Posted by I vividly recall smacking my horn as a driver cut me off at 20 mph over the speed limit with no signal, passing on the right and thus eliminating my chance of exiting the off-ramp to my workplace. I was livid, as this law-breaker had made me late to work.
Fast forward 20 years. Yesterday, I meandered my bike down a beautiful trail along my 3.6 mile commute. I saw 11 deer, two turkeys and 3 rabbits, and that was all in the first-ring progressive Greater Rochester suburb of Brighton, New York. I biked to work, as I do most days, through a series of trails and paths, with minimal on-road exposure.
I can’t remember the last time I put gas in my car but it was well over a month ago. The only time it has been used on consecutive days is when my wife’s car was in the shop and she had to borrow it. And while my wife prefers to drive to work, we both believe in a lifestyle where we are physically close to our places of employment.
Twenty years ago, my round-trip daily commute from my suburban town of Victor, NY was 30 miles by car, and there were no viable alternatives. The car-dominant, suburban mentality infrastructure and mindset we have built in this country negated any chance that I could access my work by means other than an automobile.
Today, working for the University of Rochester and living close to the city border (literally just hundreds of feet) has allowed me to commute by car, bus, bike, scooter, and even on foot. Twenty years ago, my one-way commute of 15 miles meant that I had to navigate multiple expressways by car. My current city commute of 3.6 miles in semi-dense environment means that I have more commuting and errand-running options, and spend far less each day to reach my place of employment.
Let’s do the math. If we assume that there are 240 work days and I take off a month of work for vacation per year, that makes 212 days that I need to travel to work. If we assume the price of gas is $3.50 per gallon and my car gets 30 miles per gallon, my previous commute of 30 round-trip miles would have cost me $742 per year in gas.
Currently, I drive to work approximately a quarter of the work days (which is an estimated 53 days). The rest of the time, I bike, scooter, skateboard, Onewheel, or take the bus for the 7-mile round trip. So when we consider all these factors, I currently spend approximately $43 in gas per year driving to work.
By living closer to work and frequently using micro-mobility for my commutes, I use approximately 6% of the gas to get to work that I did 20 years ago. That is an incredible financial savings, and a game-changing personal carbon footprint reduction.
And just as importantly, I get plenty exercise while commuting while getting out in the fresh air and being part of my community instead of being shielded from it in a car. The difference in my commute today is substantial , both financially, physically and psychologically!