time trials

Grace has been trying to convince me that riding her bike to the bus stop will save her lots of time in the morning.  We live about 7 houses from the bus stop.   I have told her that by the time she opens the garage and puts on her helmet and gets down the road she could have walked there.

Anyway, this morning we decided to settle the debate once and for all.  On the mornings we drive the STEM carpool we have a lot of extra time in the morning and today was one of those mornings.

So first we did the bike.  I started the stop watch when she was at the door. She had to open the garage, get her bike out, get her hemet and ride to the corner.  1min.19.29 sec.  Then she put everything away and she started at the door again and walked to the bus stop.  She did a kind of jogish thing for the first two houses and then walked.  1min 22.11 sec.  So she was right, it is quicker...barely.

Sadly for her we are still going for the walking in case of a bus dash emergency plan because how does the bike get back??
Mom has to schlep it.  For 3/10ths of a second I think it's not worth it. And honestly we are mostly the first ones at the bus stop every morning anyway.  In fact sometimes she rides her bike down and back 10 times, puts the bike away and then walks to the bus stop and is still early.

A better back up plan is I drive her if we miss the bus.