how cycling saves alot money

[Crankin]

This is true... many people in the city here use Zip Car.
I just took a job where I have to drive to my clients' homes or schools to see them. It will all be in a specific geographic area, not too far from where I live. I will have to go to the corporate office once a week (24 miles). I am not thrilled about this aspect of the job, but it's a very good entry level clinician position and it gives me the flexibility to plan my day. I get reimbursed for mileage at a decent rate and the rest I will write off on my taxes. While I had dreams of working at the clinic 5 miles from my house, it didn't happen, but once I get my license to practice (2 yrs.) I will be able to cut my hours and find something closer to home. Since I need this job to get the hours for my license, I am going to have to get used to putting gas in my car, because right now, I only do that once every 10 days to 2 weeks.
I did wonder how it would look if I rode up to my clients' homes on my bike, but I have a feeling my bosses would not like that (although they are very wellness oriented).

[shootingstar]

I get reimbursed for mileage at a decent rate and the rest I will write off on my taxes. While I had dreams of working at the clinic 5 miles from my house, it didn't happen, but once I get my license to practice (2 yrs.) I will be able to cut my hours and find something closer to home. Since I need this job to get the hours for my license, I am going to have to get used to putting gas in my car, because right now, I only do that once every 10 days to 2 weeks.
I did wonder how it would look if I rode up to my clients' homes on my bike, but I have a feeling my bosses would not like that (although they are very wellness oriented).

Great to get reimbursed Crankin. Guess your have to earn your stripes first before adding abit of your own style later.

Cycling to client meetings. Guess it depends who the client was, how close and if you could cycle in semi business streetwear. Wouldn't most counsellors be advocating some daily exercise for their clients...as part of road to better mental health? You could provoke more envy among your clients than you realize. Only a tiny portion of the whole solution of course.

Chryss: Now it's unhelpful to be too ideological about it. Now that I live in Alaska, I have my own car, and it's a big one (for me -- a small 4WD SUV). I balk at some of the cost, the low fuel efficiency (compared to what I'm used to), but living 25 miles outside Fairbanks, in a place that gets really difficult road conditions several times a year, this is appropriate right now. It's of course a choice to live that far out. Fairbanks itself is, for an American city, surprisingly cyclable. There's an acceptable network of bike path and a lot of intrepid cyclists, the university has a bike lending scheme (and offers excellent bike maintenance classes, which I'm currently taking) etc. But the temperature falls below -20°F/-30°C every winter for stretches of time, so only the most intrepid will cycle then. So I do see somewhat less serious cycling-for-transport (to the stores, with a child trailer...) than I would in a similar-sized place in Germany, even though it has its fans. Instead, it's easy to find organised club rides at non-racer level.

Very interesting about Fairbanks, AK.
Like you I don't cycle in winter time,...it has dropped to -25 to 30 degrees C for several days this past winter in Calgary. I haven't and don't plan to invest in studded bike tires to try it out. The cycling infrastructure isn't set up to protect a person totally for an entire ride. So I walk through a series of interconnected indoor pedestrian walkways ...it's helpful for really cold days. You will find more people from Alberta (and probably other prairie provinces where it's dry, cold winters and higher wind across flatter land) to have worked in the Arctic, because they already lived for awhile in much colder winters than other southern parts of Canada.

Personally I think it's too bad our city's light rapid transit train system is aboveground/at grade not underground to protect riders from waiting in chilly winter temperatures. I mean it can get very COLD. Not like what I experenced at all when I lived in Toronto.


If at least the article makes a person consider whether or not to get rid of a 2nd or 3rd car in the family at the right time in life...

[cthoops]

We were unable to go "car-free", but we did go "car-light" when we went from two cars to one, plus two scooters (and multiple bikes of course!). Car free isn't really an option for us (although I would love it), but even just dropping down to one car saved us a lot in insurance, property taxes, gas, etc. It certainly helped that we don't have children or pets, though!

I wasn't sure how one car would work out for us in the winter, but it was fine and now it's been three years. As long as my job situation doesn't change, we will never have two cars again.