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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