Remote Office Centers lease individual offices, internet and phone systems to workers from different companies in shared centers located around the city and suburbs.

Many office workers spend their entire day either on the phone or on a computer system attached to the internet. There is no real reason that they need to work from a centralized office. The price of gas has gotten to the point where working remotely makes more sense than driving back and forth through heavy commuter traffic every day.

Remote Office Centers are fairly new, but can be found in most large cities by doing a web search on “Remote Office Centers” in quotes.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pressroom/fhwa0817.htm

Crunch the numbers a bit, throw in one $1.25 gel for the ride I’ve now sliced through more than 50% of the money saved while riding. I avoid gel’s for commuting because they cost too much for such a short ride and rely on packed fresh fruit to consume when I get to work, but other things start to add up as well. I’ve bought clothing specificly to ride in (Champion C9 shirts, similar to Under Armor but 1/3rd the price), that also means that I’m changing two outfits a day which = more laundry, powered by an electric washing machine.

I’d say that I am saving a small amount of money by commuting to work, but trying to recoup the money spent on my bike, accessories, clothing, replacement parts is going to take a very long time. Say you get 1,000 miles out of a rear tire and you replace it with a lower end, yet decent piece of rubber that costs $30. That tire you just replaced just cost you 3c per mile to ride, not including another $4-6 for a tube.

All of these factors should be helping to boost bike shop sales..

Why was there not a post regarding the BRaIN’s article that sales are behind ’07 and that we will sell just as many bike this year as we have in the past 7?

Yes sales are up for accessories, parts and commuter bikes, and this is good for shops but to say bike sales are up without hard evidence (less than .3% of shops were included in survey) is adding to the hype that does not seem to be there in hard numbers.

Bike Hugger has an interview with president of Bianchi posted and he does not say sales are up just as most bike companies will tell you.

And BTW-good grief, do we have a huge crop of newbies in Madison this year. Bit of a pain, but ultimately it warms the Old Commuter’s heart.

o I love to ride, more riding is good, stress beater, calorie burner, get outside, soul riding…
o less oil burned
o fitness
o less mileage/oil/maint on the car I do own
o as an example to my kids (my 9 year old is catching it)
o example to people driving to work (you can do it too)