — not to mention the priceless avoidance of gridlock aggravation — and it just makes sense, or cents even.

Then there’s the fact that during this year’s Bike To Work Week activities I won’t be here to do any biking, rather I’ll be on a Mediterranean vacation with my baby somewhere after Venice and Dubrovnik and Rome and Corsica and more either approaching and/or in Paris. So there’s more reason, however superfluous, not only to get a week’s worth of biking to work done while I’m actually working but also actually here.

As if I need reason or justification to ride.

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."