Do We Really Have to Drive to Work?

For many, if not most, Duke employees, the answer to the above question is yes. They live too far from work with too few mass transportation options and too great a need to be within immediate reach of a car in case of family emergencies or for other responsibilities.

But some Duke employees are rethinking what once was taken for granted and finding the answer is no. I'm one of them.

I live a block from East Campus. More than a year ago, I bragged to a friend how little gas I was using because of the short drive to work. He said, "But the people who bike to work should be the ones who live close by. The short commute is all the more reason why you shouldn't be driving."

He was right. The very thing I was using as an excuse to drive to work actually was an excuse not to drive. I started biking a couple days a week, driving when I had to go off-campus or the weather was bad. Very quickly I started getting disappointed when I couldn't bike to work. My car -- the family's second -- started spending longer periods of time in front of my house unused.

From the start, I felt different at work when I rode my bike. The hectic race to get myself and two children ready for the day evaporated on the bike lane. I followed the drought by noticing the level of water in the creek that intersects Campus Drive. Like Ilene (below) I kept an eye peeled for hawks and foxes and other sights that go by too fast in a car.

At the end of the year, it was an easy decision. We got rid of the second car, I registered my bike at Duke and we turned in the parking pass. Duke lets bikers have 24 free green zone passes, so when the weather is terrible I still can drive, but I've used only a handful of the passes, preferring to walk the block to campus and climbing aboard the bus.

There are downsides. I've gone through several pairs of pants, stained by both axle grease and, more often, from oily water kicked up by the tires after a rare rain. I depend on co-workers if the office tries to go far off-campus for lunch. I also put a lot of responsibility on my wife, who has the car at home, to be available for the many errands that I can't do.

Finally, riding a bike on the road can be scary, even in bike paths. I learned the hard way when I got hit by a car on Swift Avenue a few months ago. I wasn't hurt, but I was lucky.

But the bottom line is Duke has a culture of expectation that we can go from place A to B by car, and that's going to change. Below are essays from two other employees who have made that change.

Ilene Nelson: A Good Walk

 

A hawk swoops out of the sky and lands on a branch at the top of a tall pine, while smaller birds start up from the undergrowth as I pass by. Sunlight slants through the tree canopy; a fox standing at the edge of the woods observes me from across a small clearing. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? A weekend stroll along the Eno or through the Duke Forest? No, I'm making my daily commute, walking along Campus Drive between my home in Trinity Park and my office at Perkins Library.

It's a walk that takes about 35 minutes less when it's really cold, more in the heat of summer. The idea of walking to work was in my mind when I bought my house near campus 11 years ago, but it took awhile to break the car habit. The walking habit didn't take hold until I decided I wanted to increase the amount exercise I was getting every day. Then it just made sense to combine commuting and exercising, especially since I enjoy walking.

I began gradually, first making a commitment to walk or take the campus bus one way and walk the other at least one day a week. Then I started looking for days when I could walk or take the bus, checking my calendar for the coming week to find days when there were no off-campus meetings or appointments. And now I'm disappointed if my schedule makes it necessary for me to use my car even one day a week.

Exercise more than an hour if I walk both ways isn't the only benefit I gain from walking to and from work. I save gas, of course, but I have come to value my walking commute most of all for the restful transition it creates between work and home. I don't listen to music or the news; I don't talk on a cell phone. I don't even allow myself to think! This is a "time-out" from daily responsibilities and concerns, a time to notice the angle of the light and watch for hawks and foxes.

Ilene Nelson is director of communications for Duke University Libraries

 

Tim Lucas: A Carpool a Day

 

Each day, I commute 49 miles roundtrip from my home in North Raleigh to my office at Duke's Levine Science Research Center. But most days, my car's odometer registers barely a four-mile trip.

My secret? I carpool with three other Duke employees.

We meet each morning in a strip mall parking lot about two miles from my house and rotate driving duties. Most weeks, each of us has to drive only once. Every fourth week, we take turns driving twice to balance things out.

It's a sweet deal. Thanks to carpooling, I avoid putting around 9,000 miles of wear and tear a year on my poor old 1999 Toyota Camry, substantially reduce my carbon footprint, and pocket about $1,700 in annual savings at the gas pumps.

I'd save even more if we parked in the same lot at Duke and qualified for a reduced-price rideshare or carpool pass. Unfortunately, our offices aren't close -- I'm on West Campus, Suzy is in the Hock Building on Erwin Road, and Marilyn and Krystal work on Campus Drive. Dropping one another off at our respective buildings in the morning and picking us up at night adds about 10 minutes each way to the commute. But it's a small price to pay for the savings.

Plus, riding together is fun. It gives us the chance to share the news of the day (what stupid thing has Britney Spears done now?), vent our frustrations about work and home, or just sit back and unwind while someone else navigates the 70 mile-an-hour, three-lane madness on 540 and the bumper-to-bumper congestion on Highway 70 at Brier Creek.

The truth is, I wouldn't have known Suzy, Marilyn and Krystal if we didn't carpool. We met through an online database and, on the surface, don't have a lot in common (other than all being uncommonly wise and good-looking). But I now consider them friends.

The drawbacks to carpooling? There are three. You have to be organized (Marilyn is our designated schedule-maker.) You need to keep your car in working order and relatively clean. (I am, by nature, a slob.) And you have to try not to monopolize conversation. (I break this rule daily.)

Sure, some evenings I wish I got home 10 minutes earlier. And most mornings, I wish I had the extra 10 minutes to lie in bed and pretend I didn't hear the alarm. But the truth is, now that I have tried carpooling, I will likely always carpool. I would get bored commuting by myself. Who would I talk to?

Tim Lucas is national media relations and marketing specialist at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.