You contribute to traffic - but you can do something about it!

Everywhere I’ve lived - smack-dab between DC and Baltimore; just north of Frankfurt, Germany; and now Denver - people complain about traffic. And for good reason! I-95 and 295 traffic north of DC is out of control! German autobahns are famous for their "staus". Almost every afternoon Google Maps notifies my phone that my area has ‘higher than normal traffic with delays up to 25 minutes’ here in Denver.
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Traffic sucks the fun out of life!

Sitting in this traffic comes at tremendous personal cost:

• Missed or delayed meetups with friends
• Feeling stressed about the ‘stupid’ drivers around us
• Sitting in traffic magnifies the already huge cost of owning and driving a car and is horrible for the environment.

But there we all go complaining about traffic while we sit in a car contributing to the loathsome problem.

“But, Jeff, I see you driving up to the mountains all the time! You get stressed out in traffic, and I bet you’ve even cut someone off before!!! What gives?”

All the above are fair and true about me and my habits. That said, I’ve recently been reading about the HUGE variable costs of driving ← those that come even after you’ve paid for your car in full, and am making a conscience effort to use my car less.
What happens if I used my car only when I need it?

• 30 miles to my favorite climbing crag with a few friends and all our climbing gear? Ok, drive.
• Pick up several sheets of plywood from Home Depot? Fine, drive (though it may be worth checking into their free home delivery).
• 2 miles to the grocery store? Common, walk or take a bike!
• 10 mile commute? Bike - at least 1 or 2 times per week depending on how far your commute is!!
• Quick trip to the Cleaners to get your snazzy dress pants clean? Bike every time!
• Going to the Gym? Really? You’re going to sit all the way to the gym that you’ve paid for, just to sit inside and bike? Why not save the Gym membership and just bike to and from the gym… on a real bike?

“But biking is dangerous and I don’t have a good route to bike to work!”

I hear you, I was under the same illusion until I did some research. Statistically biking is not as dangerous as we think. When you combine those statistics with the health benefits of propelling yourself through your environment with your legs instead of sitting in a glorified recliner, the safety argument falls away.

Additionally tools, such as Strava’s Route Builder - which uses Strava's EXCELLENT global heatmap to help you find popular routes - ie. safer, smoother roads or bike paths - to your destination.

After running this personal experiment for the last month I’ve found:

• Biking (10.5 miles) instead of driving (13 miles) to work only increases my commute by 50% (30 min driving vs 45 min biking) AND I’ve already got a substantial workout in by the time I’ve returned home actually saving lots of time.
• Biking to run errands actually takes about the same amount of time as driving to those errands. Bikes in bike lanes get to go right up to the front of a traffic jam, stoplight or stop sign line rather than having to wait at the back.
• I feel much better when I arrive at work! Instead of needing to punch myself in the face with loads of caffeine to wake up, my commute does this for me! My coworkers have told me they’ve noticed I’m more productive and pleasant to be around in the mornings.
• I feel like less of a jackass watching cars sit in traffic knowing I’m not contributing to their problem.
• I feel none of the stress I felt when I was sitting in traffic. Wait, what stress? I’m on a bike! I smell the smells and move fluidly to my destination all while strengthening my body and getting a pretty solid endorphin release. Running errands, getting to work, and going to the gym are all fun where they used to be onerous tasks.

What are you waiting for? Make a small change - you don’t have to do it all at once - just make your next commute OR grocery store trip OR trip to the gym a bike ride!!