Tank 324 - 10 July 2K12 (I'm Ahead of You, Because I left Home Ten Seconds Before You!)

Refueled this morning at the convenient Fas Mart near my home, after driving the Mighty Corolla 414.0 miles in 11 days. My heart sank as I pumped in 11.448 gallons, which made for a pitiful mileage of 36.16 mpg. I should be happy, I suppose, since the government estimated the car should only ger 34 mpg on the highway.

Still, since we bought this car, I've achieved a lifetime fuel economy of 37.19 miles per gallon, so I'm disappointed that I didn't even achieve the average here.

* * * * *

I've been bothered recently on the road by people who drive erratically and/or aggressively. I tend to stay in the slow lane going about the posted speed limit. I try to let people merge at the onramps if I can't get over to the middle lane to open up the slow lane as they merge. I think that in general I'm a fairly conscientious and predictable driver.

On a regular basis, as I sit there commuting in the slow lane in my car, I see other cars speeding up feom behind, weaving in and out of the lanes in an effort to get past the immediate "obstacles" of other cars, only to reveal even more of the same "obstacles" ahead to keep them from speeding along at whatever top speed they thing they're entitled to drive.

Sometimes there's a perfect storm of coincidences where the slow lane is wide open behind me, and the aggressive speeder sees the wide open lane from across the road, and he sweeps across two lanes to the slow lane and lays the hammer down in an impressive display of acceleration to get past the slow people impeding his progress.

So this guy quickly sees that the slow lane is not entirely empty, but instead has a car in it (mine) that's being driven at a slow speed (by me), although "slow" must be relative because 65-70 mph is still pretty fast to me.

So the guy's faced with the embarrassing prospect of slamming on his brakes and waiting for a gap to open up amongst the people he just sped around.

If only he looked around at his surroundings, a little ahead of himself on the road, he would have seen that I was there. But no, he doesn't see me until he's committed to the move and zoomed past other cars in an aggressive fury of right-foot-stomping.

Sheesh. If you're in that big of a rush, LEAVE HOME SOONER!

And STOP THINKING YOU IMPRESS ME WITH YOUR SPEED!

I drive a freaking Corolla and the speedometer goes up to 110! If I want to go fast, all I need to do is push down my right foot a little bit more, just like you.

A fast car does not make you a stronger person.

A fast car does not make you a better person.

A fast car does not make you a happier person.

A fast car does not make you better than anybody else.

A fast car only means you can push your right foot down a little bit more than normal people.

A fast car only gets you stuck in traffic faster.

And that fast car also adds to the accordion slow-down effect that slows down all the other people trying to go in the same direction as you. And that's selfish, really.

How is that supposed to impress other people, especially when it's very likely that these other people are complete strangers?

It's all well and good that you spent $50,000 on your luxury car or SUV, but when I see you driving it like Tony Stewart (which you're not) and getting stuck in the same traffic as me (which you are), I actually feel bad for you. My Corolla was $15,000 and look at me, stuck here on the same road with you.

Was that a good use of your money? Spending three times as much to sit in the same traffic jam as the rest of us unwashed masses? I almost laugh at the situation, if it wasn't so sad, because you probably don't even realize what a fool you are for acting like that.

//steps off soapbox//

15 (or 14) Commute Days Left, 8 (or 9) Riding Days Left in July

I had a good weekend with two good bike rides that totaled about 67 miles and about 4 hours.

With my recent commute times being a little shorter than average (thank you, Thursday afternoon meetings at the new building!), today's updated pie chart of destiny shows a 46-54 split (thank you, rounding!).

The car commute time is still about 31 and a half hours ahead of the bike riding time, which is totally acceptable. Like I have a choice, really. It is what it is.

Coming up the next two Saturdays, though, I have been signed up for an horrible training of some sort on those two days, which means I won't be able to get in a long morning ride on those days. But also coming up, if the weather holds out, is a fun trip with my friend John to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway. That ought to even things up a little bit.

And tomorrow I expect to add more gas to the Mighty Corolla, so I'll have a mileage update to post. I'm not expecting it to be a great result. I think it's because I've spent a lot of little run around town trips over the weekend and holiday. Plus I've been running the air conditioning in that car like nobody's business on account of the heat.

July So Far - 286 Minutes Commuting, 249 Minutes Riding

Thanks to the mid-week holiday and a partial work day yesterday, my bicycling has generally kept pace with my car commuting. There's a difference of less than 40 minutes, which I expect to recover during a long ride on Saturday morning. Expecting a normal commute home this afternoon of perhaps 85 minutes, my anticipated ride tomorrow will make the week end up with the bicycling time winning by perhaps as much as an hour.

I'm not sure what to expect for my drive home this afternoon. It's supposed to be a bajillion degrees outside, plus it's a Friday, so I expect "hilarity will ensue," but also with the Wednesday holiday, I suppose many people are making a long weekend out of it.

But whatever. I don't have much of a say in what the traffic will look like on my way home, so I'll obviously need to manage it regardless of its speediness.

Plans Flushed. Driving Home From Work.

But I'll still be able for a good ride tomorrow morning.

Happy Fourth of July.

Tank 323 - 28 June 2K12

So I actually put more gas in the Mighty Corolla last Thursday afternoon, and just now am getting to report on it. It was super! I filled up at a Wawa in Stafford, and put in 11.311 gallons, after driving 436.3 miles. So my mileage was a solid 38.57 miles per gallon.

Gas was $3.159/gallon at that time.

It was 98 degrees when I refueled there around 3:00 pm.

So that's about it.

This afternoon I am faced with a tricky decision, one that is sort of making itself. We're all allowed to go home 59 minutes early, which would be 3:01 in my case. I am also permitted an hour of healthy wellness exercise time, which I should have started if I seriously wanted to do it today. But I am suspecting traffic will be so bad at 3:01 that it'd make more sense to ride my bike the 34 miles home, as it's the day before a holiday, and sometimes driving home takes about that long anyway on such days.

But today is looking weird.

The Google traffic maps are pretty much showing green stripes on the major roads. I feel much safer on Route 1 when it's yellow and red, because I can ride my bike at those speeds. Green does not make me feel like I want to ride home on Route 1.

It's almost 2:30 and if the traffic reports stay so freaking happy and green for cars, I may be compelled to drive home as well. Rats?

On the other hand, if I do manage to drive home in a not-so-slow manner, I think the rest of my family will be out at the lake for the afternoon, so I may be able to get home, change real quick, and then go out for a ride around the neighborhoods and stuff, which wouldn't be so bad, but it's not like riding home on Route 1 when all those other cars are stuck in stop-and-go traffic.

Ended June Ahead - Bicycling Likely to Win

As July begins, I am pleased that the bicycling time for the year is only about 32.6 hours behind my car commuting time. When I ended January with a 7-hour deficit, I had expected that by the end of June it would be about 42 hours that I'd be needing to make up by the end of the year.

Happily, my bike rides have been increasing in duration and I'm going into July with a smaller than anticipated deficit.

With new Thursday afternoon meetings at the new building, my Thursday commutes home will probably remain shorter than average, which may keep the gap from growing as rapidly as it had been for the first several months of the year.

I'm scheduled for 19 work days this month (July), but at least one of those "work days" I will be going in late, so I ought to be able to get a decent bike ride in early in the day.

More and more, I am becoming increasingly confident that I will ride my bike for more time than I spend driving to and from work in my car.