one idea i had recently for my sabbatical projects was to design a website with a social component that would allow people to input bike trips they've made and see how much gas, money, and emissions they've saved, as well as add up miles and calories burned. then you could share that info on FB and twitter. there could even be a challenge component to it, allowing friends, groups, or even cities to compete against each other. the point of it is to encourage people to use bikes for various trips (commuting, eating out, small errands, visiting friends) rather than cars.

in lieu of that full-blown project, at least at this early point, i'm going to simply start listing the trips i make and the miles i save. perhaps i'll eventually make the effort to figure up the gas i'd save. we'll see.

aug 16
16.66 miles to mud pie
4.4 miles to papa keno's

aug 17
7.88 miles to whole foods

aug 20
14.22 miles to a lawn place and the jeweler

aug 23
16.72 miles to mud pie

aug 27
6.79 miles to mister kidwell's

sept 11
2.92 miles to office max

sept 12
23.71 miles to kcai and mildreds coffeeshop

oct 15
8.9 miles to joslyn's jewelry

oct 19
7.82 to whole foods

oct 27
7.75 to whole foods

nov 1
7.35 to the credit union, target, and filling station with murphy riding the tag-along

nov 8
19.78 to penn valley community college, kcai, brookside grocery store

nov 11
6.6 to auto mechanic and back

running total of miles
151.5

being conservative, i'll assume i would have driven our more fuel-efficient car, a 2004 pontiac vibe, 4-cylinder automatic, which gets 25 mpg city. that's not even doubling the fuel efficiency of the original model T, which got between 13 and 21 mpg. awesome.

approx gas savings to date
6.06 gallons

approx $ savings to date
18.06