Gas Prices -- Help at last?

JohnH wrote:

Your route sounds like an even better candidate for a bicycle
commute.

Yes, if you live in the south. Bikes only work about half the year
here in northern PA.


What causes them to cease functioning the other half of the year?

Snow and ice mainly and the road salt would likely ruin a bike in now
time at all. I can just see the alloy parts after two weeks of riding
in road salt.


If you meant "it's too cold to ride", consider about twice as many people
regularily commute by bicycle in PA than in GA...

Cold is a problem also. I live 22 miles from where I work and it takes
me 90 minutes to ride that far in the summer (hint: it isn't level where
I live). That would be a long ride wearing a lot of clothes at zero or
below.


http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/survey/commuter.htm

I'm not surprised. Most northerners are a lot tougher than southerners.
:-)


Matt

Cold is a problem also. I live 22 miles from where I work and it
takes me 90 minutes to ride that far in the summer (hint: it isn't
level where I live). That would be a long ride wearing a lot of
clothes at zero or below.

Then don't ride a bike if it's too hard for you; not everyone is capable of
it. I'm not sure how you felt this was directed to you anyway; I was simply
pointing out to Jay that a 4 mile commute is usually quite practical via
bicycle. If it's really bad weather, use another means or better yet stay
home or at the inn.

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/survey/commuter.htm

I'm not surprised. Most northerners are a lot tougher than
southerners. :-)

In which case a 22 miler ought to be a piece of cake for a tough northerner
like you! :-)

In article 0li2f.468753$xm3.119049@attbi_s21,
Jay Honeck wrote:

The bus stops 1 block from my home -- which sucks in bad weather. It then
goes downtown -- a distance of 2.5 miles -- but takes forever to get there.
It travels down narrow city streets that were never designed for busses,
stopping every block, backing up traffic everywhere along the way.

Once downtown, I would have to transfer to another bus to travel the
remaining 1.5 mile to the hotel, with it once again stopping every 200 yards
along the way. The entire trip would take a bit more than an hour.

Or, I can drive to my office in less than 15 minutes.


Its all in the design and the service focus. I was in germany last winter
and there was a bus stop 1 block away from where I was staying. It took
me only 3 days to adjust my morning routing so as to arrive exactly
on time with the bus to the bus stop, thus avoiding all waiting on the
bus stop. And yes, german busses are VERY exact.

I was 3 stops sway from the end of the bus line and the bus took 12 minutes
to arrive Downtown where I could take any bus to another part of the city.

I could reach anywhere in the city in less than 40 minutes, and it was
a lot more than 2.5 miles....

A lot of people had NO car or used it only in the weekends. Every street had
bikepaths and they were occupied all year round. In the summer a lot of
people rode their bikes to work. And yes, you can leave you bike at the
station with just a small chain and the bike will be there when you came back.

side note: In the city I was there was some public outcry for
a recent bus accident that left one fatality. It was the first public
transportation accident in 15 years and the first public transporttion
fatality in the city in 40 years, my host told me...


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