3.6 miles in traffic vs. 300m on foot!

[AJI]

Yup, that's soon to be the change in my commute

I recently got offered a new job and the offices are actually visible from the windows of my flat. My new "commute" will involve about two minutes of walking each way! To put that into perspective, it would take longer for me to walk from some areas of the car park in my current job to get to my desk than it'll take to get from my bed to my desk in my new job...

My current commute involves a 3.6 mile, 15 minute drive in traffic with speeds varying between a crawl and 40mph, with frequent slowing and speeding up for traffic lights and roundabouts. If I'm lucky I can do the whole journey without coming to a halt once, but this rarely happens. In the recent snow it's taken even longer.

I've attempted cycling in the past but my fitness isn't up to the level needed to deal with the hills, and my guts aren't up to the lunatic drivers I come across on the way so I quickly gave up on that plan. It just left me unnecessarily tired and stressed! I also used the metro system for a while, but it was costing me more in fares than it costs me in petrol to drive and takes fifteen minutes longer, so that idea was abandoned too.

Needless to say though, I'm chuffed. My car can now be solely used for fun

[Cd]

Congratulations !
I also live close to work.
It might be said that finding work that is closer to home could be considered the ultimate ecomodd.

( Just not as fun though ! )

[luvit]

300 meters? -- no snow day for you.

[Daox]

You're quite lucky!

[AJI]

Originally Posted by luvit

300 meters? -- no snow day for you.

Hah, nope! Funnily enough my interview was held on a particularly snowy day, wasn't too much of a hassle to get there... I suspect though that if snow ever got bad enough that nobody could make it in, there'd be little use me turning up on my own

I used to walk to my old jobs quite often as they were all within a mile and a half of where I lived but a 300m commute takes me to a whole new level of "efficiency"...

[order99]

Lucky, lucky man AJI. I'm starting a new job next week after two months of unemployment-not very much money and a 39 mile commute one-way, but it keeps me eating, right? Permit me a small moment of petty jealousy...

...okay, done.

So-are you taking the scenic walk or the quick bicycle sprint? The bike would be perfect for those after-work errands if you're near town.

[dcb]

I'm thinking zipline

[AJI]

Originally Posted by order99

Lucky, lucky man AJI. I'm starting a new job next week after two months of unemployment-not very much money and a 39 mile commute one-way, but it keeps me eating, right? Permit me a small moment of petty jealousy...

...okay, done.

So-are you taking the scenic walk or the quick bicycle sprint? The bike would be perfect for those after-work errands if you're near town.

I'll permit you the jealousy

It'll be the scenic walk option. Cycling that distance would seem like overkill, and town is only another couple of minutes walk from where I'm going to be working. It's quite a compact city, it's never more than about 25 minutes walk to the suburbs in any direction.

[Laurentiu]

nice...I remember when I was living in N. Devon for a short while what awesome scenery were to be seen (Bideford area). I am quite the globotrekker, having worked/lived in 5 countries so far, including my country of birth (Romania)

BTW, I think I was the ultimate ecomodder in my job in England, I was working as a receptionist/waiter in a countryside hotel, and it was a live-in job. Living on the 2nd floor of the place I was living in

[AJI]

Thought I'd add a quick update to this thread, because I've just filled up my car for the first time in almost three whole months! As you can see from my fuel log, my fill-up yesterday was the first of this year, the last fill being on New Year's Eve.

That isn't entirely down to my new, short commute, admittedly. The clutch slave cylinder on my nearly 20-year old car began failing over Winter and although I got onto fixing it right away, I never had that much free time to do so, and in the meantime I "did without" the car, as I'm in the centre of a city and don't really need one. It's finally being taken to a garage to get fixed on Tuesday, and over the last few days I've been giving the car a bit of a shakedown, keeping the fluid topped up so I can actually engage gears again!

The economy itself hasn't been brilliant on this tank - 25mpg is the second lowest so far, but that can be attributed to a lot of commuting in heavy snow, and also having started the car up several times over the last few months just to make sure everything was working as it should be. I expect the three-month old petrol wasn't in the best shape either.

I can't wait to have it back as it should be. The car is essentially a toy so I'll never do huge mileages in it, but I guess it goes to show - the easiest way to reduce your fuel useage is to drive less, if you can get away with it!

As for the commute itself, it's bliss. The British weather can throw anything it wants at me, but you can only get so wet in three minutes