It’s not really that far.

A few times people have asked me why I live in Fife, and to be fair the answer was simply, if I wanted to own a house, it was somewhere I could afford to do so. People seem to have some odd ideas about how living outside of Edinburgh. “Is it not too far?” or “I’d hate all that travelling.” Comments from my old manager about how he could never live outside the Edinburgh bypass as it’s too far away. It started me thinking. I remembered when I lived in Leith briefly and was lazy and got the bus every day. It felt like it took an age some days. I wondered what it would be like getting to work if I still lived there, approx 2.5 miles from my place of work instead of the current 15 miles.

Currently I get up at 06:45 and aim to leave at 07:10, usually fail and leave at 07:20. If I didn’t use my bike I would need to leave at 07:10 to get a train that would get me in on time for starting at 08:00. Now if I lived in Edinburgh (According to Google Maps) to get from the Foot of Leith Walk to my workplace would take 52 mins walking and 31 mins by bus. Given I walk faster that what Google’s appears to assume is an average walking speed of 3mph, I might shave off up to about 10 mins off that time and take about 40 mins.

So pretending I live in Edinburgh near the Foot of the Walk, I start at 08:00 and leave at 07:10 I would get in at 07:50, and be fair puggled but well exercised, if I left 10 mins later and got the bus, I’d get in at the same time. Now, if I leave my house 15 miles from Edinburgh at 07:20, cycle  to a train station (1.5 miles), get the train to Haymarket and walk to the office, I get in at 07:55. If I leave at 07:10 and walk to a different station (0.75 miles), get a train to Haymarket, I get in the office at 07:55.

For simplicity, here it is in a table.

So um, yeah all that travelling? It probably takes me less time for me to get to work than a lot of folks in the city. 6 times the distance and not so different journey times? That really is fucked up.