Is 30 minutes enough?

Generally, yes. Even with obeying all traffic regulations, I was able to go from the Waterfront area to Columbia Heights in about 30 minutes, without breaking too much of a sweat. And that included stops to take photos along the way.

This is the route that I took today. The "end" sign is where I stopped to dock the bike at 5th and K and take photos.




As long as you return your bike to a docking station, rather than locking it up elsewhere while you run an errand, I don't think that keeping within the 30 minute timeframe should be a problem at all. Even if you take up to an hour to get somewhere, its just a $1.50. That's a total of $6.50 for a single one-hour trip if you purchase a day-membership ($5 membership fee plus $1.50 trip fee). How much would it cost to take a cab for an hour? A heck of a lot more. And given the choice between walking 10 blocks from a metro stop to my destination, and riding 10 blocks, I'd take the ride.

Do you think the bikeshare program is affordable and convenient?

Cold Wet & Rainy.

I get asked many times, 'what do you do when it rains'? The answer is, I get wet. I don't mind getting a little wet & muddy. It's not the worst thing in the world. The problem with riding in the rain isn't getting wet, it's the unpredictability of car drivers. For some reason, bad weather brings out the bad driving.

I didn't get to do any work-related riding today, so instead I watched the drivers on the road. It's amazing how unwilling people are to just Slow Down, even a little bit. So many people have zero patience. I watched one driver lay on his horn for 15 seconds continuously because he was annoyed at having to spend that 15 seconds waiting for a taxi-cab discharge his passenger. (By the way, what is it with car drivers and their horns? Do they not understand that honking will not magically clear up traffic jams, and it only serves to further grate on the nerves of those that are probably already annoyed by the jam?) A whole 15 seconds. Mind you, he then had to wait for a full two minutes at the end of the road anyway to clear the intersection at a stop sign. Was it worth it? I'm sure those 15 seconds it took to rush to the stop sign were very important.

Why is everyone in such a rush?

In yesterday's post I mentioned a quick list of expenses. Today, I'd like to explore ways of cutting back on costs (and consumption).

The first to go are cigarettes. I don't even like smoking, but I'm an addict. I really do want to quit, and not just for the cost. Today I bought a pack of cigarettes. They cost $7.49. That's $52.43 a week (assuming I buy just one pack a day, which is not always the case.). $224.70 a month. $2,733.85 a year. Yikes. So no more cigarette buying from now on.

The second area I need to look at is dining out. This includes snacks & meals at work, beer at the bar, and pizza delivery at home. I want to limit my dining out options to no more that $40 a week. I think that's do-able.

This starts tomorrow.

The rest of the stuff I'll work on later.

Today's costs:

$7.49 pack of cigarettes (goodbye!)

$23.35 pizza delivery (plus tip)

Total: $30.84

Bike Miles:

2.71