18 Minutes
Guest blogger Greg Kushmerek continues his series of articles on bike commuting:
I am the parent of young children, one of which has recently started at public school. As with many working parents, I need to juggle my work schedule with their school schedules.
This week I tried a little experiment: compare a car-based vs. bike-based commute while doing school drop-off for a 15-mile commute.
Bike Day
- Put bike seat on back of bike.
- Load child on bike.
- Ride to school (5 blocks).
- Lock bike to fence (no bike racks).
- Drop-off
- Ride back home and deposit bike seat.
- Bike to work
Bicycle: Dahon Cadenza (my slower, heavier bike). Arrive at work: 9:28
I was showered and working before 10AM. Had the work VPN been up that morning, I’d have had 30 extra minutes at home to check and respond to messages.
Drive Day
- Walk child to school
- Drop-off
- Walk back home
- Drive car
Car commute conditions were a touch heavier than normal, but within the mean. Arrive at work: 9:10
Conclusion
Sacrificing the bike for the car (or forsaking the bike for the car — your call) doesn’t yield major gains, at least not for me. Had it been inclement weather or a good deal colder the car puts in a more obvious advantage. The time gains from the car are even a bit inflated when you consider that on car-day, I arrived at the school five minutes earlier. One could argue that less traffic would lead to bigger time gains, but I know I can get to work faster on my Felt (about 3mph / 5min faster).
Given a flexible work environment where some on-line work or staying a touch later is allowed, the time difference isn’t enough to warrant giving up the bike for the car.
For some people arriving 18 minutes later and sweaty is just a no-go. For those who live a lot closer to where they work, that time gap could practically vanish, and one might not even need to clean up.
Posted: September 18th, 2009 | Filed under: Cycling, Transportation |
I encourage others to make this comparison–it’s one of the things I use to talk up bike commuting to people who think it takes longer.
My kids no longer need my assistance to get to school, but my work has a number of out-of-office meetings so that may make up for it in complications.
I live in Spokane, WA. I’m a 100% bike commuter till it’s too slippery, then I switch to the bus. My daily roundtrip is only 5 miles; with typical meeting schedules I can end up doing 7-10 total; unusual days might add a 20-mile roundtrip for a meeting, which would skew the time factor in favor of the car.
Bike Day:
- Fill panniers w/my stuff (any clothing changes, lunch, phone etc)
- Bike to work (2.5 miles/approx 9 minutes, mostly downhill w/some traffic sprints)
- Lock bike to rack, go into office
- Remove outerwear, change into work shoes (or change all clothing if I really dressed for the cold)
Total elapsed time approx 15 min. (slightly longer if I take the bike into our indoor sheltered bike parking due to weather conditions, because I have to get through the locked door and lift the bike up high to hang it on the rack)
Car Day:
- Round up personal items & find purse to put them into, because usually I leave some things in my pannier ready to go.
- Drive to work. This may include extra wait time because I don’t have a dedicated lane that lets me bypass left-turning vehicles. On my bike I can keep going past, because my route has a bike lane for most of its length.
- Park somewhere in the lot, which involves circling to find a spot.
- Walk to building (guaranteed to be a longer walk than bike rack, since that’s right next to the building entrance)
- Remove outerwear.
Total elapsed time: At least 15 min.
Bike Day: Additional effort to go to meetings in downtown core:
- Hang pannier on bike w/my stuff for meeting
- Use binder clip or rubber band to contain right pant leg.
- Ride to meeting 1/2 mi. away (my pedals are clip-in one side, regular on the other, so I don’t have to change shoes)
- Lock bike to rack or parking meter in front of destination.
- Arrive at meeting.
Total elapsed time approx 7 min.
Car Day: Additional effort to go to meetings in downtown core:
- Remember where I parked my car in the lot.
- Walk to car.
- Drive to meeting 1/2 mi. away.
- Circle until I find a parking spot.
- Realize I don’t usually carry parking meter change because I don’t need it on my bike.
- Sprint into meeting destination, beg change from others in the meeting, sprint back to car.
- Plug meter.
- Walk at brisk pace back to meeting.
Total elapsed time: Completely variable depending on location of parking spot and availability of spare change (which I admittedly DO try to carry in the car, but I use it so seldom there’s no guarantee). ALWAYS, always longer than 7 min.
Additional variable cost: $15 parking ticket.
I’ll take my bike, thank you very much.
Oh, and my transit alternative? There’s a stop on the road that goes past my building, and the central transit plaza is in the heart of downtown, right across the street from one of my main destinations for meetings. 7 minutes start to finish.
@BarbChamberlain
@Bike2WrkSpokane
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Why does a CAR day include walking children to school?
& as walking 1/2 mile takes approx 7-8mins, is it worth going by bike?
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