Ride to Work Day

Tomorrow (Wednesday, July 16, 2008) is the 17th Annual Ride to Work day.  Basically, the idea is to promote motorcycling as a legitimate means of transportation, not only on the 3rd Wednesday of every July, but each day of the year.

There are tons of facts and information on traffic congestion, gasoline usage and parking space, and how riding motorcycles rather than driving a car really help out in those areas.  For example, in cities where a parking space is a real pain to find, riding a motorcycle can help simply because 3-5 motorcycles (depending on their size, of course) can fit in the same space as a single car.

I’m already doing my part, because I ride to work and anywhere else I can get away with.  As long as I don’t have to haul something that I can’t handle on the motorcycle, I’m riding it.  I calculated my MPG one day, and my bike gets right around 44 MPG.  My truck (my only other vehicle at this time) gets about 15 MPG.  You can see a huge cost savings right there alone.  Especially since I drive 30 miles one way to work.  That’s 60 miles every day – 300 miles a week!  That’s a savings of just over 13 gallons of gas each week, and at around $4 per gallon (I picked an even number, but it’s close), that’s a savings of $52 a week, or a little over $200 a month!  Yep, I’ve just paid for the new set of tires for my bike just by riding it for a month.