My Morning Commute

[consularrider]

Ok, I’ll play too (on the commuting comparison question).

Bike: 5 miles one way which is about 25 minutes (most safe and direct route, I have both an almost all MUP version and a couple road versions). I have to add about five minutes to change clothes.
Metro: 30 minutes (half of that is walking to/from the Metro station, also time can easily be longer in the evening with crowded trains). Daily cost is $5.40, but I can get reimbursed the full monthly cost.
Drive: about 15 – 20 minutes depending on traffic. This is just my best guess since I have never done it other than as a passenger. Also, parking as part of a carpool is $40 month split three ways.

[ShawnoftheDread]

Stealth stomach virus. Sick as a dog. No commute. Lame.

[colleen]

As for my commute:

Biking: 16 mi 80 min to work/70 min home
Driving: 19 mi ~30 min each way (can be up to 60 min in traffic) $6/day in gas plus more if I cave and take the HOT lanes
Bus: ugh…over 100 min each way with biking to the bus stop, so would always prefer biking or driving

I’m envisioning a potential 10 mi bike commute + silver line metro combo for days when I don’t want to go the whole way IF the silver line ever opens.

Would love to get the bike time down a bit just to make it a more realistic thing to do every day. But the only way to get faster is to bike more often…so I should just do that.

[Geoff]

@jrenaut 75817 wrote:

if we really get biking’s mode share up where we think we want it, there are going to be traffic jams on the busy bike lanes

Hate to say this but I worry about colliding bikes on the Custis on a nice day. Haven’t seen it happen, but it could, easily: short lines of sight, somebody wants to pass, gets impatient, and finds himself locking handlebars with someone coming the other way doing the same thing.

Not so much of an issue this time of year.

[rcannon100]

@Geoff 75843 wrote:

Haven’t seen it happen, .

It’s happened. At the blind turns on the Custis, just east of Glebe. I believe it involved the overpass-tunnel-of-love. Can remember where, but the incident was bad enough to be reported.

[Terpfan]

Bike one way is about 14-15 miles (one way is much more pleasant, but longer with a steeper hill and not convenient to last minute errands). To work usually about 60-70 minutes save windy days. Home, more like 70-80 usually because that’s where the climbing is.
Metro (presuming I don’t bike there, which I’ve done and is like a 10 minute ride, tops) is usually about 20 minutes for the bus and then 35-45 minutes actual train if everything is actually working. ~65 minutes
Drive – On a regular traffic day, is probably 45 to 50 minutes.

If I could fully give up car ownership (not really a possibility), the cost savings would be very substantial. Anyway, time wise, the difference is really based on if Metro has any delays or traffic is slightly worse than usual. So, yes biking is slightly slower. When i lived on the northern side of Old Town, biking was actually the fastest way home most of the time in rush hour.

[Subby]

oh hai!

[attach=config]4589[/attach][attach=config]4590[/attach]

[jrenaut]

Not very majestic sitting there like that.

[Subby]

I actually think it is sick. I got a lot closer and it didn’t budge. Just looked at me with those serial killer eyes. I tweeted NPS the picture.

[DCAKen]

My commuting options are:

Bike: 9.7 miles, which takes about 45 minutes going up through Rock Creek Park
Bus: about 40-45 minutes, depending on the time spent transferring from one bus line to another – $3.20 round trip
Metro: about 40 minutes door-to-door – $7.10 round trip
Drive: not an option since I’m living car-free

[aguy7]

@jrenaut 75817 wrote:

I’ve wondered about this in the future – if we really get biking’s mode share up where we think we want it, there are going to be traffic jams on the busy bike lanes in DC (PA Ave, 14th and 15th, etc). Not a terrible problem to have, considering the alternatives, but something to think about. 15th NW is definitely slower when I leave at 5 and it’s reasonably nice out – I miss lights that I otherwise make because of all the other bikes.

We’re in the golden era right now. Once the streets are thronged with cyclists on dedicated cycling lanes with their own traffic controls, we’ll actually have to start obeying the controls and the police will enforce the rules. But yes, that’s a good problem.

[aguy7]

When I saw that it was snowing last night I thought I might have to take the bus/train to work this morning, but by morning the city streets only had a film of filthy saline slush that wasn’t deep enough to stop me from biking.

[cyclingfool]

This was my morning commute, and it was beautiful!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4592[/ATTACH]

[Fast Friendly Guy]

@cyclingfool 75964 wrote:

This was my morning commute, and it was beautiful!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4592[/ATTACH]

That’s right where the bald eagle was (200 feet further in this direction, 100 feet into the field on the left!

[cyclingfool]

@Fast Friendly Guy 75967 wrote:

That’s right where the bald eagle was (200 feet further in this direction, 100 feet into the field on the left!

I didn’t see the eagle, but I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled in case he’s back. I did see a bunch of ducks desperately huddled in the last remaining spot of the river that hadn’t frozen over (just to the right of this spot out in the river), which is what compelled me to stop here initially. It was as if they were trying to will the river’s surface from freezing over by their presence en masse.

[Author]

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