Price of Gas Affecting You, Too?

[MarkS]

I live 32 miles away from college. It takes me about 40 minutes to get there. A quick google search says the average bike speed is 13 mph. Assuming I maintain a constant speed, it would take me two and a half hours to get to college. Meaning I'd have to get up at 4 am vs my usual 5 am to get to class by 7. If I'm lucky, I average 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night. This is ignoring the fact that I go up to college twice on Mondays and for my evening class have to drink an energy drink to stay awake (it usually doesn't work).

As for danger, I'm 4'11". Think about it.

I agree that 64 miles a day on a bike would be extreme unless you're into doing triathlons or training for the Olympics, on the other hand I shudder to think what your gas costs are in an average car. If I were in your shoes I'd at least be going with a motorcycle or a scooter. As for being 4'11'', I used to have a friend who was about 5'0'' who biked 30 miles round trip to work everyday except for the coldest days in the winter. Much like Olstyns experience, she saved a lot of time over taking the bus.

For those Europeans who are paying more in gas, while that's true, we in the US and Canada are a lot more spread out then you are. It's really not unusual to put on a couple of hundred miles on my vehicle over the weekend just running errands, not to mention the higher costs of goods due to the higher costs of shipping. When my tomatoes are coming from Florida, my onions are coming from Texas and my Lettuce is coming from California, that's a much more expensive salad then it used to be. We're really not bemoaning the high cost of gas as much as we're bemoaning the high cost of maintaining what we consider a normal life. Especially when you consider that the oil industry is hands down the most profitable business on the face of the entire planet. (bunch of greedy pigs)