Perhaps that’s a bit dramatic, but it has been good for me.
October 12 and still wearing shorts?!
October 10 marked 6 months since I parked my car. I’ve been riding my bike to work a minimum of 3 days per week, and I’ve been using the vechicle my wife drives for the other days. I’ve enjoyed it so much, that I’m going to try to continue this through the winter and have started to think about dropping the second car, all together. We shall see how the cold 6 months goes.
Riding my bike has saved me in a number of ways, and while I realize that riding your bike to work may be impossible for some, there are lots of reasons to consider using your bike more often, for things other than just going for a bike ride.
Saving Time And Avoiding Traffic
I like driving but I bloody well hate traffic, and Toronto traffic is awful. In fact, in the past few years I’ve become aware that one of my main sources of stress is commuting. Even in the short drive to work – a jaunt that takes 8 minutes with no traffic in the mornings – can take 30-45 minutes in the afternoon rush.
When my wife and I bought our house in the city of Toronto, one of the selling factors was that it’s really close to the studio district – a cluster of film studios on the edge of downtown Toronto, where I knew I’d be working from time to time. From 2016 until now I’ve been working on a show at Pinewood Toronto Studios. It’s just over 5KM from our house, meaning that the location of our home purchase has worked out very well for me, and exceptionally well for riding a bike. I can now make the one way trip in under 15 minutes. In the afternoon rush, guess how long it takes me – 15 minutes. Traffic is more or less a non-issue, and that means I can spend more time doing the things I want to do, and less time fucking about in traffic. As I’ve said before, I believe that time is the most valuable comodity that there is.
Saving Money
Sick of getting gouged for fuel and car insurance prices? Me too. In the six months I’ve been biking, I’ve saved over $700 in insurance and probably that again in fuel costs. Maybe more. Not to mention the miscellaneous car maintenance costs that spring up. Could you use an extra $2800+per year?
Saving The Environment
If you don’t believe that climate change is a real thing yet, I’ll consider you a lost cause. For the rest of you, getting into your car less, and onto your bike more is a great way to cut down your CO2 emmsions AND stick it to the massive corporations that are getting rich on your automobile use.
Saving You From Cardio Day
I’ve sort of always hated doing endurance sports. Running for the sake of running bores me to tears. I’ve never run much further than 10KM at a time, simply because I get bored of it. Really, the only reason I ever run is because I know it’s good for my heart, lungs and body composition.
Guess what I haven’t done ONCE since I started riding my bike. I’m riding about 30KM per week, which isn’t much, but it’s enough to get most, or perhaps even more of the benefits I would get from one or two runs/week, and I’m doing it all during my commute, saving me even more time.
DISCLAIMER
Over the summer, my wife was riding 10KM to work, and she enjoyed it as well; however, now that we’re getting close to winter and the days are getting shorter, she doesn’t feel comfortable riding. I realize that if you live more than 15KM from work, riding your bike probably isn’t in the cards, but if you’re inside a city and reasonably close to your place of work, you should give it a shot. But even if you can’t bike to work, what about for doing small errands like hitting the bank or grabbing a few small things from the grocery store? I always try to find a way to kill two birds with one stone, so if you can accomplish a task that you had to do anyway, AND get some exercise, then that’s a winning combination. Everyday you ride you’re getting some great exercise, saving money and there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of getting fit AND flying past bumper-to-bumper traffic on your bicycle.
What do you think? Am I a fool for thinking I can bike through the winter?
