Had to drive twice this week.

I woke up Tuesday and both bikes had flats. I'm not sure how I have two flats on the road bike. I fixed the not-road bike Tuesday night and found a small thorn in the front tire. I replaced the tube with a thorn resistant version. Sure it's heavy, but speed means nothing if you have to take 7 minutes to replace a tube.

Today is Thursday, my wife works late, I pick the kids up.

I often think about how much of a waste driving is when I don't ride.

Kiplinger estimates that replacing my 14 miles of driving with cycling saves me $5.66 a day. Most folks work 19.3 days a month on average, that amounts to more than $1300 a year.

Two problems with that computation:

1. Kiplinger assumes I replace a car with a bike, since it bases the savings off of 50c/mile, that number includes insurance and depreciation. My '99 Cavalier has no value to begin with, so depreciation is of no concern to me. I put far less than 7,500 miles on it annually, so I have "recreational use" insurance on it.

2. I eat an additional 750 calories a day, which costs more than $2.

On the other hand, I haven't filled the tank up in two and a half months. I got that goin for me, which is nice.

When I do drive, I take G/Randolph street from 17th to 33rd (or from 33rd to 17th). When I take A or O street, I often sit through two red lights at 27th street. G street is lightly trafficked, I often see 3, maybe 4 cars going in the same direction I am. I have to hit the 4 way stop by Lincoln High and then the lights at Capitol Parkway and 27th, but the wait is so short: I'm often the only car there in all three of those instances.

This distinct lack of traffic on a secondary road that traverses Lincoln's Core is why it makes perfect sense for the city to designate G/Randolph as Lincoln's first "Sharrow" street from Capitol Parkway all the way to 4th street. It will be marked in the coming days/weeks with a bicycle and two chevrons to alert drivers that cyclists will use this road.

The Sharrow will be celebrated on October 10, 2010 with a Massive Bike Ride.

I have converted a friend. She hasn't had a bicycle since high school and bought a $40 Huffy from Craigslist. I know: Friends don't let friends buy Wal-Mart Bikes, but all the not-wal-mart bikes on CL are $70+ and she's moving. Besides, this bike is super freaking clean.

She's moving to Havelock and has a 4 mile commute to work each way. Instead of adding a car to Cornhusker highway, she's adding a bicycle to the Dietrich Bikeway.