« Blegs | Main | The lives of others » An economic analysis of the bike commute19 Oct 2007 06:21 pm In which we consider the costs, as well as the benefits, of riding our bike to work.
Riding our bike to work means that we may occasionally be attacked by marauding curbstones. On the benefit side, we are not being mugged by auto-mechanics, or unpleasant dictatorships with thoroughly undeserved good luck in geography. Overall, the bike is still a clear winner. TrackBackTrackBack URL for this entry: Comments (40)
Ms. McArdle, I live in Los Angeles, and it would simply be unfeasible to get to where I need to go in a day, given my work, were I to rely on a bicycle. If you are at all familiar with the distances involved, and the necessity to be presentable upon arrival, you'll excuse my sparing you the logistics, suffice to say, it does not amount to sheer laziness. I also do love the solitude and felt separation driving affords me, even though I may be in a congested traffic jam or speeding down an empty thoroughfare - The sense that one is in a room of his own even while out among the many. As to your first point regarding mechanics, they can only mug so much as we allow them to take. A car is a responsibility, and anyone with such an expensive piece of machinery should have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the working parts (so as not to get ripped off for unnecessary repairs) . As for oil hording despots. I'll agree with you there. Perhaps we should get serious about domestic oil drilling, as well as developing technology to extract the oil trapped in shale below Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming (Confirmed as the largest source of oil in the world - UNTAPPED) 
You've got to admit that there's no way a grown man can ride a bicycle and not look ridiculous. Unless he's in a bicycle race, and even then, its not pretty.
The worst bike commuting accident I've had is dislocation of my elbow. My left forearm rotated 180 degrees at the joint and it was quite painful. Of course I was a fool for different reasons, the accident was my fault. To my dismay, I had to take the bus for a couple months after that.
In my profession, we are quite sensitive to the "fractional hours" question brought up in a previous post, and so I have to ask: Doesn't biking to work, in sweltering DC, generally necessitate a shower and a change into business attire (and possibly advanced medical care) after arriving at work . . . time consuming activity that vastly overwhelms the time benefits of not driving/parking? It seems like subways and buses are the more efficient way to go here . . . at least for those of us who can't bum around the office looking like the idle slackers we are.
Unicorn chaser? Just a little tiny one?
With regards to showering when you get to work. I prefer to shower in the morning. On hot days I'd skip the shower at home and shower at work.
Hmmm... Last time that happened to me, I was on the way to work in Denver. I got too close to a chain link fence. That took care of my left forearm. The same night I rode home drunk and flipped over the handlebars somewhere on 15th, which gave me a matching burn on my right forearm. Quite a day...
yeowch... if this becomes a commonality, might I suggest either some BMX style armor, or a good nylon motorcycle jacket that has some stiffiners... 'cuz that isn't good on a continuing basis... When I was doing such commutes in chicagoland, I was driven into potholes and such fairly often, so I adopted som better protection. What I also heard from my messenger friends was that any type of excercise the improves focus and reflexes is welcom, because you feel more confident if you control a situation and you can control things better if you have the reflex speed to do it. Also? Many people simply do not look far enough down the road, and that has to be learned... Bully for you in staying with it... ?too many steeves? actually only you look that way. The rest of us don't really care how anyone thinks we look. It ain't a beauty pageant sweetheart, it's transportation.
At least the pictured arm injury doesn't look too bad, though it may produce quite the scab as it heals.
Chicks with scars rule!
You should put an impermiable gel bandage on that immediately. That'll prevent scarring. The J&J Band-Aid active-flex product is very satisfactory. For that abrasion you want the large size. Put one on, replace it after three days, and then take it off after a week. -dk
Heres a cost benefit analysis. Comment=You're Pretty Cost: me making a jackass of myself on a world wide read blog Benefit: Hopefully you smile
Of course, there's nothing like some hard cornering at say 40k to make feel alive. As for the change of attire/showering, the minimum required is a change into clean underwear to keep you(and everyone else) comfortable. It's the sweat soaked clothing that is the main problem.
