Well, I moved out to Kanata, because my office was moving out ot Kanata. However, I moved a few months before my office did. So I've had a long commute since July. I don't own a car, so I decided to take advantage of the "Rack and Ride" program that OC Transpo offers.

So every day, I'd ride down to the park and ride, and put my bike on the bus, travel by bus to Woodroffe, and then ride the remainging 15 KM in to work. The ride in to work was pretty good. The buses consistently had bike racks on them, and were always on time. Getting home at night was another story. The Queensway stop doesn't have many busses going by coming in the west direction, so I would bike to Pinecrest, and then take a bus from there. However, for some reason in the evening, many busses which were supposed to have bike racks would not have bike racks. I often ended up waiting 30 minutes for a bus to come by which had a rack, and which wasn't already filled up. After getting tired of that, and figuring, hey, it's only another 9 KM from Pinecrest to my house, I started riding all the way home, as much as long as the conditions are good.

Now it's November, and the bike racks are supposed to be off the busses, according to the OC Transpo web site. Although I still see quite a few buses with racks on them. But because I'm crazy, and because my boss (who has also moved out this way in advance of the office moving) drives me in to work a couple days a week, I have started biking the whole way, both ways on the days I do bring my bike. So, that's 50 KM per day.

I never thought I would get to the point where I really enjoyed riding that far. But once your body gets used to it, it's really not that bad at all. Funny thing, is that it doesn't take that much longer to bike than to drive. When I bike, it takes me about an hour, sometimes 1 hour 10 minutes, depending on wind. On the days when I get a ride, depending on traffic, it can take anywhere from 40 to 55 minutes. So it takes about an exta 15 minutes to ride my bike. Plus I'm getting a ton of exercise.

I thought I was in good shape before. I used to only bike 7 km each way. Now that I can bike 25 KM each way, I'm in really good shape. And I can feel the difference. Most days I would rather bike 50 KM than take the bus, or sit in a car. It just feels so good to be out on a bike, not being held up in traffic, and getting lots of exercise. I'm going to miss my ride a little bit when the office moves after next week. But I think it's better that I have a short ride, as I would love to get home earlier in the evenings, and spend more time with my wife and kids.