Today's trip had me all over the place. I went to Speedway (hot coffee), Home Depot (returned Christmas lights), Sears (vacuum cleaner bags), Gander Mountain (gloves) and Giant Eagle (cheese and pepperoni).
The bad thing about today is that I encountered the rudest drivers I have seen in a long time. I wonder how long people really spend behind me while they are waiting to pass. I do not have any hard facts, but I am willing to be that it is less than a minute. I'm sure it is like sitting at a stop light. It feels like forever, but in reality, it is only a minute or two.
I am sure that if I talked to these people they would never choose risking hurting someone over saving a minute or two on their trip. Is it really that bad to be behind a cyclist? I thought about this.
The Federal Highway Administration says that the average trip is nine miles long. The average speed is 32 MPH. Crunching some numbers from my eighth grade math class, I figure that the average trip is about 17 minutes. Now, let's say someone is stuck behind me for two full minutes. My average speed on a bike is about 12MPH. That would lower the average speed down to 29.65 MPH. That would increase the trip to 18 minutes. What if, by some strange miracle, I lowered the average speed down to 27MPH? That would add a whopping three minutes to the trip.
So, someone who wants to save less that five minutes is willing to risk my life. When you put it that way, it hardly seems worth forcing me off the road, does it?
Money saved to date: $11.77
CO2 saved to date: 73.99 pounds
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