Commuting - How many days do you bicycle commute to work?

How many days do you bicycle commute to work?

Do you use your bike for other functional purposes other than work commuting?

Are you a full fledged bicyclist who has given up automobiles?

Let's hear about your dedication to the saddle.

I voted 3 or 4 days per week, but it varies quite a bit. Some of my weeks are 6 days, and sometimes I'll commute to other areas in addition to the usual work location, so it's hard to say exactly.

The main thing is, I'm doing more all the time, and attempting to incorporate my bike into other activities as much as possible, too.

Like aerobat, I voted 3 or 4 days per week, but it does vary. On days I don't ride, I try to walk an hour instead. Again like aerobat, my goal is to do more cycling (and walking,) not less.
The more I can rely on my feet or my bike, the stronger and happier I feel.

But I have a family of 5 and I have yet to find it convenient to grocery shop or do anything as a family without the car. Too bad!

The bicycle as transportation is a doorway to one of the most fascinating worlds I have ever known! I doubt I will ever voluntarily give it up or seek to do less of it.

Having a body that is trained by regular bicycling and walking really pays off in increased stamina with which to address all the unknown challenges of each day. And my chances of really enjoying my senior years is far better than many people's chances of even reaching their senior years. (I hate to put it so bluntly, but it's absolutely true.)

Three or four days a week of bicycle commuting is pretty good - especially if you are consistant.

To be able to commute every day or even to give up the use of an automobile is a real luxury. It shows that the rider has a flexible lifestyle either afforded by either being single, or having a spouse who will pick up a lot of the auto travel responsibilities.

In my case, my wife picks up the slack, so I don't have to worry about leaving work at a certain time to pick up kids and taxi them to the various activities. If not for that, I would be using the one foot transport as well (automobile with auto transmission - get it- one foot).

Every little bit of commuting counts. Even if you only ride once in a while, that is super.

For some people with enormous commutes like 20+ miles each way, once a week has the equivelant miles of riding every day.

I commute every day, though the last few weeks, Rainbabe has been meeting me downtown on Wednesday afternoons for free concerts. Those days, I bummed a ride home with her. Actually, I would have ridden, but she insisted.

I HATE not riding. As I have described before, I am very fortunate to have a nearly perfect distance and very rideable and nice route. Riding beats driving hands down and it is faster than the bus. Besides, I am getting better at this thing called cycling and having a lot of fun.

I keep saying I am going to do all my errands by bike, but I seldom do. It kills me to jump in the car to run to the store, news stand, post office, etc., which are only about a mile away. Time always seems to be short or I have just showered and don't want to get sweaty again. I am going to keep trying, though.

Car-free would be great and actually quite doable. There is just one obstacle - Rainbabe. But she is just so darn cute.
Regards,
Rainman

I commute every gosh-darn day!!! Plus I try to get rides in during lunch.

Originally posted by fubar5
I commute every gosh-darn day!!! Plus I try to get rides in during lunch.
Hang in there, Mr. Fubar!

You are the future, man.

I do not have a formal job such as you normal people. I do however work six days a week. I am officially retired from the 9 to 5 slob a job. My wife an I run a farm so that is my job. I commute everywhere around the ranch. I cannot however tote a 1000 lb. plus cow to the sale or slaughter.

Originally posted by Hunter
I cannot however tote a 1000 lb. plus cow to the sale or slaughter.

If you ever try, PLEASE take pictures.

I bike every day of the week, rain or shine. Winter's are a little different. I won't ride after a snow, due to the snow covering the ice. But in the summer, one would be hard pressed not to see me on the daily 6:30am commute.

I commute by bike daily, rain or shine. I have a van and car at home that AlphaBabe drive. Now that I commute by bike the van is only used when we need the people mover (household of 8). It has been a financial help and a healthy thing to do!

Rainman, I am the same way about those little errands and taking the car. I think alot of it, is pre-planning, just like we do with work. When we take the time to look at where we can pickup those little items, and think ahead with a bike path that's fun, then it becomes a foregone conclusion to take the bike.

