The travails of schedule...

In looking at how my environmental habits have changed for the worse in the past six months and one thing comes out. It's the freaking schedule. My life has become incredibly packed with commitments on my time. I get deluges of email that I have to process, note the word process, rarely do I get the mental headspace to actually craft a response. I have endless meetings and scheduled commitments that the leisurely time to bike to work is no longer an option.

Now how about mass transit? I have written about the joy of being able to do something while being transported, but now if I miss a train (or worse get bumped off because the bike car is full) I lose time, I can no longer make my commitment that I have to get to. If I decide to take mass transit to San Francisco, and I miss the last train. I am stuck overnight in San Francisco. I have been out in NYC until all hours (Veselka is 24 hours of heaven) and still been able to catch a subway train home.

The interplay of distance and time are related. d = ts is the classic equation. Distance = time * speed. For us to fit our lives into t while living further and further away requires that speed get faster. If speed gets faster, unfortunately carbon consumption increases because faster vehicles generally consumer more energy.

How does your schedule influence your carbon free decisions? How does your distance from your life (work, friends, famuly) influence your transportation?

I don't know who said it, but in the end life is time.