Commuting to work.

I love this comic strip. I am certain that I will use it again in the future to illustrate a post.

The road in front of my office has a dedicated bike lane, and recently I have been seeing a big increase of cyclists with backpacks riding up and down the road. I heard that The UTA was actually surprised how many people were bringing their bikes on the new Frontrunner train, and may need to do some revisions to the way they secure bikes for the journey because number exceeds what the trains were designed to accommodate. I love my neighborhood, but as far as commuting, it is an absolute nightmare. My office is 42 miles away in downtown SLC, the nearest bus stop is 17 miles away in Lehi, and the person I used to carpool with doesn't carpool with me anymore.

I wish that I could commute by bike. Even commuting one way - drive in, bike home, bike in the next day, drive home - is daunting with a 42 mile commute. There also is the option of driving part of the way, and biking the rest - which I am going to do this Tuesday for bike to work day. I am going do drive to my mom's, and bike from there to work. It's only 14 miles from her house to downtown. I will post a ride report tomorrow. Right now, my main problem is determining the cost. Which is of more value to me, my time, or money. Any commuting alternatives that are available to me come at a cost of more time away from my family. We recently got a car for me to drive instead of my truck which gets better gas mileage, but even at 30 mpg, I still have to fill up every 3 days. The current plan is to drive to a park and ride lot not far from my mom's house, and ride in with her the rest of the way. That will cut about a third of my driving from my commute, and won't add too much time to my commute. The other alternative that is under consideration is to get an express bus pass, drive to Lehi and take one of the express busses from there to Downtown. I just need to sit down and calculate the cost per mile for each of the alternatives.