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Time to read is the advantage of the bus. (Photo: Car Free Days)

The challenge:

A door to door speed test racing Tim’s Xtracycle against Anne and 2 kids on foot to the bus stop, then on the bus to Westlake Park. Our routes were the same.

In our hearts, Tim and I knew this wasn’t much of a challenge, having beat our car driving friends home from a restaurant on our bikes on more than one occasion. And we know that buses, with all of the waiting and stopping and loading, aren’t known for speed.

But, biased as we are toward two-wheeled transport, we still wanted to test our theory. Plus the kids got into it: adding interviews and polls and voting to the mix.

Before we left we took a poll among family members to predict which mode of transport was faster. All members of the Car Free Days family voted Bike (go figure). Aunt Gail voted bus.

We set out from our North Seattle neighborhood at the same time. (The kids and I actually left a little before Tim – this was totally fair, as walking with 2 kids can sometimes be a slow process). Tim caught us as we approached the bus stop and kept on going.

We, on the other hand, waited at the bus stop for a bus that never arrived. We waited and waited and waited and the kids got more and more discouraged. They really wanted to win…and waiting for the bus was not part of the plan. The kids quickly figured out that we were NOT going to win. And they were really bummed. Disappointment quickly turned into frustration. “It’s not fair! Daddy is going to win and we are going to lose”.  Where was the bus? We ended up waiting at the bus stop for 30 minutes. The bus we set out to catch never did materialize and we ended up taking the next scheduled bus. We called Tim to let him know that he could claim victory and to meet us 30 minutes later than planned.

Completely out of breath and already in South Lake Union (despite a headwind) when we called, Tim was a little bummed that the challenge would end this way. He really wanted a race to the finish and this was a tad anti-climactic.

We plan to try the race again on a day when buses are on schedule just to see if bikes are still faster. Any one want to join us?

Hope you’re enjoying the Holiday season!

– Anne