Interview with a Multi-Modal Commuter
The staff from Clean Air Council’s Commuter Connection PA recently sat down with Jim, a multi-modal commuter going from South Philadelphia to King of Prussia. Jim bikes to public transit most days, and bikes all the way home when it is nice out. Jim is already a multi-modal commuter but he let the Commuter Connections program use him as a guinea pig to test our route making ability. The Council wanted to learn more about multi-modal commuting from someone who does it everyday and to get feedback on our map making.
Jim commutes every day without a car, and uses a couple of different commutes using biking and public transit to get from his home in South Philadelphia to his workplace in King of Prussia. If Jim doesn’t want to bike home, he will bike from South Philadelphia to the Market-Frankford Subway line in Center City and lock his bike at Market East Station. He then takes this line to 69th Street to the Norristown High Speed Line (NHSL), and then transfers to the 95 bus which he takes the rest of the way to work. On really bad weather days he uses a bus from his home to the Market-Frankford Line and takes SEPTA the entire way. On nice days when Jim plans to ride his bike home, he rides his bike to the train station and takes his bike on board (going out of the city during rush hour) and bikes the rest of the way from the train station to work. At the end of the day Jim bikes home the whole way – about a 20 mile ride!
When Commuter Connection PA prepared a route map for Jim we went with the simplest/most direct route for Jim and came up with the map associated with this article – using the SEPTA 124 line as the main route combined with biking. We found out after talking with Jim that he doesn’t use the bus because he doesn’t like it on long trips for a variety of reasons. Instead he likes to use the NHSL or the regional rail for the largest chunk of the trip. The Council used the input from Jim to develop a better survey to determine a commuter’s needs and preferences.
3 days a week Jim commutes to work, the other 2 days he works from home. Jim got rid of his car 5 years ago due to low use, and has been commuting this way ever since! Jim estimates his commute (both of the 2 options he uses) takes about the same amount of time or less than driving, which can be up to an hour and a half. Even if he bikes the whole way home, which he enjoys doing on nicer days, the ride is only about an hour and 45 minutes – trading those extra 15 minutes for a great post-work stress relief and physical activity can be very valuable! When he bikes home he uses roads with wide shoulders and low traffic to get to the Schuylkill River trail in Conshohocken, and take that into Philadelphia. Once inside the city, Jim is able to take advantage of the numerous bike lanes. Jim pointed out that bike lanes are harder to come by in the suburbs. When we asked Jim what he likes about his multi-modal commute he said it’s not that he enjoys the commute – it’s that he finds driving even worse, noting how stressful and expensive driving is.
Jim’s office offers some biking amenities but not everything. He is able to bring his bike inside and into his cubicle which is great for safety and to avoid any bad weather damaging his bike during the day. During the winter he is the only one with a bike in the office, but during the nicer weather months there are a few others. Unfortunately, Jim’s office does not offer any sort of biking incentive such as vouchers for bike maintenance like some employers do; and there are no showers or locker room facilities. This is part of the reason why Jim bikes home in the nicer months, but not to work.
When Jim was starting to do a multi-modal commute it took a lot of planning and trial and error to match bike times with multiple SEPTA trips. Originally he would take the regional rail to the 95 bus instead of the Norristown High Speed Line, but the timing matched up poorly and he ended up waiting around a lot. Jim also did not use a bus rack for a long time. Many bikers find using the bike rack intimidating if they have never seen anyone do it before. Jim had to see the bike rack being used by a biker before he was willing to take on the challenge himself, which is pretty common for potential multi-modal commuters.
Overcoming these types of challenges for new multi-modal commuters is the goal of the Commuter Connection PA program. By taking the guess work and trial and error out of planning for a multi-model commute, commuters can seamlessly transition to a commute that works for them. Easy step by step guides to using the public transit and bicycling facilities can alleviate some of the hesitation people have to take advantage of things like bus racks.
Get started with your own multi-modal routine by filling out our general questionnaire on Survey Monkey!
Wondering how to get to work via two or more modes of transit?
Fill out our Bimodal Commuting Questionnaire so we can create a personal commute map for you!
