kjmillig

Bear with me. This is related to bicycling.
Over the past 3 weeks I've had to drive my car about 40 miles a day Mon-Fri. My normal weekly driving since suffering a broken leg totals about 22 miles. What I already knew, but has been reinforced these past 3 weeks, is that I hate driving my car and am a borderline road-rager. When driving my blood pressure, heart rate, and stress levels all go up. When I'm alone I cuss at people making stupid moves (not so with family in the car), and I lose my patience.
When I'm on my bike I generally just ride along, watching traffic but not worrying about much. Only rarely do I yell at a driver, but it passes quickly and I'm back to normal. I've been unable to ride since early March and it's driving my insane having to use my car all the time.
Thanks for listening to my rant. Just curious if others have experienced the same differences between riding and driving.

DX-MAN

OOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, YYEEEAAAAAAAAAHH.

Little anecdote:

Summer of '04, had a car, sweet little hatchback that served me well. I still rode to work every day I could, which were most days; I'd drive if the weather was bad, or if I had something heavy/bulky to bring home.

In late September, the car gave up on me, motor went t!ts-up. It would have cost more to replace the motor than the car was actually worth, so I called the junkyard to come and get it. During the short train of thought that led to that decision, I realized: "Hey -- I've driven that car THREE times in TWO MONTHS, why do I need to replace it?" So. . .I didn't.

Up until the winter of 2011, I would ride the bus when the surface conditions were too bad to ride; after getting some Schwalbe Ice Spikers, I've been on the bus less than five times.

During the '09 holiday season (the LAST time I bought Xmas gifts, we don't do that holiday anymore), I borrowed a family member's car to do the shopping. Drove a total of 5 miles. Had BOILING road rage by mile 3.

My sister's husband told me a few years ago, "You need to grow up and get a car again, get off that bicycle." He has a bad heart, liver troubles, and has had three major surgeries since then. He's on disability, can't even work around the house for more than 2 hours without resting.

turbo1889

When you do drive a full size heavy vehicle, one way you can reduce your own stress significantly is to make a conscious effort to always drive just a little bit slower then the rest of traffic on the road. It is amazing how much this reduces your stress and puts you in the dominant position on the road with almost always having a nice cushion of dead space in front of you and not having to get all upset and flustered because the person in front of you is holding you up. It's incredible how much difference it makes, just always drive 5-mph or so slower then the rest of traffic if they are going less then 55 and never drive faster then 55 on the highway and it becomes a huge transfer of stress off of your shoulders. Be the calm careful driver yourself and let others play the part of the speed demon and get all frustrated and just about want to tear the steering-wheel off and throw it at you instead of you being the impatient aggressive one that always has to go as fast as possible. Accelerate gently and make smooth clean slow-motion style turns calmly watching for pedestrians in the crosswalks instead of the guy that had to always hammer it to the metal the micro-second the light turns green. Don't race up to red lights and stop signs and stop at the last moment instead smoothly let off the gas and smoothly coast to a stop gradually. Yah, it will take you a little longer to get where you are going, but not much, and all the stress you would have had you let other selfish impatiant speed demon jurky off/on gas and brake bad drivers have instead, in fact it's almost like riding a bike, or at least as close as it can be for driving a full size motorized heavy vehicle.

Heck, when I drive my little good gas mileage 4-wheel drive little car off and on in the Winter (hardly gets used at all in the Summer) on the days where using the bike could get a little too dangerous (Emergency travel only storm advisory conditions or at night during a snow storm where you can get scooped up and plowed off the road along with the snow by the snow plows, not a joke has happened to me more then once) I often just drive along in the slow lane on roadways with 65-mph speed limits and more then one lane in the direction I'm going at only about 45-mph because that car gets its very best gas mileage when going that speed and anything faster or slower reduces my gas mileage. Not a problem, other road users can just pass me in the fast lane which is what they do and it doesn't bother me one little bit, part of that I'm sure is because as a cyclist I'm used to being passed on a regular basis by faster moving traffic. Very calming way to drive with very little stress. Yes, when there is only one lane in each direction and in order for other people to pass me they have to go into the oncoming traffic lane then I'll speed up to 55-mph but I won't go any faster then that because I want them to have to pass me, I don't want to have to pass them. I don't want them in my way holding me up and giving me stress, I'd much rather be in their way and let them have the stress. Going slower is safer and gives you more time to react and you have to make less high risk maneuvers such as passing and you don't have all that stress of just having to go as fast as possible and getting all bent out of shape because other people on the roads are getting in your way and not letting you be as much of a dangerous speed demon as you would like to be.

ItsJustMe

Yeah, when I'm driving, I just drive the speed limit or a bit below, camp in the right lane and let the idiots pass me by. No worries.

kookaburra1701

I'm the same way. I drive a Sprinter van on my second job, and by the end of my shift I'm sooooo tense. But then on my ride home I just pedal away all of the bad vibes.

