[This commute story is from Dale Oswald. -ed.]

I live in a medium-sized metro area with a lot of tech jobs going away. Though the economy is suffering, there are still jobs out there, but they’re with smaller companies that pay less and are scattered about. My situation put me at a new job, farther away from work (32mi/50km). Despite the lower pay and longer commute, I am fortunate to find work that matches my skills, experience and temperament.

My medium-sized metro area also has spotty transit coverage. My commute starts on one side of the city and ends at the other. Park & Ride busses aren’t scheduled to make this kind of connection, and using local buses doubles my transit time. I only use transit when no other option is available. Combinations of bike and bus don’t work well, either.

My solution is to drive about 20 miles and ride 13. The night before, I load my bag and lay out my cycling clothes. I drive an older car with little theft value that is large enough to put my SWB recumbent inside. I park in a shopping plaza near a multi-use trail, then use the trail plus suburban streets to ride to work. The process starts at 5:45 am and ends at 8:00 or so. At night, I leave my desk at 5 pm and am home by 7 pm. When all is said and done, this combination takes me about 1:50 longer than driving, but it’s all riding time. And at today’s fuel prices (6/08) I have reduced my daily fuel cost from US$11.25 to $7.

The only glitch in this is that the last half mile is on a busy arterial with no shoulders. I found a way around by obtaining permission to cross private property (church grounds) to the back of my place of employment.

Commuting to work will always be more of a hassle than driving or using transit. Walking out your door in street clothes and arriving at work ready to go is simpler and faster than changing clothes, locking up your bike and covering the seat, walking back and forth from your work area to where you change, doing extra laundry and managing your clothing in variable weather. Yes, you can minimize this by getting your systems down pat, or if your work facilities include a locker room and shower. It’s also easier if you can work and cycle in the same clothes. But it is worth it to me, for the health benefits, money saved and the clearer conscience on reducing my footprint on the earth.

Thirty years ago I lived in a bush town near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and worked at a nickel mine some 10km from my home I had a choice of commutes; eiher via the main road or through the bush.

Once I’d bought myself one of the earliest model Mountain bikes, the bush route became easily the more popular. I could tell you a thousand stories of my daily rides to and from the mine, from low level bombing raids from the local bird population, to a face to face confrontation with a very beautiful and very deadly Dugite (Snake).

When I reached the mine, my bicycle was the only one to be seen. We had a workforce of about 150 men all of whom drove to work. I was considered to be at least slightly eccentric or, more often, raving mad.

That was thiry years ago. Last year I returned to my old haunts and visited the mine. There would have been up to 20 bikes leaning against the fence. I doubt that the miners are more inclined to exercise, rather that the increase in cycling to work has been brought about by higher petrol prices.

Now I am retired so my commute days are over, which, happily, gives me more time to ride my bikes. —Terry

I have a short commute I have been riding for a few years now. Sometimes I’ll ride my mountain bike to work and take an extended turn through a large park that runs along a local ridge in New Haven, CT. There is a lot of wildlife there, I’ll see ducks, hear frogs, see deer and wild turkeys, but the weirdest thing I saw was a deer carcass that had either rotted away over the winter or some carnivores had had at it.  It was picked pretty clean and freaked me out when I first saw it near the trail.
—Glenn, Hamden, CT, Riding a Canondale touring bike from 1985

I’ve created a “Commute Stories” category to house readers’ stories from the road. I’m a big believer in sharing knowledge and I know we have a lot to learn from one another, so if you’re willing to share your bike commuting story, I’d love to post it here on EcoVelo. Just send your write-up in the body of an e-mail to alan@barnardesign.com, and if you have an accompanying photo, please attach it to the same. Thanks!

Ready for Anything

I recently transitioned from a mix of telecommuting and car commuting, to multi-modal commuting using bike, bus, and train. In the process we eliminated a car and we’ll cut our annual automobile mileage by approximately 75%.

I’m fortunate that my monthly transit pass is valid on city commuter buses, county commuter buses, and Amtrak commuter trains and motor coaches. These options make it possible to start my commute as early as 5 a.m. and finish as late as 7 p.m. To come and go at convenient times for my changing work schedule, I often mix it up, taking the train in the morning and the bus back in the evening, or vice versa. It’s been a real adventure, trying out all the options, figuring out where, when, and how to fold and stow the Brompton to make the various connections required to complete my 60 mile round-trip.

Here’s one example of a typical commute day:

Morning

• Out the door at 6:40 a.m., ride 5 miles to the Amtrak station.
• Board the train at 7:05.
• Depending upon whether the bike rack is full or not, either load the bike into the rack, or fold it up and carry it upstairs and place it between a pair of seat backs.
• Arrive at the downtown station at 7:35.
• Unfold the bike, exit the train, and ride the 6 blocks to the office.
• Bikes are not allowed in the front entrance of the building, so partially fold the bike and roll it in as a “cart”.
• Take it up the elevator to my work area, finish folding it and stow it under the desk.
• Get cleaned up and start work before 8:00.

Afternoon

• Partially unfold the bike into “cart” mode. Exit down the elevator and out the front door by 4:00 p.m.
• Completely unfold the bike and ride 10 blocks uptown to intercept the commuter bus where it first comes into downtown. Doing so gets me on the bus ahead of the busiest stops near the capitol where it quickly turns into standing room only.
• Fold and cover the bike to put it in “stealth” mode for the bus. Get on the bus at 4:15 and take a seat near the front where there’s room to stow the bike.
• Chill for an hour.
• Arrive in the suburbs at 5:15.
• Exit the bus, unfold the bike, and ride the 5 miles to the house.
• Get cleaned up and sit down to dinner before 6:00.

“No Bikes Allowed” : Ha!

This may all sound like a lot of work, but actually I find it quite enjoyable. It’s a great way to get in an hour’s worth of low intensity exercise every day, and the down time on the train/bus helps me to unwind from 8-9 hours of intense work on the computer. Overall I’m spending an extra 40-45 minutes on the road, but 60 minutes of my total travel time is on the bike, which in my mind doesn’t count, so I’ve actually gained a net 15 minutes.

My old two-hour round-trip commute by car did nothing but add to my daily stress quotient. Now I look forward to my commute and arrive relaxed and refreshed; even without the numerous other benefits, this makes it well worth the effort.

In this fun video, Bike Friday’s irrepressible “Gal From Down Under”, Lynette Chiang, and Bicycle Victoria’s David Larson, take her Tikit on one of Melbourne’s trams to test out the City’s new policy of allowing folding-bikes-in-bags on all forms of public transit.