The proof is in the pudding!!!

This week I have been looking after the kids in a single parent kind of fashion for the week.

Not that I am a single parent but my wife is away down near London on a work related management course for the week. This has of course meant that I have to do all the jobs I normally do around the house plus everything that Lynne usually does too, No mean feet and it's been tiring I can tell you!

Today was the day this week that our youngest has her swimming lesson...

I know what you are thinking, what has this got to do with cycling of any kind at all.

Well as it goes because I had to take said youngest to her lesson I took the morning off work. I then dropped her at the child minders in Hyde and came home before heading to work at 12.00.

Today I did think that as a bit of an experiment I would take the car to see how long it really would take me to get too and from work.

I did as I would normally by heading into Hyde then instead of going down the A57 I instead headed down the M67 that runs parallel with the A57. At the end of the motorway I rejoined the A57 and proceeded to follow my exact route i take on my bike daily.

Of course being midday the traffic was flowing and fairly light so in theory my journey by car should be a lot faster. In actual fact the drive took me 45 minutes (not 28 as Google maps says) and cost me half a days parking (£9). By the time I got to my desk and logged on to my computer I was looking at just short of 1 hour (about 55 minutes). My conclusion to the journey in was even though I took the "faster" motorway route, it in fact cost me more and took longer than it would have done if I had gone by bike.

One of the whole reasons I did go by car was to get home sooner as I knew the girls would be getting dropped off between 5.45 and 6.00. I left the office bang on 4.30 (any later would have meant I went over the 4 hours and cost me £16 instead of £9 parking, makes me sick really) and headed out back down the A57 to get home.

TRAFFIC!!!

It was absolute madness. I thought it was bad when I was on my bike but in the car it was even worse!! People don't give each other a single inch of room and it would seem in rush hour traffic rights of way no longer apply, red lights are just a pretty piece of street furniture, yellow boxes look nice with cars parked in them and double yellow lines tell you how close you are to the pavement as you park up to go do whatever!
Pedestrians also have a death wish in Manchester. I saw adults leading children across a busy main road only meters from a crossing that would have stopped traffic so they could cross safely. Clearly common sense just doesn't apply to those who partake in day to day activities like this and they wonder why they then have accidents!

Anyway the drive home was a bit stressful, I did take the M67 (again, not very fuel efficient) and after more a little over an hour I again made it home.
This is again in comparison to the same journey by my "slower" mode of transport using my road bike. a journey that as I can even prove using Strava takes me about 40 minutes on average, depending on how tired I am and what the traffic/weather is like. as you can guess it doesn't cost me anything in parking for my bike and I certainly don't use any petrol either. I think I probably used about £8 worth of petrol today going in and out of Manchester, plus the £9 in parking (which would have been £16 if I stayed for the full day).

As I said the proof is in the pudding!!!

I can understand people not wanting to cycle in as carrying two kids on a bike to school can't be easy. However the likes of www.practicalcycles.com give a great range of real solutions for transporting all sorts of things like children or freight. In the Manchester area it would be a great idea as it is fairly flat (until you get over to the east where the Peaks begin) and once the council actually sort out the infrastructure hopefully cycling will be seen as a far more viable option for adults and children alike. Certainly both the companies I have worked for in the past few years that I have got back into cycling have always provided things like showers and changing facilities. For those that don't (and there must be a few) there are things like the city center cycle parking that have secure bike storage as well as lockers, showers and even a cycle repair workshop. Sounds great and I do keep meaning to go around and have a look. Maybe one day next week I will.

For now however I am sticking with parking my bike at work and riding the 90 odd miles per week commute saving myself in the region of £120 per week or £480 per month! If you look at it from an annual basis of working 45 weeks a year (that's to take into account holidays plus days off sick etc, so a low end average), by cycling to work I am saving roughly £5,400 per year! why do people drive to work???

Cycling to work tomorrow as you can guess then fingers crossed a I may even get out at the weekend too! you never know

Happy cycling :)