I am not a single mom, but I am a divorced/re-married mom and my husband takes no part in the transportation of my daughter. So that was a huge barrier for me last year when trying to coordinate our schedules. What I ended up doing was doing a hybrid-commute. I would drive the truck (with bike in back) in to the park and ride, lock up the bike, get on the bus, go to work, come home, then leave the car and ride the bike home. Next morning I'd ride the bike to the truck, lock it up, and then in the evening, with my daughter, drive the truck home. The nights I didn't have her, I rode home, the nights I did, I drove home. It worked fairly well.

This year our schedule changed somewhat and she is actually riding some with me. As they get older, they can do that. It's cool!

I agree with the poster above who reasoned that there might be other moms or dads who can carpool your kids to practice and home.

Don't do it for the savings (although the savings are great) - do it for the awesome legs you're going to have next summer.

And all of my winter equipment was purchased at the Salvation Army thriftstore, and includes long socks with holes cut in the bottom (for armwarmers), an old wool sweater, a goretex jacket, a wool hat, and warm up pants to wear over bike shorts and under-armor (scored some at the SA thrift store - whoo hoo!) You don't want to wear too much cuz it does get sweaty. I wear hiking boots and have grippy bmx style pedals. I cut the neck off of an old lands end turtleneck and slip that over my head to pull up on my face on those really cold days.

Enjoy your winter commuting. One thing you might want to invest in is GOOD LIGHTS, and a helmet light. Be seen. A highway worker or construction worker vest is enough high-vis but you want to stand out as a flashing, moving, bright object.