Last Tuesday, I went to a meeting with some colleagues at
the Headquarters of the firm where I usually work in the
Training Center. The HQ is in a place about 10 kms from the
Training Center, and very inaccessible by public transport.
The way there involves the first 8 km practically all gently
downhill, then a brutal ascent up a very steep, windey
forest road, then a rather bumpy dirt path. On the way back,
the topology is reversed - steeply downhill at the beginning
and then an upward faux plat all the way home.
I had tried the route by bike three times last summer and
had got the trip out in about an hour and a half. On
Tuesday, I tried a different route for the first time, got
lost once, had to stop at every traffic light to figure out
the continuation, and took 2 hours 30 minutes to cover the
trip out of 9.56 km. On the way back, I walked almost the
whole distance, because even if and where it would have been
easier to cycle, I was too tired to trust my judgement on
the road. Even though her steering was fixed a few weeks
ago, Behemoth is still rather wobbly in low gears and at
slow speeds, especially as fully loaded with company
documents and water bottles she aproaches 30 kgs, so I felt
safer pushing her along the sidewalk. Besides which those
low speeds put terrible pressures on my wrists and I didn't
want them to go into spasm again. As the temperatures were
also well above 30 Celsius I was going slow and drinking
water frequently. The trip back took less time than the trip
out (yes, I do walk faster than I cycle), giving me a round
trip of 4 hours 30 minutes for a total 19.01 km, with 3 km
per hour my most frequent going rate. My heart monitor,
which I took with me, revealed that I was over my aerobic
zone, in threshold or redline, for about half of that time,
and within it for the remaining half with no time under. The
monitor also showed that my max heart rate of 168 was
attained on the trip.
I did the trip out mainly within my lunch break and the trip
back after hours. I fully understand that 4 and a half hours
to cover 19 km could not be integrated cost-effectively into
a work routine.
However, I know the trip out could be a lot faster once I
learn the "script" for the route. I believe it could be
managed in about 1 hour 10 minutes, allowing a half-hour to
ascend the hill at the end on foot (where my heart rate
tends to max out). The same journey by bus has taken me 1
hour 10 minutes so the time is comparable, and the bike
offers much more freedom than the bus which only runs a few
times a day.
But my supervisor is insisting that I am "not safe on the
bike" and that in future I must take a taxi for this trip,
which might install itself as something I need to do every
Tuesday. I REFUSE! Meetings with the Documenation team and
closer liaisons with HQ have come about on my own initiative
entirely and one of my big reasons for doing this was to get
the opportunity to train up to bike commuting on the
journey. If I have to use stinky petrol to go, there isn't
even a point ot it.
The cab trip would cost about 20 Euros one way and I would
have to go through a big rigmarole to claim it on the
company. I would also be stranded out there with no way to
get back (except on foot) unless I could persuade the
company to disburse a further 20 Euros to get me home or beg
a ride from a colleague (and be entirely dependent on other
people's routes and schedules). Not only this is majorly
inconvenient but I can see eyebrows being raised about the
expense and myself being targetted as an unnecessarily
costly employee at a time of company cut-backs (I am the
only Carfree person in the company but the French have even
less understanding of Carfreedom than they do of
Childfreedom). Alternatively, the bosses will try to force
my colleagues to give me lifts but the colleagues will
resent it and I will have to deal with their bad temper. My
impression is that my supervisor dislikes my rapprochement
with HQ and is trying to punish me by playing up transport
difficulties and creating issues where there aren't any. I
also particularly resent the way these motorist [censored] go
on about my "safety". Yes, I am terrified of road traffic
which is why I spend so much time on sidewalks. But whereas
early death by road is a possibility, early death by heart
disease and diabetes is a near certainty for me if I retain
the sedentary lifestyle of the IT geek.
So it looks like I have some civil disobedience on the way.
I WILL NOT TAKE THAT CAB!.
EFR Carfree By Choice in Ile de France