DX-MAN

Is that because of the driving, or the job itself, LOL? I know how stressed I get, and how it evaporates on the pedal home, too....

kookaburra1701

Mostly the drive, very occasionally the work. The job is on a mobile crisis assistance van for the city. I'm a paramedic and my partner on the van is a mental health worker/crisis counselor. Most (but not all) of our clients are unhoused and/or mentally ill, usually with severe substance abuse issues, so that can be frustrating but not as much as the driving, ha ha.

MickeyMaguire

I drive a little over nine miles to work, and I would take a bike except for the fact that I am in the office at 5:00 AM and the roads between here and there have no shoulders. So, I get home from the office at 2:00 PM (more or less) and I am on a bike almost immediately.

work4bike

I don't drive very often, but my experience is about the same when I do drive: My blood pressure raises significantly.

I agree with others about just doing the speed limit and sit my ass in the right lane and let people pass, but there are many situations where that doesn't work. Lot of idiots out there and this may sound counter-intuitive, but I feel much safer on my bike and I always ride in the road, never sidewalks nor paths.

CommuteCommando

In my life I have had some long commutes on Southern California (Thats CaliFORNIA!) Freeways. Once it was 80 miles each way for nine months. Currently it would be sixty five miles if it weren't for the miracle of commuter rail that reduces it to a ten mile bike trip. People talk about how cars give them more freedom than public transit and bikes. Hogwash! Freedom to sweat and swear while crawling through the I-5/I-805 interchange at 15 mph? I'll take my slavery to relaxing on a train, shooting the sh...er breeze with other regulars. And I get to ride!

genec

Are you rail commuting south?

I had a position in Carlsbad for a while and tried rail commuting up there and then biking the last bit, but the schedule of the trains returning south at the end of the day made it impossible.

CommuteCommando

From '06-'10 took the Coaster form Carlsbad to Old Town, then Trolley to El Cajon. Left at 5:18 got to Magnolia and Bradley by 7:30. It was an hour longer than driving, but I had a laptop that made most of that productive.

Current commute is Metrolink from Oceanside to Tustin. Leaving at 5:15, I'm at work at 6:25, which is only 15-20 minutes lower than driving. The ride home is actually faster than driving.

Commuting away from the urban center is definitely a challenge since the earlier trains are all inbound.

Poirier

I'm fortunate enough to have been able work at home a lot for the past 3 years, and find that the less I drive the less I want to drive. And the less I drive, the more intelligent I am.

shipwreck

I find its everything about driving. When I do have to drive, I notice just how bad people are at it. In the last week I have had to take several trips to town in my van, so noticed how bad things are more than usual.

An oncoming car drifted over the line at me right after turning onto the road. As I hit the shoulder, the driver seemed to notice and started to drift back over. She was on the phone.

At the gas station, filling several cans with gas and diesel, a car pulled up on the other side of the island, passenger near me, flicking cigarette ash out the window about three feet away. Right after I went off on them, a car pulled up behind and the driver got out with a cig and undid the gas cap of her car with it hanging out of her mouth, I was done and peeled out, but it pissed me off a bit.

NO ONE uses a turn signal, unless its to celebrate a successfully completed turn. Then 20% of them leave it on.

Never turn left right behind some one else, even onto a highway, cause they can stop and pull out a map while you are still in the oncoming lane. Seriously.

Its nothing to pull into a parking lot an have it blocked by two people talking, again leaving you hanging out in the road(this could just be a small town thing).

I have been a dip behind the wheel I know, but it seems that most don't realize that they are. I have to be careful about getting angry as well, but mostly after a few drives I am more scared to get back on the bike. After seeing all the morons who are on the phone carving corners over the white line like crazy it gives me the willies.

spivonious

I agree with most here.

We just got back from a road trip up to Boston and I locked the cruise control on the speed limit or slightly below for the whole trip. Much less stress and we got pretty decent mileage too.

genec

Yeah that was the problem I had... the last train left the station at 5:30 PM... which just didn't work for my employer.

Several years ago I either bike commuted from Lemon Grove to El Cajon or took the trolly when weather was really bad, that worked out beautifully for years and years. Then the company moved.

These days I am back on Sorrento Mesa, and the motorists and traffic routing is just insane up here. There is no way to get here without having to use a 50MPH + road or the freeway. And at either morning or evening time, the drivers are down right hostile due to the poor traffic patterns and current freeway construction. (as if a car pool lane on 805 will really help... how about some friggen real bike paths San Diego... sheesh... best climate on earth and the area acts as if only cars can be used for commuting... freaking So Cal attitude)

Occasionally someone at the office braves the traffic, and bike commutes in, and then tells us how crazy it is out there. ("so many near misses...")