I suggest you get a uni-cycle. A good one can be had for $260. Although learning balance is the very first thing you learned, it also the most crucial element in aging gracefully. Learn to do more with less.
Megan: Watch out for wet leaves in the fall, especially if they have sticks etc under them. This time of the year, 3 years ago, I wiped out and broke 4 ribs, cracked through the helmet in several places, etc. Worst part is you dont get to sound tough saying you were beaten up by wet leaves. A fellow biker....
In the last 10 days I have suffered:
Moreover, today I drove. I saw a female cyclist riding "no hands" while, head down, she texted furiously. She was a blonde.
Millie, I suggest you consider a recumbent bike. More comfortable to ride. Less likely to get hurt as you won't fly over any bars. Still possible to end up with "road rash" though. http://www.bentrideronline.com/
You probably already know this, but doing this kind of exercise before you get to work really helps your brain all day. I mean it's healthy and all, but I noticed, when I started doing it, that it made me much more alert and perky from the start. I think - I'm guessing now - that it's even better than, say, a treadmill, because biking in traffic, or even on a park path, requires a constant baseline level of alertness, and the passing scenery, the squirrel over there, having to watch out for this and that, it all engages the mind and body in a pleasant, un-boring way. I love it.
Impressive. Most impressive. But you are not a Jedi yet...
Understandably there are many reasonable excuses not to bike (or use mass transit) but there are often just as many solutions. The most common seems to 1) bike paths (mercifully, where i live there are a reasonable number of these allowing me to bike to work most days) and longer term 2) urban planning that brings urban/residential environments into a rational blend of size and arrangement. Perhaps it is time for Americans to demand a different kind of urban/environmental planning...not simply the cancerous growth metastisized by myoptic developers/planners interested only in a quick return?
That's what I call combat cycling - bike commuters, couriers, and those types. Glad we're past the sleveless season, though.
Terry Shaw: You are absolutely correct, no "perhaps" about it. The American dream fantasy of a house in the suburbs w/ a big green front lawn (a sign of pseudo-ostentation from the days when only the landed wealthy could afford to have non-food producing land) should have been put to rest long ago. The environmental costs of spewing smoke into the atmosphere over long drives alone make sensible urban planning necessary. Add to this the physical/psychological effects of spending three to four hours a day in the car. Here in Los Angeles, there are people falling asleep at the wheel on the freeway during the commute, wide-spread sleep deprivation (not good for Megan's precious productivity & probably leads to road rage incidents) social isolation (leading to glibertarianism) breakdown of anything resembling even the stereotype of the nuclear family (you're off on your long drive listening to crap on talk radio before your spawn are awake, and it's close to their bedtime before you, exhausted from producing & commuting, return home) & so on.
Allow me to recommend Silvadene cream (it may even be OTC now, I hope.) Greatest savior of road-rash sufferers. Anti-septic, anti-scar, anti-every bad thing. Do you have any specially colorful bruises yet?
I suggest you get a uni-cycle. A good one can be had for $260. Owning half of a bicycle is like being half pregnant. It seems like a great idea until the logistics of the situation are examined.
Sorry about the abrasion - a real biking downside, alas. I bike every day, and my lower legs are mostly scar by now... I always wear elbow armor. It's a pain to strap them on every time I ride, but they probably would've saved you 2/3ish that hurt.
It could be worse - I've twice come off the bike face-first and grazed my chin badly enough to force me to sport a goatee for a couple of months until it healed enough to shave again.
Losers All. I commute to work in slippers and mountain bike on world class single track at lunch time. Road biking is for morons. Roads are for cars and road bikers place more stock in the laws of humans than the laws of physics.
You wear a helmet I hope? If you ride aggressively on the back streets most of the traffic problems solve themselves.
Losers All. I commute to work in slippers and mountain bike on world class single track at lunch time. Road biking is for morons. I totally agree. These crickty old farts have no perspective.
