Comments on: Commute 101: Leave your car at the office

By: Eddy B

Eddy B — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:50:27 +0000

I started doing this close to three years ago, I stopped driving my car two and a half years ago. I highly recommend this method, it is a huge motivator to ride every day rain or shine, sleet… It really helped ween me off of car culture.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:33:58 +0000

Why wouldn’t you just drive to work on the day that you actually need the car?

As an admin my bosses used to like to spring errands on me. “Oh damn, I forgot to put the sign out on the new Charles listing and I need you to run this to the bank for me.”

By: Roger H

Roger H — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:41:02 +0000

I have an extra older car, a 1984 Toyota wagon with 306,000 miles that I can leave at work all the time. I can ride in and have a car to use if necessary but still have one at home. I don’t usually know in advance if I’ll need a car at work on any given day, so it works pretty well.

By: D

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:21:52 +0000

Why wouldn’t you just drive to work on the day that you actually need the car?

By: Dave Levasseur

Dave Levasseur — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 07:03:23 +0000

Ok, I think I am a bad person because of this, but I am fortunate enough to have two cars. I have one that is my primary driver and another that is a station wagon that I take on biking trips and drive when the weather is bad (I love Subaru.) I leave one car at work and another at home. I am able to commute every day and not worry too much about the weather or getting sick or any of that. And worst case, if I am at work and I can’t ride home, I can always throw the bike in the Subaru to get it home.

By: sasquatch

sasquatch — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:56:27 +0000

how about flexcar? I’m thinking of loosing my 2nd car but it’s sometimes a necessity to drive for work, etc. Know anyone doing this?

By: mb

mb — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:20:42 +0000

I use a Foldie, my Dahon Curve D3. So I bike all the way to work with it.

And if I have a meeting later at some far off place, I ride the bicycle to the nearest Mass Rapid Transit, fold up, and take the train to the meeting (or unfold and ride a little more from the exit station to the meeting).

The mixed mode commuting ensures I need not sweat too much and still get there in a reasonable amount of time.

But then Singapore is a small city with a good tube network, so it works for me here.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:22:10 +0000

I used to do this more often before we cut our household down to 1 car. If I knew I had somewhere to be on say a Tuesday night right after work, but couldn’t bear the though of being off the bike for a whole day, I’d drive in Monday with the bike, cycle home the long way that night, then bike in the next day, drive to meeting/errands/etc. on Tuesday night.. Voila.

I’m now trying to figure out the best bus route between my new house and the office, so I can do something similar, especially this winter when the weather starts to turn (ie: bike to work in A.M., put bike on bus for ride home if freezing rain/sleet/snow)

By: nmanhipot

nmanhipot — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:16:08 +0000

This is how I roll – works for me. The only problem for me has been getting sick. If you leave the car at work, you are less likely to go to work if you’re feeling marginal or trying to get back to work when you’ve been completely broken and humbled by some nasty flu bug. The other 98% of the time, it works like a champ!

By: Tim Grahl

Tim Grahl — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:12:24 +0000

True… hadn’t thought of that.

Personally, my wife and I own two vehicles. So we always have one at home with us for emergencies and family outings.