You’re Wasting Money Driving to Work

[Robbie Stewart]

My office is 8 metres from my bedroom. 

Then when I do need to travel its a 100km round trip from the West Coast to Brackenfell to Melkbos and back, past Dunoon and usually via two highways. 

Commuting sounds cute but only if you're a desk jockey with a highly predictable job that requires punching your 8 to 5 card every day.

[The Ouzo]

2 hours ago, Mook said:

Had to giggle when I saw this ..................................

It's like using the only disabled parking bay at the local shop for a "quick" 20min dash inside to get milk and bread, cause the family must be fed ☝️

Tomorrow is Friday 🥳

I see your point, but need to add, this was at a car dealership and a few things 

1) it was before most people arrive, even customers

2) in the 4 years I was there, we only had one customer that ever used it when she brought her car for a service, so most of the time it was empty

but point taken

[CorliJ]

Did my first cycle commute this morning. 16 fairly hilly kilometers.

• Time-wise, it's about 30 minutes longer (one way) than driving (I'm already slow, and went even slower than normal up the hills). So it's quite a time investment.
• I'll see what I do as the days get shorter - I like to start working at 07h30 but I'm not keen to ride in the proper dark to achieve that. But then I'll have to stay longer in the afternoons, which I don't like.
• I took a shower before starting the commute and used wet-wipes at work, feels fine.
• Was a bit scared of every person along the road being a bikejacker, which also makes me feel bad about being so mistrusting. One omie waved and went "daarsy, daarsy, daarsy" 🧡
• I'll definitely not do this more than twice a week, so brought in most of my things yesterday. If I continue, I'll also bring something for lunch the previous day already, so that I don't have to carry a backpack.

I'll see how it goes this afternoon when I have to climb out of Somerset West central to the top of the hill...maybe this will be a first and a last time!

[Zebra]

3 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

My office is 8 metres from my bedroom. 

Then when I do need to travel its a 100km round trip from the West Coast to Brackenfell to Melkbos and back, past Dunoon and usually via two highways. 

Commuting sounds cute but only if you're a desk jockey with a highly predictable job that requires punching your 8 to 5 card every day.

So, just 85% of the general population, then?
😉

Edited 7 hours ago by Zebra

[justinafrika]

13 hours ago, CapSizer said:

There is a whole world of commuting that does not involve riding to work.  How many of your local non-work trips can you do by bike? 

Yebo.  Cycling regularly shook off a deep, years-long depression.  (Edit:  I was lucky enough that a mate insisted that I use his MTB while he travelled for a couple of months).  Kids are long out of the house and I've chosen to be single, turns out I so love being on a bike that I cycle pretty much wherever I go.  Local Spar and pharmacy and beer shop let me lock the bikes in a quiet corner inside next to security.  Visiting mates or family across the city or the next town over is a breeze here and loadsa fun on a bike.  I'm almost half the size I was during those years behind a steering wheel.  Cue Borat voice-  "Great success!!"

Edited 6 hours ago by justinafrika

[Headshot]

An alternative to a daily slog in the car - or a bike, is to work from home a few days a week. Some jobs are better suited to this and it would work less well for me as a presence at the office is required most days. 

Right now I'd love to commute, shower or not, but my round trip is around 60km and involves a stop off in the city center where I need to be fairly formally attired and then a highway drive to the office another 20km away. The non-highway route is a traffic filled semi-industrial  nightmare that would put me at serious risk of some kind of MVA incident. If only safe cycle routes between the south and north of Cape Town actually existed...

[Jaco Steyn]

I worked for 40 years, 5 months and 26 days for the same company and of those years, the last 35 I was cycling to work and back. I did it summer, winter, autumn and spring, mornings and afternoon. Up here we luckily do not have rain often in the mornings, but afternoon showers were common. If I got wet in the afternoon, I just got out of the wet clothes when I got home and took a warm shower. It was a bit more of a challenge if I was caught out by rain in the mornings. 

Over all of those years I probably saved thousands in fuel, but more important, wear and tear. Also, not having my car stand in a parking area for ± 9 hours a day and being exposed to the harsh weather conditions, such as the blazing sun, hail and extreme cold in the winter. 

I did more kilometers on my bicycle than what I drove my car. My wife then had use of the car during the day to go and do shopping, so there was no real need for us to have a second car. Our 2019 car currently only has about 80 000km on the odometer. That's about 1000 km per month, just over 1 tank of fuel per month.

In the last 25 years, I had three different MTBs for my commuting. A Blue Giant Sedona, then a white Cannondale and since 2018 a green Cannondale. I had my fair share of extreme temperatures cycling to work and back. The coldest was about -6°C and the hottest was 42°C.

[SoloCyclist]

Truly jealous of those that can cycle to work

Unfortunately I travel on the 2 most dangerous roads in CT, the N2 and R300 through the worst areas

i wont even survive on a makro special

[milky4130]

We have a gym on the office campus, some days I dont even bother showering as it's just an 18km / 45mins commute. I also sometimes wished the commute was further, but that is easy to fix, in the past I'd just detour home/work via Suikerbossie/Chappies/Constantia Nek/Ou Kaapse Weg (not in that order).

[Shebeen]

FYI. there is a massive thread on this topic, and we're in the commuter section - lots of things discussed already