So, we've been without a car for almost a year now. I still need to go figure out how this all worked out financially, but I've been meaning to start keeping track of how I get around from place to place over the course of a week. Last week, I finally did it. I might keep this up for a little while longer, just out of curiosity, though summer vacation is a lot different from the rest of the year.
So, last week, here's how I got around:
Monday:
walking: 3.5 miles (walking the dog and getting my son from school gives me 3.5-4 miles a day on foot)
bike: 7 miles
Tuesday:
walking: 4.5 miles
bike: 6.5 miles
Wednesday:
walking: 4 miles
bike: 6 miles
Thursday:
walking: 3.5 miles
bike: 6.5 miles
Friday:
walking: 5 miles
bike: 9.2 miles
Saturday:
walking: 2 miles
T: lots and lots of miles (I rode for about 4-5 hours, while write a play for the T Plays--a bunch of plays that take place on the T (I even wrote mine on the T)). They open this Wednesday, produced by the Mill 6 Theatre Collaborative at the Factory Theatre in Boston.
bike: 8 miles
Sunday:
walking: 1 mile (It was Father's Day, so I didn't have to walk the dog as much).
bike: 12 miles
Totals:
walking: 23.5 miles
bike: 55 miles
T: 4-5 hours
Car: 0 miles
This was not a typical week for me. Normally, I'd walk a bit more and ride my bike a lot less. (I think I usually walk about 30 miles a week and bike about 5-10 miles, but I'm not sure.) And I'd ride the T a little more. But I was doing research on book at a library at Harvard and also had rehearsals and read-throughs of my T play, and I got to all of that by bike. If we'd had a car, I would have driven for at least half of the bike miles, and maybe a few of the walking miles.
It might be worth doing this for a while, just to see how it goes. I can definitely see that I'm getting plenty of exercise. (No wonder I fall asleep so easily.)