Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Milestones

Many milestones are coming together at the same time for me. Today marked my 500th straight day of biking to work. I'm proud of the streak for its simple longevity although I've always stated it isn't too hard to bike .92 miles. It's not an extreme commute by any stretch of the imagination. But I do it every day without fail. In the course of 500 straight days, I've braved some pretty wicked conditions that I'm sure I wouldn't have if the commute was much longer.

Milestone number two is that on the March 5th it will be two calendar years since I DIDN'T ride my bike to work. That day I actually caught a ride to work after a pretty good blizzard. I was all ready to bike when I got a call and I accepted the ride. Otherwise the streak would have about another 80 days added on.

Milestone number three is coming up on March 8th. That will mark one year since we became a one car family. I am proud to say that even though I have access to a vehicle, I RARELY use it. Truthfully, there have been less than a handful of times that we could have used two vehicles in the last year. The unfortunate part of selling the car was that I sold it to a friend and it promptly caught fire less than a month later (on April Fool's Day even).

I get comments from all sides on my choice of sustainable lifestyle. I get the "I'm proud of what you are doing" to the "How can you do this all year" and of course "WHY?!?!?!" I do it for many reasons. I do it for a healthy lifestyle. I do it to prove it can be done without giving up much of anything. I do it to be a positive role model. Am I accomplishing that? I don't know. If I did what everybody else does, that wouldn't accomplish anything now would it? Hopefully I make people at least THINK about their constant use of vehicles. That, more than anything, is my wish: To make people think about alternative transportation choices.

Your turn to comment. Do you ever stop to think about alternative transportation? Not driving so much?

7 comments:

Spoke-N-Sport said...

That is AWESOME!

Anonymous said...

You da man!

Snakebite said...

The Force is with this one, it is.

jaytothesea said...

i think it's awesome. and you can prove to other locals that it's completely achievable. when we lived in mpls, we were a 1 car couple and it was liberating! i took public transportation to and from work, to get groceries, go shopping, etc...it's not quite as easy here especially since we don't live "in-town". I'm envious of you and your craziness to bike when it's 20 and 30 below zero! nice work!

Herself, the GeekGirl said...

Yes, I do. Quite often. Then I see the guys on the bus learing at me as the bus goes by, so I decide not to take the bus. Then I think about cycling, and there's a 40 mph wind with blowing sand. I did my part: I moved from 25 miles away from work to 9 miles away from work, and I carpool in with hubby every day. I'm a good girl.

Anonymous said...

Great job Keep it going

Doug said...

I made the choice 6.5 years ago to sell my truck and we became a one car household. I don't expect everyone to do what I've done. But like you, I have noticed I have influenced others and planted a few seeds here and there. For example my boss now carpools with her partner. Something she's never done before.