I am finding several guys in my neighborhood who are biking more so we're looking into planning some group rides on the weekends too! :D

I became bike dependent because I ride a bike.

Ya, that's right. The more I bicycled, the less I drove the car until one day, the car wouldn't start anymore. In desparation, I hopped on the bike and mashed the peddles faster to get where I needed to go.

The car didn't fix itself and I didn't fix the car, so now I am biking full time.

I still have a car, but it still won't start and now it has two flat tires. Yup, gotta fix that...

Originally posted by mike
I still have a car, but it still won't start and now it has two flat tires. Yup, gotta fix that...

If you ever get time, but with your new repair stand I think thats a very slim chance.

My commute is only 4 miles, and I ride it virtually every day. Since I started 2 months ago, I've only missed one day, and that was because I had to take my bike to the shop.

I run most of my errands with the bike, using a backpack, a fanny pack (I hate that name...), or bungee cords on the Blackburn rack to carry what I need. I take my dog for walks (well, runs) on the bike, and when our granddaughter visits, we usually ride bikes to the park. I haven't ridden my bike to church yet, but I ride it to choir practice...

c~

Originally posted by HogWild
I run most of my errands with the bike, using a backpack, a fanny pack (I hate that name...), or bungee cords on the Blackburn rack to carry what I need. I take my dog for walks (well, runs) on the bike, and when our granddaughter visits, we usually ride bikes to the park. I haven't ridden my bike to church yet, but I ride it to choir practice...

c~

Fantastic, Hogwild. Hats off to you and everybody responding who is using their bikes as real transportation (as well as sport).

In order help liberate yourselves even further from automobile dependancy and to enhance your use of bicycles, let me suggest the following:

Get yourself a freighter. That is a bike with the capacity to haul a whole bunch of stuff. Mine is an old three speed with two huge rear sidesaddle baskets. I also have front baskets I can add on for heavy loads.

Some ambitious cats even use those whatchamajiggers that people use to haul children in (oh, what are they called?). I haven't hit that stage yet, but I would if I had one. Hunter could use one of those for hauling his livestock.

When you're commute is as nice as mine is, you tend to do it as often as you can. I therefore commute every day (or night if need be) in all kinds of weather (I have ridden in hail, lightning, flash floods and just about everything else except snow, which it never does here :cry: ).

Chris

What Hunter needs is found at www.bikesatwork.com.
Of course taking 1 steer at a time might be a strain, and they might not sit as still as a refrigerator. There are other "work bike" sites that offer other possibilities.

What a site, Jean! :D Another series of photos designed to make me feel hopelessly inadequate... Oh, well! I"m glad somebody's that resourceful.

Originally posted by Jean Beetham Smith
What Hunter needs is found at www.bikesatwork.com. Of course taking 1 steer at a time...

Hunter! I want pictures when you do this!!! :p

Originally posted by HogWild
I run most of my errands with the bike, using a backpack, a fanny pack (I hate that name...)
c~

Consider...

Waist Pack (Homophone: Waste Pack)
Butt Bag
Belt Bag
Side Bag

Jonathan

I am truly blessed... um, I mean obsessed.

I ride to work & back every day... My office is only 12 miles from home, but I do like so many of you, and add "warmup miles." So, I end up with anywhere from 38 to 45 miles a day, depending upon how creative I get with my route.

Then, I get up at "work time" and put in 40 to 45 miles each day on my weekends and days off. Out the door at 6:00am, I'm home by 9:30am, cleaned up, and still have nearly a whole day off ahead of me.

And no, I don't get to bed by 9:00pm in order to get up at 5:00... I just don't sleep much. See, old people don't require as much sleep.

On rainy days, I'll either: 1) ride anyway, and just do the 12 mile "short run," 2) call in with whatever excuse buys me time until the rain lets up, 3) catch a ride to work... or home with a car-owning coworker. Typically, I'll just ride in the rain and b*tch about it all day.

