Introduction

Well, it's getting toward the end of July, so I've actually been cycling to and from work for over a month. Here's the quick story....

When I was younger (I'm 50 as I write this), I was an absolute bicycling freak. During my teens and early twenties, 10-20 miles per day was the norm; and of course when I went touring, 50+ was common. But, as I grew older, I fell into the trap of total reliance on a car for transportation, with the sporadic visit to the gym to stay in shape.

With the recent jump in gas prices, along with the "new" focus on being green (I've always been a bit greener than most), I decided to revisit the bicycle as a form of transportation. It kills three birds with one stone - saves gas, saves money, and provides an excellent means of exercise (without actually thinking about it as exercise).

So, in mid-June of this year (2008) I decided to start riding to and from work. There was a dilemma, however. If I were to ride the entire from my house to the office - using a "safe" route - I'm looking at 12-14 miles each way. The less safe route is about 10 miles each way, but... it's just not safe.

My primary goal was to ride on the Boise Greenbelt, a stretch of land on either side of the Boise River, with nicely paved bicycle and walking paths. I wanted to avoid traffic as much as possible, and I did not want to have to stop and wait at intersections. The only spot I knew about (at that time), between my house house and the office where I could easily get on the Greenbelt, is a parking area near the Glenwood Street bridge. From there the distance is 6.2 miles (if my cheap little bicycling computer is accurate), and it satisfies the goal of using the Greenbelt.

Although I still have to drive several miles to get to the drop-off point, I've found my gas savings to be far more than expected. That's because the route I have to drive to get to the Glenwood bridge has few stops (most of the time I can avoid all of them), so I can drive at a pretty constant speed. Previously, most of my stop-and-go driving occurred at I got near the city center, and that was where the gas mileage dropped.

To me, the funniest part of all this is the time it takes to get to the office. When I would drive, the best I could hope for was about 35 minutes (30 minutes driving to where I parked, and a 5 minute walk to the office). Now, it takes me 10 minutes to arrive at the drop-off point, and 30-35 minutes to bike directly to the office. We're talking about an additional 10 minutes! (I should have started this years ago). On top of that - I save gas and money, get exercise, and get to experience beautiful wooded areas and wildlife (like the two deer I almost ran over the other night).

I'm still looking for alternate routes so I can extend the ride. There are some possibilities opening up. I'll report any modifications to my route here.