Part Way & Part Time bike commute !

[Melalvai]

I think a lot of people take this approach. I have a friend who lives 9 miles from work, and often drives partway and bikes the rest. Sometimes she bikes the whole trip. And sometimes she drives the whole thing--like this entire winter. It's a good strategy, to gradually get strong enough to do the whole thing, or maybe it's a long trip that probably won't ever be entirely replaced by biking because of time constraints, it can at least make parking much easier and reduce gas costs a bit.

[jayjay]

Melavai ~ exactly, every bit helps, both our selves and gaining of independance from the Big Nipple of Petroleum, even if only by principle, it is still a direction, and thus empowering. And yes, the aim is to start just to enforce the habit...even if you drive to ride one block first, and are overweight to the gills, but still want to be a Fixer and a Doer and not a Whiner. It matters not where the parking point is and how long we ride, it is that we do it.

Strengthen our legs, our beliefs in our selves, our idea of where our community is and it's boundaries... all of that " buy/ride/live local" stuff. The question we must ask ourselves is how can we fight the issues of global warming more than we already think we do? There's always one more step to take.

[redrhodie]

I have to drive part of my commute. I have to cross 2 bridges that don't allow cycling. I drive to a parking lot on the mainland, unload and ride the rest of the way. It's not as easy as when I used to live on the other side and could ride the whole way, but it was a compromise I had to make to live here.

[kat_h]

Here there are Park and Bike lots about 6 km to either side of downtown. They're close enough to be an easy ride for anyone along some really nice sections of path, but just far enough out of the downtown core that parking is free at them. I don't know how many people use them. They aren't well advertised.

[tulip]

I think that whenever you can ride your bike instead of driving your car is a good thing.

[Crankin]

My commute used to be 6.7 miles, a good uphill on the way in. It was enough of a ride round trip that I didn't have to ride more to feel like I exercised that day and it didn't matter when I left work or home, because it was all very rural roads.
When I moved, my commute went to 14.7 miles. At first I drove to a shopping center, parked, and rode from there, about 8 miles. Then I would take a long way back to my car, so I could get in an 18-20 mile ride for the day. Once I figured out a way to cross a major highway and shorten the trip a bit (my first attempt was 17.8 miles one way), I started doing the whole commute. My issue was finding a way to cross the highway that didn't lengthen my commute and navigating one intersection that is a slight uphill, that I really don't like. It turned out that there are hardly any cars there at 6:15 in the morning! On the way home, there is traffic and one slightly scary left turn, but I've handled it.
I only commute 1-2 days a week and I feel like I am doing my part. If more people did partial commutes or rode on some days, I think it would make a big difference. I make a lot less car trips now, and I ride my hybrid to make quick trips into town for errands, but I know that going grocery shopping on my bike is not realistic for me.
There are a lot of rabid "Prius" types in my town and they are very condescending to people who don't do what they do. It really irks me.

[GLC1968]

My husband used to do the half-commute. His work was 30 miles from home, so he'd drive out of the city that we lived in and parked at a park. Then he'd ride the rural roads for 18 miles or so into work (and then back at night). He did this 2-3 times a week and you better believe it counted!

I had a 14 mile commute through a ton of scary traffic. On days that I couldn't go in super early and stay super late to avoid said traffic, I did my own version of the half-commute. I'd drive to work in the AM with my bike on my car. Then I'd bike home that night and then back in the next day. Then I'd drive home. This had two unexpected benefits too...1 ) I had a place to keep my bike locked (my car) and 2) I could NOT blow it off in the morning. I had to get up to ride because I had no car and no other way to get to work! This was great when I was going through lazy periods!

We just moved and my drive to work is now only 4 minutes (I haven't paid attention to miles, yet). My bike commute should be a piece of cake! DH's is the same distance in the opposite direction, so once we've unpacked all the biking gear, we're gonna be full time commuters!!! Yay!!!

Oh, and I'm also of the mind-set that ANY biking in place of driving is a GOOD THING.