I commuted by bike for awhile in Amsterdam, which is of course extraordinarily bike friendly, but the sweat / business attire issues doomed me. Had to shower after I arrived at work, and looked unprofessional to wear a shirt that had been in a bag. This is partly due to the fact that I lived at about a 25 minute ride from the office, while people who lived closer could ride, but then you run into the problem of cost and why many Americans choose to live further out and put up with the commute - to live in the center of a city, you either have to have a lot of money or put up with very little space. To be just near the city-center is not good enough if you want to have the total ride (including all stops at traffic lights) be under 20 minutes - for that purpose, subways / trams et al are much better suited.
...while I salute your choice of transport, it is worth remembering that there are two kinds of cyclists: Those who have taken a nasty fall, and those who will... cheers, DD
The cost-benefit analysis, of course, doesn't factor in the large injury rate of those who bike on the streets which probably greatly cuts into any benefits that the rest of us obtain when others bike to work. Despite currently having a scratched shin when I got too cute on a switchback while doing this route today (youtube.com/watch?v=sbDG4pxLmWM) I'd imagine that that activity is overall much safer than biking in NYC.
"On hot days I'd skip the shower at home and shower at work." That requires either having shower facilities at work, or powerful water fountains and very understanding co-workers.
I've always thought it stupid to encourage the sharing of roads between vehicles with a top speed of 35 miles and hour and those that cruise at 60.
That pic screams, "Does this look infected?" I've switched to riding a bike to work and accept looking ridiculous -- an adult male approaching geezertude? No cool points at all. At first I tried to compensate by riding as decorously as a Victorian, but going fast downhills is still as much fun as it was when I was 10. So, now, I just go for it. Even on the hottest days, a quick damp wash rag around the sweaty parts in the privacy of the restroom is all thats needed to keep sweatfoulness at bay. A re-application of one of the woody scented male deodorants would gild the lily, but I can understand someone else being finicky enough to do just that.
Why do you hate Canada and Mexico, Megan? (By which, of course, I mean to point out comically that Canada and Mexico are the two primary sources of American oil imports [Saudi Arabia beat Mexico for August imports, barely, but Mexico's ahead for the year and has been #2 for ages; whether this will remain so is an open question]. The US imports about a third again as much oil from Canada as from Saudi Arabia, which is our largest Arab oil source. The next three are unpleasant places, though I'm not sure that Nigeria would be improved by being even poorer, likewise Venezuela, which will fall off the list naturally as Chavez destroys the nation's oil industry. But why punish Brazil, Algeria, and Iraq? Ecuador? Colombia? Plus, as you surely know, with demand for oil high worldwide, biking to work has an effect that rounds to zero on the income of nasty places like Iran or Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. They'll happily sell their oil at as close to the same price as makes no difference to China or India or the EU.
biking to work has an effect that rounds to zero on the income of nasty places The marginal effect? But stipulating that change from the status quo is desirable, someone must begin incurring the costs (for which I applaud Ms. McArdle*). I have wondered what Mankiw intends to do once his tax goes into effect, or whether he simply wishes everyone else to make the necessary lifestyle changes ....
May I exhort you to become hostile and unreasonable. There is too much of the Irish, be-like-Christ, self nihilism in this story. Instead of a legacy of biking to work, you may inspire a nation of James Bonds like the guy above who wears slippers to work and bikes around a million dollar oval, cost in Caterpillar diesel CO2 and extraneous: ++++. Speaking of the plus side, I wish it would remind you of women's roller blading. I can here the announcer now. "Here comes Megan around turn 3. This is a VERY CRITICAL turn." "Yes, Barth, the fate not only of this race but the ENTIRE course of the NFL (National Feminine Lagoon) could depend on her taking out those roller bladers from the West Virgina Coal Mongers. She's got the length for it, and the the willingness to SACRIFICE HER BODY."
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Applying the 'broken windows' fallacy to White Blood Cell laborors, eh?
Ironically, the last time I got a road pizza like that -- years ago, thankfully -- had nothing to do with my bike. Apparently, I forgot how to walk in midstride, which never has good results.
Posted by anony-mouse | October 19, 2007 7:11 PM