Bike Commuting

This summer I needed to go without a car for 2 weeks. So I used my bike to commute back and forth to work, to the store, the farmer's market... none of those were big commutes, about 5 or 6 miles at the most, with plenty of time to rest before going back home. Many times I ended up taking the bus instead because of rain, so I cannot say that I did it every single day. Even so, after 2 weeks of no car, my pants were practically falling off.
Summer is almost over, and school has started. My daughter's school is located outside our ''school zone'', so she cannot take the school bus. I cannot take her to school on my bike, so I must drive her every day.
I decided to drive her to school, but instead of driving back home, leave the car there and bike back home or to work. Bike back to her school later on, pick her up, and drive home: 16 miles.
This may not seem like much if you are driving a car, but if you do the math for the school year you quickly realize how much you can exercise by just commuting. There are 170 days of school until June 2011. Even if I miss 70 of those, because of rain, work schedule, errands that need car etc... I will still end up with 100 days of 16 miles. Multiply that and you get a whopping 1,600 for the year. That is 1,600 miles of leg work.
It may seem that it would take too much time to do that everyday. But if you add to the equation waiting in line for the car circle, parking, and traffic, you end up practically with the same time both for car riding and biking: 30 minutes. Add some water, and you end up with 60 minutes of daily exercise, instead of 60 minutes of sitting.
Enough to earn your nightly beer, and keep yourself trim and in good spirits.