Commuting - Commuting - only for the young?

I'm in my mid 30's now and have been walking or biking to work for close to 13 years. It seems that most of the other bike commuters I encounter are my age or younger. Some of the older folks at work like to tell me about how they commuted to work on a bike many years ago, but they drive in now. Many still do events and even touring, but they don't commute by bike anymore. Do we commuters age out at some point? I'd like to think I will do this until I retire, but is that realistic?

What I'd really like to know is how many of you bike commuters are over the age of 40 or so.

42 here - I started last October. My friends claim I'm serially obsessive and that I'll change to something else in a year or so. They may be right ...

I'll be 42 in September an I have been biking to work for the last three years (5 miles each way). During the winter starting last year I took the Metro Bus. I haven't been quite ready to tackle biking to work in the winter yet. I may try it this year but have at least gotten rid of one of our two minivans and am proud to say we are at least car light. I plan to remain so for as long as I physically can.

Andy
www.myvemma.com/unbent

Well, I'm a sprightly 35 and commute 14 to 16 miles each way (depends on my exact route). I intend to carry on like this for a long time - the benefit from the excersise alone is worth it, plus it is far superior to being stuck in traffic with all the other morons.

Cheers,

Ed

The "how old are you" thread on the commuter forum here gave some interesting results. I'm one of the young folks here at 23, but there were a couple teenagers and a couple people well over 60- it seemed like just as many over-40 folks as under-40 folks. Not that bikeforums is likely to be a representative sample of bicycle people, but that's what I remember seeing.

I can't find the thread- it may have been lost when the forums switched over to a new server or something.

I'm 39, and I'm within one standard deviation from the norm among the folk I see on my daily commute.

I'm 48 and I've been commuting for about 5 years for 5 miles each way. I am in the process of selling my van, so I guess I'll be an obligatory commuter. I don't ride in the winter because there really isn't a safe route for me when it's dark. I had a co-worker who commuted until he retired.

I've met 70 year olds that still ride quite a bit. A coworker of mine has raced in triathalons with 80 year olds.
Anyhow, I'm only 31 but hope to keep cyclocommuting for many years. The one change I plan on making is to move closer to work someday. This 30 mile one way commute is not going to be doable for the rest of my life. 10 or 15 each way sounds much better.

55 here. I do a 15 mile "split" commute each way. 4 miles to the bus, then 11 miles from the drop off to the office. Every once in a while I ride the full 35 miles home, skipping the bus part. Year round in Ma.

I am 36 and have been commuting by bicycle for 3 years, the wife says I am obsessed,
I call it integrity. Heck if she remembers obessed I rode my motorcycle year round to
work and here in Chicago that was no easy task!

I'm 32, but I think some people do "age out", which is why I decided not to get old. My father-in-law is 58, and his mother is 92, and he they didn't get old either, so I know it is possible. Cycling keeps me young, so I've got that going for me.

55 here. .
Darn, I wanted to wear the age yellow jersey at least for a moment in this thread. 54.
I started in 1992 and have ridden to work over 100 days per year every year since. I take public transit the rest of the time, like in very heavy morning rain, or when there's ice on the road.

Im 22, and I mostly see commuters on my route of about 40+. Including one old (would say close to 70) guy I always pass in the same place every day, he potters along but he is clearly a commuter, has a normal briefcase strapped to the back of his rattling bike.

Most of the younguns are leisure biking... i.e. just down the trail to go see the castle, or because they are bored. :)

43 here. Just started the commuting thing since I switched jobs and new location is a doable commute. (Old work place was further away and on a much more dangerous route) I mainly started to get back into better shape and since I have to get to work anyway and gas prices are not coming down, this works out great. Been riding bikes since I left the womb and plan to keep doing it until I die...

I'm 61. I took up bicycling again in 1999. Started commuting in July 2001 doing 14 miles each way 3 times a week for about 7 months of the year. Corporate downsizing changed that in 2003. :crash:

Now I commute 8.5 miles each way year round. I plan on doing this till I retire (or win the lottery :D).