On rainy weekends, it's a judgement call. I'll hang around the house all day watching the Weather Channel. "Jeez, a clear patch! Can I sneak in 20 miles here?" If its over 70 degrees out, and if the rain is only intermittent, well, I'll go out anyway. I've forgotten how to have fun indoors...

In Georgia, winter weather is rarely a problem. Most deep-winter dawns see 25 to 30 DegF lows, and the afternoon ride home can be in the 50s. Snow is so rare that everything closes... uh, except for my company (electricity is a 24/7 business), and they sort of understand that it's gonna take me longer to get to work. If I ask, they'll send someone to pick me up. Darkness is my only real winter problem, and I've sorta solved that with an assortment of lights & reflectors. Pee Wee Herman would KILL for my winter bike.

Summers, conversely, are intense... my dawn commute was at 75 DegF & 90% humidity, my ride home will either be at 94 DegF with a heat index of 100++, or beneath a refreshing but ferocious thunderstorm. Then, around about the end of this month, the REAL summer hits... say, 40 or more days of 100 to 105 degree highs, and heat indices nearing 120. Primo suntan weather... I get dark as crispy bacon.

I take my lunch to work, or, if I have to run an errand or go somewhere else to eat, I'll sign out one of the company's motor pool cars or pickups. I've even been known... uh, regularly... to push my luck and make a clandestine lunchtime grocery run while I have a company truck. (Wimpy? Perhaps. But definitely better than having to own a car.)

I'm not fast... my typical commute averages in the low 15mphs, but when I'm outrunning a thunderstorm, I've been known to post mid 16mph averages. (The 20 - 22mph "race pace" is way beyond my ability.)

I don't really know how this happenned to me... but it has, and there's no going back to the old drive-the-too-expensive-new-car-to-work-with-a-cup-of-coffee-&-an-egg-McMuffin-while-listening-to-some-talking-head-on-the-radio. Been there. Done with that.

Now that's what I call bike commuting. :beer:

I want to change jobs. I want to haul refrigerators around with my bike.

Maybe a steer once in a while, though, contrary to popular belief, even among Kansas City residents, we don't have livestock come through here.

Jonathan

Originally posted by jramsey
...contrary to popular belief, even among Kansas City residents, we don't have livestock come through here.



Jonathan, you're not old enough, and in fact I just barely am old enough, to remember the smell of the then-famous Kansas City stockyards when they were still full of cattle, and meat- and cattle-handling was big in the West Bottoms. Oooh. Not something our vegetarian members would relish at all.

Of course nowadays meat doesn't come from stockyards; it comes from McDonald's or maybe the supermarket, in those little plastic-wrapped packages. So much neater....

Since I bought a mountain bike, I've taken the car to work once. 'Course my work is only about 2 1/2 miles away but it's a nice ride by way of an urban trail and it's just enough to get me pumped and hyper when I get to work.

'Nother benefit of biking to work ( besides all the obvious ones) is people stop askin for rides home. ;) Plus if I'm lucky , I might see some deer or other critters on the way.

Jon T.,
2.5 miles or 25, a commute is a commute. Welcome to the gang. Seeing deer is good. Don't be a stranger!

Do you know Ba-Dg-Er? He lives in that neck of the woods.
Regards,
Raymond

No one is mentioning the financial gain of cycling to and from work .
Here in the U.K. where fuel costs are triple of that you pay in the states the gains to be made from cycle commuting are enormous.

I have commuted to the same job for appro. 27 years. a distance of 10 miles everyday. except of course holidays and sickness days.
I estimate on fuel costs alone in that time it would have cost me appro £11,000 thats about 17,000 dollars using my car.

Quite a sum of dosh I think you will agree.
I enjoy the look on the faces of motorheads when they ridicule me for cycling everywhere (you know the types ,fat arsess, jelly bellies, morning hangups) when I quote them these figures.

