Maki-BIKE ka!: A bike commuter’s tale
- Biking, Manila, Travel & Commuting, Videos -
Editor’s note: You can also read this story on Talk of the Town on the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
I am Dino Alberto E. Subingsubing, 44, a communication specialist working with a non-government organization (NGO) health project. Married with three kids, I’m just your regular working dude — except that I’ve been a regular bicycle commuter for the past 15 years.
Yup, I bike to work three to four days a week from Novaliches (where I live) to TM Kalaw (where I work). Let’s see…that would be about 20 kilometers one way. It takes me one and a half hours of leisurely cycling along my regular bike route, which covers Quirino Highway, Mindanao Avenue, C5, North Avenue, Agham Road, Quezon Boulevard, España, Earnshaw, Legarda / Mendiola, Ayala Bridge, Taft Avenue and TM Kalaw (where my office is located).
That would be 40 kilometers in a day, 160 kilometers in a week, 640 kilometers in a month, 7,680 kilometers in a year. Imagine how it translates into the number of calories burned!
Translated in the amount of money saved in terms of transportation fare, that would be about P150 a day, or P600 a week, or P2,400 a month and P28,800 a year. Imagine what you could buy with that.
I really didn’t start out a hardcore bike commuter. In fact, I only learned to ride a bike in 1992. But the appeal of being able to travel at your own pace, being free to choose your own route at will and not getting stuck in traffic gridlock made me choose biking as my ideal commuting mode.
The decision to bike to work (and almost everywhere) came at a time when I turned by all things ecological and environment-friendly — organic backyard gardening, home birth and Lamaze birthing techniques (two out of my three children were born at home, with my partner being assisted in childbirth by a health center midwife), traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and eating lower on the food chain (vegetarianism and macrobiotic diets).