I'll be 47 in a couple of months...been commuting to work on a bike off and on for over 30 of those years...since I was pumping gas at 13. Age has never been a factor, hours available in the day, on the other hand, is another story.

My wife started commuting at 40. She's into her third year and hooked.

I am 47 and I commute (sounds like AA)

Do we commuters age out at some point? I'd like to think I will do this until I retire, but is that realistic?

What I'd really like to know is how many of you bike commuters are over the age of 40 or so.
I'm going on 47. I've been cycling to work for a little over 10 years now. I average about 30 miles round trip.

My Dad used to ride his bike about 7 miles round trip to catch the bus. I think he was in his late 50's. He's 82, now. I'm not sure when he stopped, but now he needs a hip replacement if he wants to continue walking pain-free (arthritis.)

39 in 6 wks, and I'm definitely below the median age of other commuters I see.

Darn, I wanted to wear the age yellow jersey at least for a moment in this thread. 54.
I started in 1992 and have ridden to work over 100 days per year every year since. I take public transit the rest of the time, like in very heavy morning rain, or when there's ice on the road.
Double darn! -- we're tied (54) at second (oops-now looks like we've been dropped to third). I started riding again 4 years ago, been at it since. Commute daily March through December (well, as far into Dec. as possible/until the roads ice), then switch to the bus for a couple of months. Hardly ever use the car anymore round town.

39. I've been doing this regularly since I was 32.






"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you was?" -- Satchel Paige

I'm 61. I took up bicycling again in 1999. Started commuting in July 2001 doing 14 miles each way 3 times a week for about 7 months of the year. Corporate downsizing changed that. :crash:

Now I commute 8.5 miles each way year round. I plan on doing this till I retire (or win the lottery :D).

+1 but won't waste money on lotteries.

I am 47 and I commute (sounds like AA)

Hi, I'm 38 and a commuter.

I actually tend to see the opposite. Many older cyclists want to commute to work by bike, while many younger ones are too lazy to try to do something productive. I hardly ever see anyone on a bike that looks like their traveling (not just a campus student going from dorms to class) thats my age or younger, and I'm 23.

I'm 51 and I don't even have a car. Every year I increase both my mileage and my fitness. I had a heart attack 6 years ago. My father's neighbor is 75 and still does several rides a year of 300 or more miles. The doctors tell us that exercise greatly decreases physical deterioration of aging, and even decreases mental deterioration.

Use it or lose it.

I am in second place now at 60 and I just got home from a job site 20 miles away.

Lottery: a tax on people who don't get math.

I am 59 and have been commuting to work nearly every workday over an 11 mile round-trip for over 8 years. I suspect the opposite regarding "aging out." I stopped riding when I got my driver's licence at 17, started again at 28 because parking on campus was impossible, stopped after graduation when expensive cars became useful tax deductions, started again at 51 when parking became a problem again.

Paul

I look at those odds and would rather donate my money instead of flushing it down the toilet.
The only persons I know who regularly play the lotto are down on their luck family members. Not saying you have to be poor to play. Just not my thing.

I'm 41.

I'm 28, and I just started cyclocommuting two weeks ago.

Darn, I wanted to wear the age yellow jersey at least for a moment in this thread. 54.
I started in 1992 and have ridden to work over 100 days per year every year since. I take public transit the rest of the time, like in very heavy morning rain, or when there's ice on the road.

I'm not as old as you guys but I started a whole lot earlier. Been riding back and forth the college and work since 1979 or 1980. I only have reliable records only from 1988 (cyclocomputers weren't very cheap or very available when I started). I've ridden an average of 114 days per year since '88. My highest number of commutes per year was 156 and my lowest was 71. I've ridden 2030 days out of 4680 (not including this year) for a total mileage of 39,898 miles. I've saved an estimated 27 tons of carbon dioxide and 2850 gallons of gasoline.

Using the averages, I figure I've ridden cyclocommuted in my lifetime roughly 52,000 mile, saved 3700 gallons of gas, saved 37 tons of CO2, and ridden to work 2700 times. Not including this year.