Originally posted by willic
I enjoy the look on the faces of motorheads when they ridicule me for cycling everywhere (you know the types ,fat arsess, jelly bellies, morning hangups) when I quote them these figures.
Willic, the savings on medical care are also a consideration. I know I've been sick far less often when cycling regularly, than when riding public transportation. Whether it's the government (in the case of subsidized health care) or the cyclist (where there is no insurance, or where there are co-payments to be made), somebody saves $$$ or £££ when cycling prevents illness.

Then there's the savings to employers who have alert, energetic often bright-spirited (notice I say often, not always :D ) employees showing up in the morning, instead of groggy, lethargic, flabby motorist-employees.... ("Cagers" is such an apt word. I think of the way chickens are raised for commerce...)

Originally posted by willic
I estimate on fuel costs alone in that time it would have cost me appro £11,000 thats about 17,000 dollars using my car.

Quite a sum of dosh I think you will agree.
I enjoy the look on the faces of motorheads when they ridicule me for cycling everywhere (you know the types ,fat arsess, jelly bellies, morning hangups) when I quote them these figures.


You are absolutely right, but then, I've never said that lard-butt motoring primates were a particularly rational species. :D

Chris

I ride to work 5 days a week Wednesday-Sunday, unless its raining then i take a taxi, putting the bike in the trunk and riding home in the rain (I LOVE rain riding) I have never charted the distance of my ride to work,but it usually takes me about 35-40 min. I work at 6:00am, so im up at 4:45, ride to work, take a quick shower, change into my Kitchen whites, grab a coffee and a muffin or yogurt and sit down for about 15 min b4 other staff come staggering in. While they are all lethargic I am pumpped and roaring to go, because I just had an invigorating ride (on virtualy abandoned early morning streets) and a refreshing shower....I cant figure out why everyone wouldnt do the same. (actualy, my Chef does but he doesnt come in till 9:00am)
On my days off i usually ride too, Ill sleep in till 8:00am have some breakfast and putter around the house, then take a ride to my favorite cafe/bookstore where my friend works hang out there getting juiced on java and reading magazines. Then maby Ill go to an afternoon movie, or to the libary or whatever i feer like doing, sometimes Ill just ride with no destination ending up wherever I happen to go....I do love my lazy days off.
Of course since I do live on the Canadian praries I can only ride like this from about May-October, for the rest of the year I have fond memories and somthing to look forward to.

Cheers :beer:
Snoop DuJour

Snoop, have you looked at http://www.enteract.com/~icebike/?

Not for everyone, certainly, but geographically you're a prime candidate! :)

I think we guys of the wide awake clubs should be rewarded with higher pay rates , everyone is quite right to be refreshed and invigorated by our morning commute must be greater benefit to employees , its laughable to see the motorheads arrive in my offices still half asleep. usually stirring up the coffee pot and gasping for a *** . Mumbling about me being to fit for my own good , but words to them suggesting why dont you try my travel regime just fall on deaf ears.:D

Originally posted by JonR
Snoop, have you looked at http://www.enteract.com/~icebike/?

Not for everyone, certainly, but geographically you're a prime candidate! :)
I have been known to ride in the snow, but there comes a point when it becomes LEATHALY cold. I'm talking avrage temp of -20c, with a windchill of 1200 makes it feel like -40c (and thats a nice day) JonR thanx for the heads up on the IceBike website, at least the tips I gathered from them will prolong my riding season, but since I enjoy having my body parts where they are the riding season must come to an end some time :(

Cheers:beer:
Snoop DuJour

I voted 3-4 days a week but like many others it varies. Somedays I bike to work 5-6 days of the week. I also bike into town to pick up others things I need that I can carry on the bike.

I'm good down to 20F and will have snow tires this year. The only place I drive anymore is when I have to go to the airport 60 miles away. That is usually twice a month, really cuts into my perfect commuter weeks. Been thinking more about using the shuttle and then I don't have to deal with parking and can ride to the shuttle.

