Q4 Reporting: Trend Analysis

As you might remember from October, I started reporting quarterly results of my bike commuting.  January has come and gone, so I am long overdue for a year-end update.  Here is how Q4 ended up compared to Q3.

At first glance, it appears that Q4 merely follows the pattern established in Q3 but if you dig further into the detail, however, a pattern emerges and a story begs to be told:

So what happened?  July had no activity as I was still working in public accounting and had not yet started a regular biking routine.  August through November included four months of consistent commuting activity, but December had none.

Did the cold weather suppress my bike commuting activity?  Not quite.  In fact the reason for the drop off was due to a job change.  Instead of biking 4.5 miles to downtown Minneapolis and taking advantage of what I suspect to be the best bike commuting facilities that I will ever experience, I now work in Eagan and have a 12 mile commute.  I have biked to work on two occasions since I started in late November, but I have opted to not bike as the temperatures aren't quite as bearable for a longer commute. 

All together, there were only seven days in my four month tenure at Target where I didn't bike to work. Four of those days were during my first week, and two were days that I interviewed for my new job.  

It all adds up to a commuting by bike percentage of 92%.  

78 Reasons Why I'm Glad I'm in No Longer in Public Accounting

Since I left the world of public accounting in July of 2012, I have done a lot of reflecting on what I gave up, and what I gained by making the switch.  It was a no-brainer to give up the work-life imbalance, yet not so easy to lose the day to day interactions with a lot of great people, both co-workers and clients.  Not being in client service has meant a predictable work location which makes regular biking to work much easier for me.

Although these are all great reasons, there is one benefit that I recently experienced that trumps them all: the flexibility for Pati and me to celebrate our anniversary in a warm locale.  For seven of our first 10 anniversaries, I was barely able to peel away from work for a few hours for a nice dinner since I was already knee deep in busy season workpapers.  This year we booked a four day mid-January trip to southern California.

So what are the 78 reasons?  Check out the following, do the math, and you'll see: