The FA family cumulatively owns a pickup truck, a jeep, two motorcycles, and an ungodly number of bicycles. This sounds ridiculous, but we'd like to note we recently sold a second Jeep, so technically we're "downsizing."
According to our fancy schmancy spreadsheet, we spend an average of $270 per month on gasoline, which is about 3% of our monthly budget. An interesting thing to note, however, is that Mr. FA drives a company truck to and from work, and does not pay for the gas for said vehicle. Therefore, the majority of this $270 expenditure comes from MRS. FA's commute, trips around town, and vacation driving. Are you ready for the ridiculous part? Mr. and Mrs. FA's offices are less than a mile apart. Mr. FA works in the field primarily, but he goes to the office first thing almost every morning, so what on earth is Mrs. FA doing driving her own pickup truck to work everyday?! While there are plenty of answers to that question, most of them boil down to excuses to be lazy. The truth of the matter is that Mrs. FA would rather hit the snooze button repeatedly until seven in lieu of getting up at the earliest rooster crow like Mr. FA, which kind of precludes carpooling.
Sooooooo, Mr. FA has committed to forcing an insufferably grumpy Mrs. FA out of bed each morning, and transporting said grumpy person and her bicycle to the office. (He also locks it up for her so she doesn't get her pretty work clothes all mussed - what a guy!). Mrs. FA gets a healthy bike ride home, and no $$$ gets spent on commuting. On days when carpooling isn't feasible for one reason or another, Mrs. FA has committed to riding the motorcycle (58 mpg) in lieu of driving the truck (19 mpg). Ol' Red gets put out to pasture, only to be used on the weekends and for errands that require cargo carrying.
Biking home takes some creative route planning. Driving the truck to work is a 13-mile route which looks like the picture on the left below:
According to our fancy schmancy spreadsheet, we spend an average of $270 per month on gasoline, which is about 3% of our monthly budget. An interesting thing to note, however, is that Mr. FA drives a company truck to and from work, and does not pay for the gas for said vehicle. Therefore, the majority of this $270 expenditure comes from MRS. FA's commute, trips around town, and vacation driving. Are you ready for the ridiculous part? Mr. and Mrs. FA's offices are less than a mile apart. Mr. FA works in the field primarily, but he goes to the office first thing almost every morning, so what on earth is Mrs. FA doing driving her own pickup truck to work everyday?! While there are plenty of answers to that question, most of them boil down to excuses to be lazy. The truth of the matter is that Mrs. FA would rather hit the snooze button repeatedly until seven in lieu of getting up at the earliest rooster crow like Mr. FA, which kind of precludes carpooling.
Sooooooo, Mr. FA has committed to forcing an insufferably grumpy Mrs. FA out of bed each morning, and transporting said grumpy person and her bicycle to the office. (He also locks it up for her so she doesn't get her pretty work clothes all mussed - what a guy!). Mrs. FA gets a healthy bike ride home, and no $$$ gets spent on commuting. On days when carpooling isn't feasible for one reason or another, Mrs. FA has committed to riding the motorcycle (58 mpg) in lieu of driving the truck (19 mpg). Ol' Red gets put out to pasture, only to be used on the weekends and for errands that require cargo carrying.
Biking home takes some creative route planning. Driving the truck to work is a 13-mile route which looks like the picture on the left below:
Unfortunately, you can see that the most direct routes are busy roads and interstates, and there are two major obstacles (the water and I-64) that must be crossed, safely, on bicycle. When you're planning out a route for bicycling, things like clover-leaf interchanges and four-lane vehicle bridges scream "Death trap!" Clover leafs are the worst - there really is no safe way to cross them - people are merging in both directions and they're typically far more worried about getting on or off of the interstate than they are about squishing some silly, slow bicycle rider wearing funny looking socks.
The route on the right above is the only route available that uses mainly secondary roads, requires no clover leaf interchange crossings, and has a dedicated pedestrian bridge across the water. Total mileage: 17.9. There used to be a pedestrian underpass under Rte. 168 that shortened this trip to 14.5 miles, but it is closed for construction until the summer of 2014 (way to go, City of Chesapeake).
All told, what this screams is that we need to work on making our city more bicycle-friendly, so that cyclists don't have to add five miles to their trip just to commute safely. That's a political rant for another day, though.
While this may seem like a long bike ride, I can safely say that after having completed it three times this week, it's really an hour and a half opportunity to shed the stress of work, think uninterrupted, get in a good workout, and feel truly immersed in the city I live in. People smile and wave to bicyclists, cars are friendlier than you think they'd be, and you notice things you never noticed before when you aren't zooming past them at sixty miles per hour. Plus, when you stop in at CVS on the way home wearing bike shorts, a helmet and a Camelbak, you feel a little like a rock star.
And, you get to stop at the top of the Berkeley Bridge, all sweaty and out of breath, and take in this gorgeous view:
All told, what this screams is that we need to work on making our city more bicycle-friendly, so that cyclists don't have to add five miles to their trip just to commute safely. That's a political rant for another day, though.
While this may seem like a long bike ride, I can safely say that after having completed it three times this week, it's really an hour and a half opportunity to shed the stress of work, think uninterrupted, get in a good workout, and feel truly immersed in the city I live in. People smile and wave to bicyclists, cars are friendlier than you think they'd be, and you notice things you never noticed before when you aren't zooming past them at sixty miles per hour. Plus, when you stop in at CVS on the way home wearing bike shorts, a helmet and a Camelbak, you feel a little like a rock star.
And, you get to stop at the top of the Berkeley Bridge, all sweaty and out of breath, and take in this gorgeous view: