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%.