Advocacy & Safety - Getting inspired to try

I see a lot of posts from folks who have gotten others interested in commuting or cycling in general. It made me think about how I first got interested in trying it. I rode everywhere as a kid. We were on our bikes everyday and I remember it was a lot of fun. I had a bike in college that I used sporadically. It was a cheap bike and usually in disrepair.

When I got out in to the workforce, I thought that driving was a given. When you grow up and start working, you drive a car to work. About a year in, I hired a guy who was a few years older than me and he rode his bike into work on most days. It was about 5 miles for him, and I recall thinking 'wow! that's pretty far'. I think he planted the commuting seed. At that time I was living on site, so those few feet wouldn't have been much of a commute. When I left there, I worked night shift and I wasn't brave enough as a beginner to commute 7 miles to work at 11 pm. When I joined the land of the living again, I purchased a decent hybrid and began commuting sporadically. Nine years ago I began to do it often and have continued since then. I rediscovered how much fun it is to ride. This month marks the 9th anniversary of when I started commuting on a regular basis.

Can anyone else remember who first inspired them to commute by bike?

I guess it was the Sac RT employee who set up the incredibly inconvenient bus schedule.

Righteous indignation after reading environmental books.

Like you I grew up on a bike. Didn't ride at all during high school. I went through a series of low quality beach cruisers and one mountain bike (Schwinn Impact) in college. I commuted sporadically to my first job out of graduate school in the early 90s.

Commuted once a month or so in 2002. I started commuting seriously (if a 2.5 mile commute can be called serious) last year. My inspiration? The inhabitants of this forum! I lurked around and soaked up lots of good advice. What's more, the folks here helped me understand that bicycle commuting can be an enjoyable, simple and normal thing to do.:D

The thought hadn't even occured to me until I found BF winter of 04 to 05. A few months later, my wife quit her job and then the car she was driving was totaled. I became tired of having her drive me to the bus and jumped into it.

Like you I've always ridden a bike and I guess I never gave it up. Even when I drove to work when I worked downtown or in a city 40 mile away, I always did errands on the bike, so when I started to work at my present job and the commute was about 1 mile away, I decided to bike. I actually get to work faster on the bike since I don't have to circle endlessly in the parking lot to find a space.