My Other Bike Is A….

[jopamora]

Driving is the fastest mode, but being a one car (um, minivan) family makes my decision for me.

So, if my bike was on the repair stand then I’d walk or bus to Metro then to a CaBi station. I can’t wait to daisy chain a CaBi trip from home to work.

[mstone]

@americancyclo 42739 wrote:

but I doubt your WMATA commute detailed above happens with any regularity. I’ve had a few bad commutes on WMATA, but nothing on a regular basis that would make me think of purchasing a second car, driving to DC everyday and paying for parking.

That’s the thing: it’s no longer infrequent on metro. For me, it was an average of once every few months. I’m talking about “routine” disasters, rather than stuff that’s hard to plan for (e.g., the truck full of rocket fuel that flipped over a decade ago at the mixing bowl or a snowstorm where metro just stops running). Note that metro has stopped being open about service disruptions, so it’s hard to point to actual data. Again, if you don’t go far it’s probably not an issue as the per-station odds of a problem are low. But when you go through a lot of stations…

[vvill]

@consularrider 42733 wrote:

I have also used numerous other systems for commuting (Chicago, Atlanta, London, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Bucharest, and Madrid) and riden these systems (where the exist) in several other US cities and countries on three other continents. Probably of all of these only the Madrid system was better than Metro. Unfortunately, other than Atlanta, I’ve not had the opportunity to ride in any system newer than Metro. I rate Metro better than Atlanta’s system because it has much broader coverage (of course that was 25 years ago and I have no idea what it is like now). In London, we ended up selling off one of our government owned apartment buildings because no one wanted to live there and have to commute in on the Northern Line, I was lucky to live right on the Jubilee line near Swiss Cottage.

Try Singapore or Taipei

RE: London – to be fair, I did avoid the Northern line (it’s like the Red line here) – I was on the Central line or the newer DLR most days. But I found the coverage, frequency of service, ability to have alternate routes and cost of the tube made it easily the best way to get around London. (The day of the bombing wasn’t fun though!)

Brisbane’s was about on par with Metro I think. Sydney is a mix but overall better. Service can be spotty but facilities/trains are generally better maintained.

My favourite ever to ride was in Bratislava, purely because the escalators travel much much faster than what I was used to. And the small network made it impossible to get lost.

[americancyclo]

@mstone 42746 wrote:

That’s the thing: it’s no longer infrequent on metro. For me, it was an average of once every few months. I’m talking about “routine” disasters, rather than stuff that’s hard to plan for (e.g., the truck full of rocket fuel that flipped over a decade ago at the mixing bowl or a snowstorm where metro just stops running). Note that metro has stopped being open about service disruptions, so it’s hard to point to actual data. Again, if you don’t go far it’s probably not an issue as the per-station odds of a problem are low. But when you go through a lot of stations…

I’m sorry you’ve had a lousy experience. I guess it’s been easier for me. I’m willing to risk a disruption like that four or five times per year given that I rode metro last year about 85 days, that work out to about 95% reliability in my own personal experience. That’s not bad over a 15 stop trip. I’ll concede that I have the luxury of only taking a single metro line, and sleeping through it probably makes it more palatable. I also have the federal transit subsidy, which again, only adds to my experience.

[JorgeGortex]

1. Car 30-45min home (just west of Ballston) – work (near King St. metro)
2. Bike 45-48min (I’m sure I can bring that number down)

I have a 4 month old, and I coach in the afternoons. The distances, several changes of clothing, and the desire to support my wife/see my son mean the car is a necessity for me these days. After May when my coaching is done for the year I’ll be back to the bike more.

I used to stay with a gf near Ballston, hop the metro to work and back. That always was a 45-1+ commute. Many times I’d get off in Rosslyn on the way home instead of fighting the crowds, and walk/run back to Ballston. I finally got fed up with the crowds and delays and took to the car full time (before finding my love for cycling again). Frankly, my car does offer a good bit of freedom, I have XM radio with numerous way to kick back while I drive home. I also hope that I offer a sane person on the road for drivers and cyclists vs. the arrogant-I’m-in-a-constant-hurry-because-I-am-more-important-than-you-people. Still, the bike offers the most fun, sun, and health benefit. Bar none.

JG

[creadinger]

@americancyclo 42752 wrote:

I’m sorry you’ve had a lousy experience. I guess it’s been easier for me. I’m willing to risk a disruption like that four or five times per year given that I rode metro last year about 85 days, that work out to about 95% reliability in my own personal experience. That’s not bad over a 15 stop trip. I’ll concede that I have the luxury of only taking a single metro line, and sleeping through it probably makes it more palatable. I also have the federal transit subsidy, which again, only adds to my experience.

