In 2012 my goal is to ride my bike further than I drive my car.
I think it's do-able. Each week I will make a progress report here on kms travelled both bike and car. The location of my challenge is sunny Canberra (well, sunny today...).
Trying to achieve this in 2012 will pose some interesting challenges for me. I will be returning to Uni, working and finishing the renovations on my house. Uni is just over 20kms from home, work is 15kms away and Bunnings is.. forget it, have you ever tried to ride a bike with 2.4m pieces of timber on your back??? BUT - there is a direct bus to Uni, work has excellent shower facilities so I can ride every day, and no more 'quick trips' to the shop for random bits and pieces, I will actually have to think about my trips in the car - Yipes!!
Why? I feel that I need to remove my reliance on my vehicle to get everywhere and my currently careless approach to spending money on fuel, among other things. I have many options for transport at my disposal, there is a express bus into Civic that leaves not 200m from my doorstep each morning and will safely deposit me back there at night, a short 15min walk away is the bus stop that will ferry me to University and back, and there is my bike. Not to mention my rather trusty feet that can ferry me the supermarket for emergency supplies - it's only a 10 minute walk. And why not? The video shop is 2.5kms away. These are not great distances people!
How can it be achieved (apologies if this is looking like a mission statement..) Planning, planning, planning!!! Being organised enough to complete my grocery shopping monthly, getting out of the office at a lunchtime to go to the shops to buy presents, new clothes etc without needing a special trip on the weekend, carpooling, planning, walking, busing, more planning and not trying to cram so much into my days. Ultimately I think the more time I spend on my bike, the better off I'll be for a whole raft of reasons.
What are some other benefits? Well, by grocery shopping only once per month I hope to limit the additional sneaky impulse purchases that make their way into my shopping trolley each week, sometimes every second day - I confess to being mildly addicted to grocery shopping, and ice cream.
Did I mention that the Sunday farmers markets are 4km away - an easy bike trundle for resupplies of fresh fruit and veg.
Not to mention the added impetus to ride the bike to work. The final express bus to work leaves at 7.42am, so if I'm not on it - I'm riding anyway!!
Oh and the fitness, the incentive to ride, ride ride, because catching the bus to work is all well and good, but the aim dear people (yes You! - my imaginary audience...) is to ride my bike further than I drive my car. Let us not lose sight of that.
And I think it will make me slow down a little too, in life that is, hopefully come Dec 31 2012 I'll be speedy as hell on the bike.
Now there are always going to be hiccups, and I have devised some compromises, nay, rules, to overcome these.
Hiccup number 1 - it is a 1500km round trip to my parents house, which I drive at least once per year..
Compromise - The km's there and back do not count toward the annual tally. However, once at home, all bets are off and the count resumes, so the bike must be packed (and mum & dad must drive me everywhere...)
Hiccup number 2 - If I don't drive to my parents place I fly to Melbourne and hire a car to drive up home.
Compromise - Kms travelled in hire cars count! I can always catch public transport all the way home if I want to. Hire car is convenience - at a cost to me (it's marginally more expensive) & the environment, but it's worth it for the extra 5 hours or so I get at home and it doesn't happen very often.
Hiccup number 3 - travelling to bike races/events. Some of these events are a measly 500km round trip away.
Compromise - Carpooling is the answer. The kms count, but I get to divide by how many people are in my car. If i get a lift - then it's no kms as it's not my car (hey - I makes the rules and it's my car vs my bike). This rule kicks in after 30kms, so if the race is less than 30kms away, and I drive there, all those kms count, regardless of how may peeps are in my car! Over 30kms and I start carpooling, or get a lift.
So they're the rules. Other situations warranting consideration may arise, and I'll tackle them as they come.
Ultimately this is my attempt to not make a new years resolution, it's a new life resolution (you like that?? - so naff - you can use it too:-) I don't run the idea of making a resolution about something only once per year, why wait!!! That said, the start of a new year is a nice time to set a challenge and ultimately I think that this may have the potential to be a life changing goal, aaand I only thought of it last night.
Some people may not 'get' this goal, or it's significance to me (fair enough, you're not me) you may not even own a car, or use public transport all the time and only drive on the weekends, if then. You may ride you bike everywhere already, or your reliance on you car may not bother you. That's cool, I am more miffed at my reliance on my car as the lazy option. I am over being lazy!
I did not get my drivers licence until I was 26 years old. Before that I walked the 5km to the shopping centre and then caught a taxi home, I walked 4kms to the main road to meet a friend for a lift to work, I rode my bike to visit people, and yet, I seemed to have so much more time for everything. It's time to get back to it.
So we'll see how this goes.
