Doing less bad is still doing no good (Part 5)

Well, here it is. After 1/2 of the year here are my results in monitoring how much I drive my car every week.
25 weeks in I have driven 4518.6 miles averaging 181.7 miles per week. That is about 81 more miles per week than I would have guessed initally and WAY more than I want do every week!
If I break this down into monetary terms (something that should persuade anyone) and I estimate that gasoline in the Chicagoland area has been (as estimated by IllinoisGasPrices.com) has been around $2.90 per gallon and I'll give my Chevy Aveo the benefit of the doubt and say I get 30 miles to the gallon all the time...that mean I've spent $436 in gas this year! Not to mention oil changes / maintenance / insurance / parking etc...

Now, my goal is to get my average miles per week down below 100 miles...however I work at Fermilab finishing my PhD, which is 26 miles from my door. I should really be going there at least 3 times a week even though I can do a lot of work from home (it is important to have your face shown and to be where the action and expertise is).
If I use the metra and my bike it is about $5.50 each way (a little less if I buy a ten punch pass...and don't lose it) plus about 8 miles of biking each way. So if I just bought metra tickets and came to the lab 3 times a week that is 33 dollars a week plus 48 miles of biking coming to (in 25 weeks) $825 plus 1200 miles on the bike...double what the car costs in terms of gas...that seems unreasonable!!!
So the answer (since moving isn't an option nor is getting a different job) must be a hybrid solution where I refuse to use my car in any other capacity than just going back and forth to work (as long as gas stays under 3.50 per gallon or so) occasionally biking to the lab using the Metra with a ten punch pass (lower rates that way) and finding a reasonable substitute (carpooling with my lab mates / rock climbing people) to help keep my miles per week down.
So while I'll continue to plot my progress and keep this online I think this analysis has taught me two things
1) My expectation for what I do week-to-week only favors the good weeks and ignores the bad ones! I drive way more than 100 miles per week...but not every week...and the weeks I'm over, I'm WAY OVER.
2) The solution to this problem is non-trivial and should be a working hybrid that needs constant attention.
I think I want to get an odometer for my bike to start to see how many miles I in truth bike every week...to see if using my bike more is a way to offset the total miles I travel.
Expect more interesting plots with bike miles included to come!