I Do Math Good

Let's look at some numbers together. Just a disclaimer: I am officially a Math Retard. I have a plaque in my office and everything. So if anything here is wrong, I'm sorry. I'm sure my #1 Reader (take a bow, Baby Snakes) will let me know and I'll correct it, sharpish.

Let's do some rounding first, to make things easy for me. Gas is going to be calculated as $2.70 per gallon. That's actually rounded down for the cheapest unleaded stuff where I live now, which I normally don't buy. As a Buddhist I always get mid-grade, but fuel prices have forced me to one side.

FuelEconomy.gov says my truck gets a combined gas mileage of 22 MPG, but for the sake of my crippled math lobe and because even on the highway it's jammed as hell, we're going to say 20 mpg. This is what the guv'ment has listed as my city mileage. Just from experience, I'd say it's closer to 20 MPG more often than not. She has a few miles on 'er.

My drive to work is 8.2 miles and takes about half an hour in the morning. Coming home it takes a little over an hour most days, but never less than forty-five minutes. Lots of stop and go.

So that means weekly, if I just went straight to work and straight home, I'd drive an even 82 miles a work-week. If my math is correct, that's $11.07 a week. Not counting running errands or going out to see people on the weekend. So $44.28 a month, which is $531.36 per year driving to and from work alone.

And that's just to my job. The lovely and beautiful Kasey McKaserson works an additional 11.5 miles past where I do. So if we carpooled (and we do when I don't bike) the numbers would jump to $26.46 a week, $105.84 a month, $1,270.08 a year.

In 2005 the average American drove 284.5 miles per week, according to MSNBC. For me that would come out to something like $1,843.68 a year in gasoline. Add on top of that a car payment (a lot of us don't fully own our vehicles), insurance, maintenance, wear and tear like tires (those things are surprisingly expensive), etc, etc, and you have a lot o' cash leaving your wallet.

But this isn't really news to anyone. I don't know a lot of people that aren't struggling or at least annoyed with the amount of bills they have to pay.

This is all just money, what about our time? The only place I've never seen traffic jams is in south-east Idaho, where traffic cops give out more tickets for over-watering the roads than for traffic violations. If you work anywhere near the classic 9-to-5 then you are well aware of the wasted time and aggravation Bad Traffic brings with it.

In 2002 CNN reported:

"Based on the analysis of 75 U.S. cities, the annual Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute finds the average rush-hour driver -- not just commuters, but all drivers -- wastes about 62 hours in traffic each year.

That's not total travel time, that's just the extra time spent going slow or going nowhere because of traffic congestion."

I'm sure that number is higher by now.

And what do we do with the more than 2.5 days of our lives per year spent sitting in traffic? We stress out. We get angry and impatient. We drink coffee and eat fast food. We get unhealthy and fat.

Riding a bicycle whenever possible can take care of a lot of these problems.

Even if you can't commute to work (because not everyone can), 40% of US urban travel is 2 miles or less. Quick trips to the grocery store to pick up the one or two items you forgot you needed, grabbing a movie or video game from the rental store, hitting the post office and the bank, going out for food at your favorite local spots, or drinks a nearby public house, all can be done easily and joyfully on a bike, or even on foot.

A lot of the places we frequent are near; that's why we live in cities. And a car isn't necessarily a requisite or the best method to get there.

You never have to circle the block or wind through a parking lot looking for a space to park. There's no such thing as bad traffic or traffic jams. While you're riding around checking items off your errand list, you're also strengthening your lungs and heart and burning calories. Later on you are completely justified in having that dessert/third beer/late evening snack. Your bank account gets a break, as does the air we breathe.

But most of all, it's enjoyable. It's a cheap, stress-free, constructive way to do something that's simply fun as well as extremely useful. While road trips and the occasional booze-fueled drag race are good times, not since we first got our licenses or that brand new car has driving itself been fun. It actually becomes sort of a pain as we get used to the novelty of going fast without effort and start to realize all of the aforementioned strings that come attached to it.

All this is really me trying to talk you into riding The Noblest Invention. And since I did strain myself to do actual math besides figuring out how many donuts out of a dozen I have left to eat, you should at least humor me and give it a try. I guarantee you'll be hooked if you give it half a shake.

- David