I'm not as old as you guys but I started a whole lot earlier. Been riding back and forth the college and work since 1979 or 1980. I only have reliable records only from 1988 (cyclocomputers weren't very cheap or very available when I started). I've ridden an average of 114 days per year since '88. My highest number of commutes per year was 156 and my lowest was 71. I've ridden 2030 days out of 4680 (not including this year) for a total mileage of 39,898 miles. I've saved an estimated 27 tons of carbon dioxide and 2850 gallons of gasoline.

Using the averages, I figure I've ridden cyclocommuted in my lifetime roughly 52,000 mile, saved 3700 gallons of gas, saved 37 tons of CO2, and ridden to work 2700 times. Not including this year.

But ya ain't gotten any less mofugly. :p

41 years old here. I biked to school as a kid, biked to school and work as a teen (or walked/bused in winter). Biked or walked to classes in college. Most every year since graduating college I have biked to work 50-60 times per year, excepting ~2 years when I lived in Minneapolis and worked in St Paul, then I only rode a few times per year.

I'm 56, but I'm just doing this temporarily, until there are no U.S troops in Iraq.

I'm 56, but I'm just doing this temporarily, until there are no U.S troops in Iraq.

What happens then, you gonna buy a Hummer?

But ya ain't gotten any less mofugly. :p

I don't know about that. I used to look like this :eek:

I hate to say it, but I think many drop off when they stop renting and buy a place in the 'burbs.

I don't know about that. I used to look like this :eek:

Used to? Clean that mirror, hoss!

52 Here. Basically I've been bicycle commuting since second grade. There have been gaps, but the only one job that I never bicycle commuted to. It lasted three months. My commuting lengths have varied from slightly less than a mile to 17 miles each way. My last commute was 9 miles each way, my current one is only 2.5 miles, but its hilly all the way, so I'm in low gears or coasting fast.

I moved out of my parents house without a car and have survived since. I have owned cars, mostly to pursue women. I bicycle commute 5 days a week.

Lottery: a tax on people who don't get math.

Siggraph, the computer graphics organization sometimes had their convention in Las Vegas, till Vegas got wise and realized that computer graphics pros understand math and tend to be cheap nerds who find all the free drinks and don't tend to gamble. ;)

I'm not as old as you guys but I started a whole lot earlier. Been riding back and forth the college and work since 1979 or 1980. I only have reliable records only from 1988
Well, I'm older than most, 59, and started daily year round cycle commuting earlier, in Philadelphia in 1971 after getting out of the Army. Have continued and done it regularly also to jobs in Illinois, Oregon, 10 years in Germany and for the last 4 years in Iowa. No reliable records available since I have no interest in keeping logs and only had a bike computer long enough to measure the mileage on my route near Heidelberg (35 km/RT), since I could not use a car odometer for measuring the route which was at least 1/2 on non-motorized paths through the woods.

I look at those odds and would rather donate my money instead of flushing it down the toilet. But don't the lottery proceeds go to fund public services anyway?

More to the point, I know a couple of bike commuters who are about 60. I also know a couple of youngish ones. I don't think there is a whole lot of correlation with age.

I'm 56, but I'm just doing this temporarily, until there are no U.S troops in Iraq.


I'd invest in a decent bike if you haven't already. You'll probably be doing this awhile.

36 here, I've been commuting about 3 years, I also think the majority of commuters are older. I'm the young guy in the locker room when I ride in.

But don't the lottery proceeds go to fund public services anyway?

More to the point, I know a couple of bike commuters who are about 60. I also know a couple of youngish ones. I don't think there is a whole lot of correlation with age.


I suspect a percentage is lost in the bureaucracy. Plus, technically it is a form of government sanctioned gambling IMHO.

im 23 and i picked up cycling to school as a means of not fighting for parking spaces. at first it was just temporary but now i love it. i want to buy a better bike when i finish school.

But don't the lottery proceeds go to fund public services anyway?

If it's like California, the legislature removed equal amounts of money from the education budgets to make up for the surplus created by the lottery.

25 here been commuting everyday for about 3.5 years now granted its a short commute (2mi each way) but I don't plan on quitting anytime soon....public transportation is just too slow around here compared with biking