Best worst and worst best commutes

Yesterday Orion and I had our best worst commute ever. Before we even left the house we had flat tires on both the taglong bike and the backup trailer. I rushed to patch the tire on the tagalong but we were 20min late out the door. We pedalled furiously and took our shortest route, but I resigned us to missing the tardy bell. Still: we arrived just after the morning bell, our fastest commute ever. 51 minutes door to door. It was fun, like a race.

This morning we had our worst best commute ever. The bikes were in fine condition and we left early. Orion requested we ride down through Riverview Cemetery and along the west waterfront path: our longest and slowest route. It took us 68 minutes door to door, our slowest commute ever. It was warm and quiet on the river. We saw geese and ducks and mourning doves and hummingbirds. We arrived at school five minutes before the morning bell.

So: in two days we bracketed our best and worst possible commutes: 51 to 68 minutes. Just around an hour, give or take about five minutes. A less than 10% variance, with nearly 100% confidence. Traffic, weather, construction: none of these things materially affect our commute.

Of all the reasons offered for Going By Bike this one often gets overlooked: biking might not be the fastest way to get there, but it is surely the most reliable.