Commuting

I enlisted the help of my mother when searching for a house this fall. I gave her three guidelines: a maximum price, a sunny yard for gardening, and a three-mile radius from my workplace. Everything else was pretty much moot – I was willing to deal with almost any kind of décor, appliances, and so on. The location was important because I have loved, loved, LOVED my commute from the Pink House. I could bike in ten minutes, walk in 25, and drive when necessary. I wanted to stay close enough that I could still bike, and I figured three miles was my maximum for regular biking in work clothes.

I’ve tried out the bike commute from the new house, and it only three miles, but it’s a lot tougher. I have to cross big roads with lots of traffic and there are a lot of hills, which I have to walk up because I’m not fit enough to bike up them. On my first day, it took 45 minutes, even though Google Maps thought it would take me 15. (To be honest, that’s about what I expected. Google Maps always thinks that I bike about two or three times as fast as I actually do.)

There’s a second route, though, that’s much nicer. It’s on trails that follow a river almost the entire way, and when I encounter big roads there are well-marked crossings with traffic lights. There are many fewer hills, and I don’t feel like I’m going to get smushed by a car. The down side is that it’s five miles each way, and that’s a LOT more than I’m used to biking in a day. I’ve tried it once, and I loved the trip, but it’s a big time commitment. I may need to give up the idea of biking every day, and instead have a goal of a few times a week. The good news is that there are many ways to get to my workplace – besides biking, it’s a 15-minute drive, and there are two different public transportation options, bus and Metro train. So I’m sure I’ll figure this out, and I’ll probably be more fit in the long run.