Weekly Tally #2: How I Got Around Last Week

I kept track again this week.  No T riding at all, and not as much bike or walking

So, last week, here's how I got around:

Monday:
walking:  3 miles  
bike:  6.4 miles


Tuesday:
walking: 1.5 miles
bike:  11 miles

Wednesday:
walking:  2 miles
bike:  3.5 miles

Thursday:
walking: 2 miles
bike:  3.2 miles

Friday:
walking:  1 miles
bike:  6 miles

Saturday:
walking: 2 miles

bike:  4.2 miles

Sunday:
walking:  3 miles 
bike:  0 miles

Totals:
walking:  14.5 miles
bike:  34.3 miles
T: 0 miles
Car:  0 miles

Now that my son is out of school, my walking miles are down a bit.  And I didn't do as much by bike last week.  This week, I have a lot of work over at MIT, so I'll have more bike miles (in the heat).  And we'll be getting a Zipcar on Sunday for a beach trip.

Weekly Tally: How I Got Around Last Week

So, we've been without a car for almost a year now.  I still need to go figure out how this all worked out financially, but I've been meaning to start keeping track of how I get around from place to place over the course of a week.  Last week, I finally did it.  I might keep this up for a little while longer, just out of curiosity, though summer vacation is a lot different from the rest of the year.

So, last week, here's how I got around:

Monday: 
walking:  3.5 miles   (walking the dog and getting my son from school gives me 3.5-4 miles a day on foot)
bike:  7 miles


Tuesday:
walking: 4.5 miles
bike:  6.5 miles

Wednesday:
walking:  4 miles
bike:  6 miles

Thursday:
walking:  3.5 miles
bike:  6.5 miles

Friday:
walking:  5 miles
bike:  9.2 miles

Saturday:
walking: 2 miles
T:  lots and lots of miles (I rode for about 4-5 hours, while write a play for the T Plays--a bunch of plays that take place on the T (I even wrote mine on the T)).  They open this Wednesday, produced by the Mill 6 Theatre Collaborative at the Factory Theatre in Boston.
bike:  8 miles

Sunday: 
walking:  1 mile  (It was Father's Day, so I didn't have to walk the dog as much).
bike:  12 miles

Totals:
walking:  23.5 miles
bike:  55 miles
T: 4-5 hours
Car:  0 miles

This was not a typical week for me.  Normally, I'd walk a bit more and ride my bike a lot less.  (I think I usually walk about 30 miles a week and bike about 5-10 miles, but I'm not sure.)  And I'd ride the T a little more.   But I was doing research on book at a library at Harvard and also had rehearsals and read-throughs of my T play, and I got to all of that by bike.  If we'd had a car, I would have driven for at least half of the bike miles, and maybe a few of the walking miles.

It might be worth doing this for a while, just to see how it goes.  I can definitely see that I'm getting plenty of exercise.  (No wonder I fall asleep so easily.)

One of the hard parts

For the most part, getting rid of our car has been a lot easier than I expected.  I don't miss it much at all.  There are a few hard parts.  Getting the kids to doctor's appointments can be a challenge.  And gardening tasks can be tricky without a car.  And I do a lot of gardening.

The trailer helps a lot.  The other day I was able to transport these tomato seedlings to one of my garden projects (a really fun shared backyard garden).  We started these plants under lights in our basement (a little too soon) and grew tall and leggy.  They seemed to handle the ride pretty well.  I rode carefully and none of the plants broke.  I used the cart for pepper seedlings, too.

I had to rent a zipcar pickup truck to haul salt marsh hay bales (for mulch) and also tossed my cucumber seedlings in the truck.  They did not like the pick up ride (or transplanting in general).

Gardening can require a fair amount of hauling of heavy, bulky material, and a car or minivan definitely makes it easier.  Still, we've managed pretty well even without it.  And I'm getting in great shape from riding to all the different gardens (they're pretty close to home--the farthest is about 3.2 miles round trip, but up a pretty big hill on the way there).