For some people it just works, and by some I mean ~750,000 daily. I like to complain about it too but by the numbers it’s a pretty good, important system. In winter weather I’d much rather take metro than drive and it’s a hell of a lot safer than driving, even on nice days. When I go into the city for dinner or drinking – Metro. This city would be seriously f**ked without Metro.

I’m hopeful that the upgrades/repairs can actually get ahead of all the things that are failing sometime soon.

[culimerc]

My other bike has heated seats.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@creadinger 42770 wrote:

This city would be seriously f**ked without Metro.

Yah, would probably look like this:

For those unfamiliar with the 1974 bus strike and what happens when the city has ZERO public transit, GoDC has a great article here.

[creadinger]

@TwoWheelsDC 42778 wrote:

Yah, would probably look like this:

For those unfamiliar with the 1974 bus strike and what happens when the city has ZERO public transit, GoDC has a great article here.

Wow! I never heard of that. Good to know. It didn’t help that everyone drove land yachts.

[consularrider]

@creadinger 42781 wrote:

Wow! I never heard of that. Good to know. It didn’t help that everyone drove land yachts.

But I see several VW Bugs in there!

[dasgeh]

Interesting thread. I guess I’m in the minority. My preference is:
1. Bike
2. eBike (scofflaw, I know)
3. Run
4. Bus
5. Car (be driven in by husband with kids)
6. MetroRail

In reality, I tend to hitch a ride when not biking, because my hubby took pity on me while pregnant, and it’ll be a while before I work back up to running 5 miles (no judgement, peoples).

I think it’s funny to hear people hate on the bus system. The buses I’ve taken (16Y and 3Y) have been great — not reliable in the way a bike is, but decent. I’m probably more pro-bus because my house is about a mile from the Metro and office is about 1/2 mile – so I hike either way. I rather do a straight shot on the bus then combine modes — that seems to add a lot of delay and uncertainty. I do think they could do some easy things to make buses more attractive. For my commute, it’s mainly the river crossings that stall things up, and if they gave buses priority merge, that would help a lot (e.g. in the E Street tunnel getting on to I66, if they allowed buses to run up the right lane with an explicit Priority Merge Point for buses right at the fork, that would shave 5-10 minutes off most days. Of course, some bus drivers, and car drivers, do this anyway, but an explicit policy would be helpful).

Re: Metro-hating — I am mostly disappointed in and frustrated with Metro because I see what it could be. I’ve lived in and visited many other cities with great subway (and other rail) public transport systems, and Metro is the worst I’ve seen in terms of reliability, areas and amount of service and price. My toddler even asks to take the train, and I want to take it. But it rarely makes sense with how much more time and money it takes than driving, even on the weekdays when everything’s running smoothly. And with the family at home, I can’t risk being stuck on a train for two hours. At least on a bus, you can get out and walk if traffic sucks (that’s how I got home in Commutageddon).

Anyway, the reliability factor is really the key for me and biking, and will get me on the bike even when I’m feeling lethargic (“I could bus it today, or ask for a ride, but then I’d be stuck taking the bus home and it could take forever”).

[vvill]

I don’t think there were too many bus haters on this thread? Most people were targeting Metro rail as far as I understood.

If I had an ebike it would probably be up there after regular bike. But I wouldn’t be able to log the miles! Quite a dilemma.

[rcannon100]

Okay, I love this in two ways:

Bike and Ped Commuters are the Happiest Commuters. Surprised?

In what should come as no surprise to anybody who has ever switched from a driving commute to a walking or biking one, new research out of Portland State University found that people who bike to work enjoy their commutes the most, and people who walk to work are close behind on the commute satisfaction scale.

The Presentation Poster for this research.

So of course I love the finding of the obvious – we love our commute! A good bike ride is absolutely a great way to start the day.

But look at the other end of the chart – we sit here and quibble, pointing fingers at each other – labeling each other as bus-haters or car-haters. Well, according to this chart, riding the bus is on par with driving a car!!! They both wank!! I think that is just great.

And to this, I tip my hat to absolutely everyone in this thread who answer that “My other bike is…. A BIKE!” Gotta love my commute!

PS: Oh cool – and if you look at the research poster, the research lists the variables – the things that have the most impact. The fact that you bike or walked was the strongest variable as to whether you love your commute. BUT THIS IS COOL! Normally a commute over 40 min is a strong negative variable – BUT IF YOU BIKE you dont care how long your commute is!!! :rolleyes:

[vvill]

I would care if my bike commute was < 15 mins ! :mad:
I would much rather drive alone than carpool, but that’s me.

[ShawnoftheDread]

While I wouldn’t take issue with the findings, I find it slightly odd that their study group included far more cyclists than solo car drivers. That said, when conducting a study like this, would it be better to have similar numbers for each group, or to have the numbers for each group reflect their actual proportions in the general population?

[Author]

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