I voted virtually everyday although some days are only oneway trips. I only started in May but now have 63 cycling days (round trip counts as one day) I hope to contine through the winter.

I can't believe I got suckered into voting in a ten-year-old poll! That had been asleep for ten years!

Zombie Poll!

How many days do you bicycle commute to work?


Since I started, just one per week. My commute is 19 miles through bad neighborhoods, and I take my work laptop home on fridays and bring it back on mondays. So Mon/Fri are out because I don't want to risk either crashing and breaking the laptop, or getting mugged and losing sensitive company property/data. Wednesdays I go to my parents house after work for dinner, which is 10 miles from work and 25 miles from home, so that would pump up the commute to 19+10+25 = 54 miles, a bit too many, especially in the dark.

So that leaves Tuesdays and Thursdays. I try to go both days, but so far the weather hasn't been cooperating. I guess as I get more confident/desperate to ride, I may go on M/F anyway. We'll see.



Do you use your bike for other functional purposes other than work commuting?


Not at the moment. I've considered going grocery shopping, but the store is on my way home from work so I usually just go then. Plus it's 12 miles away so I'm not really keen on bringing groceries that need to be kept cold home for an hour in sweltering heat. I *do* take my bike to the bike shop whenever I need anything though.



Are you a full fledged bicyclist who has given up automobiles?

No it's not practical for me. In an ideal world I would love to but it's just not realistic at this point in time. I bought a hybrid to somewhat offset the guilt :D



Let's hear about your dedication to the saddle.

I picked up cycling because I needed to lose weight. I don't do it for the weight anymore... that's just a side benefit. It was always a fitness/exploration/fun thing for me for the longest time though... I never really thought of it as a utilitarian hobby.

I started commuting a month ago after a metric century I did. I mapped out a route through the city I live in, and I just happened to go by my workplace on the route. That set off a train of thought in me as I was standing outside the building "hey... what if I bike to work?". The next week this thought permeated my psyche, and I decided that within a month I would start commuting. Then I thought "hey, why wait?" and decided to go on the Tuesday after the century (just 3 days later). It started pouring however, so I canceled the first commute. Thursday however was gorgeous so I went for it, and it was great.

I would really like to start riding to work but Camden, NJ is so damn dangerous. I just dont know if I should risk it.

I commute to work everyday including the winter. It really doesn't matter what the weather is like, I just cycle to work. Some days are more miserable than others like those November rainy snowy days that hover around the freezing mark, with the wind blowing off the lake. What I decided to do many years ago is not make it a choice. I convinced myself riding a bike is like breathing, you don't get a choice to breath or not, you just do it. Same with riding a bike to work, I just do it.

In the summer I have one commuter and a back up if needed. I have a dedicated winter bike but will be replacing that this year. I also have a Burley Travoy Trailer to haul the stuff I need. I extend my commute everyday. If I rode direct it would be 30 minutes each way but I ride an extra 30 minutes each way for fun, fitness and just time away from people that I have to deal with at work everyday. I guess it is my alone time.

Cycling is just a way of life for me.

I bike to work when I need to or want to. We are a one-car family--when my wife was working outside the house, it was a very easy decision to bike in to work most days, actually, no choice in the matter. She's since changed to working from home, so the car is available as an evil temptation, and there are many days when I create some excuse to take the car in to work. Sure is hard, being an internal combustion gas junkie. I relapse often.

Avg. 3-4 days/week out of a 6 day work week. Earlier in the year I was really racking up the miles with a 30 or 38 mi r/t commute a solid 5x/wk; lately, for no very good reason other than the aforementioned fictional excuses, it's been 1-2 days/week. Next week, I hope to get back in the saddle more. Major excuse no. 1 would be a saddle that was causing me grief, but I just swapped it out for something I know will work, so that excuse is out the window, too.

It seems about one day every other week I have to go in really early or stay really late. Then I'm also still trying to battle the constant flat tire thing or I'd commute everyday. Right now I commute about 4 days a week and I use the bike on weekends as well.