> 1) How do you commute to work?

Car, single occupant.  :-(  Currently investigating mixing bike and
bus, but my bike has seen better days.

Of course, this comes on the heels of two+ years of walking to work every day...

> 2) How far?

About five miles.  I could lie and say that I intended it to be that
way, but it was just luck.  I chose to live fairly close to the heart
of town (Minneapolis) because I wanted to be able to walk for errands,
food, etc., and because I knew it'd put me in a nice central location
whereever I had to work.  It just turned out to be pretty close.

> 3) How long does it take in each direction?

Depends heavily on the route I take, weather, phases of the moon, time
I leave, etc.  I get antsy if it takes more than 10 minutes either
way, but it has been known to exceed 30 on rainy days and I shudder to
think what a good snowstorm will do.  Getting out of my neighborhood
isn't easy on the best of days, and the inconvenient location of a
number of lakes limits my route choices pretty severely.

> 4) If you don't use public transportation, IS there a public
>     transportation alternative?  How long would THAT take?

The bus ride itself would take about 25 minutes (this according to
their website).  Walking time would probably close to double that.
I'm looking into using my bike for a portion of that, or all of it; a
couple of five or six mile bike rides each day wouldn't do me any
harm.  I have to find an acceptable route, however; if I follow the
road route I take, it would run me either through a fairly unsavory
neighborhood OR across/along a number of VERY busy roads.  I think
there is a fairly pastoral bike trail which will cover some portion of
the trip; I just need to figure it out.

I suspect I fall into the great majority in my feelings on public
transportation:  I want the convenience of a car (i.e., door-to-door
service, departing on my schedule, no transfers, no human interaction)
with the benefits of a bus (I don't have to pay attention to what I'm
doing, pay insurance/car payment/gas/maintanence, I can feel warm and
fuzzy for saving the environment).  In the end, it's the half-mile
walk from the bus to my office that is off-putting:  it's okay in good
weather, but come mid-January, I'm not walking through ankle to knee
deep snow in subzero temps for that half-mile.

Mike H.
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