Taxi Time and the Siberian Express

Living car free for us means using many modes of transportation. That includes taxis. Last winter we used a taxi 13 times during December - February. That comes down to about once per week.  With some serious cold (-15 one morning) and mashed potato snow on the roads over the last few weeks, our taxi use has mushroomed.  I asked Hillary how many taxis she took during the first week of the deep freeze. "Not enough," she replied.  One day entailed three taxi trips - one for a chiropractor appointment, one the the kids' doctor appointments, and one to return home.  The next day came to two taxi trips - one to get the kids to school from which Hillary walked the 1/4 mile to the food co-op and took a taxi home.  For that one week alone we neared last year's whole winter taxi total.  A similar scene played out the next week.

The mid-December "Domebuster" storm in action.  Theo is loving the shoveling action and weather drama.  Henry is telling me, "Enough!  Cold! Inside!"

Granted, it has been quite a winter here in the Twin Cities.  Low temperatures during "Taxi time" were accompanied by weather descriptions like "Siberian Express"  and "Arctic Invasion."  In mid-December we got the 17.1" "Domebuster" snow storm, the fifth largest snow storm on record for the Twin Cities.  So far we have received 55.4" of snow in the Twin Cities, nearly a winter's average...by mid-January.  Oncoming cars are nearly invisible behind the 4+ foot snow banks at intersections.  Streets are very narrow with plow berms extending 4-6' from the curbs.  We have had a mini-snow drought the last two weeks, but with a few 1-3" snow storms here and there (never enough to declare a snow emergency and get the side streets plowed) we have been slogging through mashed potato snow, especially challenging for riding the 'Roo.

All told, I haven't done my bike commute to work in nearly 2 months.  Depressing.  But I am hoping to try a bike trail focused route soon.  And now with the return of more average temperatures, we are back to riding bikes to get around the neighborhood.