Driving in the Time of Coronavirus (The Coronavirus Diaries, Part VIII)
I happened to buy gas on Friday, March 13, which was my last day in the office. Since then I have bought gas exactly twice: once on May 11 and again on July 12. I've still got half a tank left so I probably will get through a nice chunk of September before my next tank. If I get 10 more days I'll break my "longest time between tanks of gas" record for the third time in a row.
Normally I average three tanks of gas a month, with a few more when we travel and less when I bike to work a lot. This means I'm down about 14 tanks over usual in the last six months. That's only $300 or so, but it's not nothing. Perhaps more interesting is the question of mileage. I typically average around 350 miles to the tank - more in the summer or on long interstate road trips and a little less in the winter. So I've probably gone 850 or miles since March 13; I'm too lazy to pull out my mileage log from the glove compartment of the car while writing this to get the exact numbers, but it's in that range. Hopefully the reduction in wear and tear makes it more likely I drive it until I'm 50.
By comparison, since March 13 I've gone 1637.8 miles on my bike. Not only is that easily the highest bike miles I've had in a year, it also means I'm about one long ride from doubling the distance my car has gone since March 13, which itself is enough reason to try to go 60 miles this weekend.
It turns out that when you can't go out to eat, or visit friends, or go to work, or do radio, pretty quickly you don't rack up miles. Heck, since I can't even go to the West Side Market my total grocery miles has even gone down. I've only driven to the east side of Cleveland three times since my last radio show on March 15. What a weird year this has been.
Normally I average three tanks of gas a month, with a few more when we travel and less when I bike to work a lot. This means I'm down about 14 tanks over usual in the last six months. That's only $300 or so, but it's not nothing. Perhaps more interesting is the question of mileage. I typically average around 350 miles to the tank - more in the summer or on long interstate road trips and a little less in the winter. So I've probably gone 850 or miles since March 13; I'm too lazy to pull out my mileage log from the glove compartment of the car while writing this to get the exact numbers, but it's in that range. Hopefully the reduction in wear and tear makes it more likely I drive it until I'm 50.
By comparison, since March 13 I've gone 1637.8 miles on my bike. Not only is that easily the highest bike miles I've had in a year, it also means I'm about one long ride from doubling the distance my car has gone since March 13, which itself is enough reason to try to go 60 miles this weekend.
It turns out that when you can't go out to eat, or visit friends, or go to work, or do radio, pretty quickly you don't rack up miles. Heck, since I can't even go to the West Side Market my total grocery miles has even gone down. I've only driven to the east side of Cleveland three times since my last radio show on March 15. What a weird year this has been.