I was reading Ryan's take on commuting, and I started coming up with a bunch of reasons why commuting to work rocks. In fact, I'm going to list N reasons to commute, where N equals however many reasons I end up coming up with:
*Because Chad swears that commuting is his main form of training, and he's sorta fast.
*Because now when I see and pass a traffic jam, it secretly makes me kind of happy.
*It makes that new $2000 bike totally worth it. The money Ill save in gas will pay for that bike in a mere 5.37 years (my commute is only 5 miles round trip, assuming I go directly to and from work (see the Nth reason)).
*Provides a good excuse to take the elevator to and from your office, because we all know that taking the stairs is for suckas.
*You get to put your nose up at all of those gas guzzling SUVs.
*Taking pride in beating all of those gas guzzling SUVs to the next stop light.
*Your odds of getting killed on a bike (1 in 348,347) are less than being killed in your car (1 in 19,216) (yes, I realize I'm skewing these statistics in my favor, but that's what statistics are for).
*Because how often will someone try to run you over with a lawnmower if you are driving in a car?
*Let's say your commute is 16 miles per day. You've eliminated about 5000 lbs of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.
*Because riding a bike to work seems to make my coworkers more tolerant of the fact that I wear shorts to work. Yes, you read that right. I've been wearing shorts to work for the past month.
*The N'th reason to commute to work: Because it completely changes the meaning of "honey, I'm heading to work." Now, if you happen to take a detour around the Alpine Loop, or go shred some of the singletrack above your house on your way to work, it's all just part of going to work. Not that I'd ever stoop to such a despicably low level in order to get a ride in (in case you're reading this, Wesla). This gives you an idea of how my commute might look on a morning in May if I were to take a quick detour on my way to work:
Since N can be any number, feel free to add to this list in the comments.
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5 comments:
Two more to add. These might seem contradictory, but I think the added sense of community overrides impulse buying in this case:
N+1: It’s much easier to stop at Kool-Aid stands when on a bike.
N+2: It prevents impulse shopping--if it’s too big to haul on your bike, you probably need some time to think about whether you really need it.
I've had the kids pour the Kool-Aid directly into my water bottle. Since it's easy to haul on my bike, the (N+1)th reason does not contradict the (N+2)th reason.
You guys are nerds. Wait, so am I.
Ever since I started working from home I have missed stooping to such despicably low levels.
Good reasons. I have been lazy about bike commuting this year. Only done it a handful of times. I live 2 miles from my office.
N+n:
When you commute by bike, even if it is a short distance and that is your only ride of the day, you can still feel justified that you "trained" that day.
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