I somehow wanted to read stuff about bicycle commuting and
then i stumbled on this.
Reading such bold message in the article gives me mixed feelings. I cannot
agree more in the perspective of bicycle as a transportation mode. I have just
started crawling on biking to the office again, finally after years of pause.
Well i paused because of reasons.
After working in the seaside hell as written in my previous
post, i then moved to other city where i can walk to the place of my activity, no
need for bicycle. Having done with that city, i moved back home and started
working again. But after years of not riding my bicycle, i just left it collecting dust at home as if i forgot i had it, going to places by public transportation.
Around 3 years later since i moved back home, a colleague at work started to
cycle to the office. Then i remembered all the reason to ride the bicycle
again.
The public transport is extremely unreliable, the drivers
are rude, the traffic sucks like crap, it costs me money, and so on. The list
is long of why i despise the public transportation in Jakarta and its greater
area. I believe i have also posted some stuff related to this before. Yet i have
been living such life for years! And yeah, i realize that most reasons to go by
bicycle are more to the transportation itself. Hence i agree with the post, it’s
transport.
So, having saved tiny bit of money, i decided to restore an old
road bike bought years ago. But what i first did then was recreational riding. Refreshing the memory that riding bicycle is fun! I cannot deny it. And it’s good way to gradually get back into form after years of lazing
around. I still don’t have the fitness to ride more to work, the last 3 months
i have been riding like once a week, plus occasional weekend rides alone or with
friends.
Recreational
To be honest, taking the public transport is faster to my
office by around 20 minutes. But since the public transport is unreliable, i
usually need to wait for 15 to 30 minutes to get one. It means the total time
is more or less the same by biking or public transport. Then it means from the
commuting time it is a tie. And the bicycle wins because many benefits i can
get than just sitting idle in the public transport, such as the fun, the
exercise, the low cost, the fun, and the fun.
Next month i plan to add more miles by twice a week riding
to the office. I hope i can be stronger soon to ride as often as i could to any
place i need to go.
Yeah right, it is indeed a fun transport.
