Commuting - Your ideal commuting mileage would be?

Ok, So you tell your boss he is going to have to relocate your workplace or you are going to quit..And he says ok .How close would you like our work place to be ? ...You would locate your worksite , so as to have the ideal commute.?
I say between 10-15 would be about right...Not so far as to limit the frequency of days you commute, yet worth the ride..

I agree. As much as I like commuting and generally riding, I commute 14mi one way to work. It's pretty good, worth the ride. For two years I lived 28 mi from work. I commuted as much as I could. Even though I liked the ride, it took a chunk out of my day. A 10-15 mi commute would keep you around an hour ride. Just about what I like.

I've also lived 7mi from work and commuted. It wasn't bad either but I found myself going "the long way home" several time just to relieve the stress of the day and get a few more miles in. Right now I like the 14mi commute. A few hills, but still around an hour's ride.

I am slow, so 10 miles is pretty much an hour for me.

I first rode 3, then 6 then 8.5 and each time it was easier and easier. I could do 8.5 in about 45 min with stoplights and hills so given the choices I went with 13 since I didn't want to get less than 8. Ideally about 10-11 would be the best for me. Worth the ride and not too much time commuting.

To me a big motivation is not the one single commute distance..But the overall impact of repeatedly doing that commute 3-5 times a week...Too long , you ride fewer days..I would like so the time involved causes be to think I could ride every day to work...

I am slow, so 10 miles is pretty much an hour for me.

thats me too. i have a 20 mile commute and that takes me about 2 hours.

i picked 13, cause i would like it to be under 10 miles. even though i like it and such, its hard getting up at 4:30am, and leaving the house by 5am, just to i have 10 minutes to park my bike, get my gear ready and rush to class.

10 mi is perfect, I think. I've got 5 or 6 right now depending on route and it's not enough. 10 woudl be a good 40 minute spin.

I used to have ~12km and it was great. There were little difference in time wether I went by bike or by car. Now it's 17km, a bit long on some mornings but the route sucks big time. Plus it's much shorter by car.

I choose the location of my first house by drawing a circle 12 miles in diameter from work. I settled on a house 11 miles away. It takes me about 50 minutes to ride to work (up hill, about 1000 ft gain) and about 40 minutes to get home, less when it's windy (WHEEEEEEE).

I did get reasigned to another project last year that is only 5 miles from my house. It only takes 20 minutes to get there and 23 minutes (even with a big hill in the middle) to get home. I found that the 20 minutes in isn't enough to get warm enough on cold mornings. Kind of a bitter commute.

Stuart Black

I'd love 20 miles in, and about 4 miles back.

Guess I choose 13 miles because even less than 5 I get all sweated up...Have some major rises and that does it for sweating...If have to clean up at work, might as well get in at least 10 miles..

My college is actually about to relocate. Presently it's a 13KM (approx 7-8 miles) each way commute. Come April this will change to 22KM (approx 13-14 miles) with a lot more hills. :D

And I'm actually looking forward to this.

I used to do a 13 mile commute, was just about right, now with job relocation I have a 50 mile drive to work :mad:

Must try and move nearer

A few years ago I did 22.5 miles 4-days/week for a summer and got in great shape, and I actually managed to ride more consistently than I have lately with my 14.5 mi. commute (Being a SoCal denizen I don't deal so well with rain, of which we've had plenty lately.). Though I did beg rides home from a friend who worked/lived nearby and had a bike rack, on a few of the really hot (100+ degree), and smoggy days.

Even at 14.5 mi. I'd like my current commute to be a bit shorter. It's too time consuming (takes me about an hour.) to commute and also try to get training rides in, and the commute is neither long enough, nor consistent enough (too many starts/stops) to double as a training ride, nor is it easy enough to use as a recovery ride. I'd actually prefer an easy 3-5 mile commute 'cause I could do that *every* day and not have to drive on days when I've a training-ride planned (which just seems ridiculous).

-Trevor

I have had commutes of 7.5, 5, 6.5 miles, and now have 17 miles. I think 8 or 9 miles would be best. It is a fast ride in the morning so you dont have to get up too early, and it will allow you to make variations on the route home in the evening.

Mine is about 12 miles (each way). It is long enough to get a good workout and put some time and peace between me and the office, but short enough to do regularly.

What about terrain as a factor..No one seems to mention it very much..I have some hilly terrain and it is like adding an extra 5 miles..Flat route into work ; If traffic is not bad...10 miles sounds like a piece of cake.

I would say 10 miles the again one could just wake up earlier, ride a few miles then head to work (what I've done this past year)

My office is just about 20 miles. I've considered commuting, and even mentioned that I might to my wife. She was not too excited about it.

The major concern is that I'd have to cross a bridge with no bike lane and a narrow, debris riddled emergency lane with 55 mph traffic in rush hour.

Probably not a good idea.

Is that the only way to work? I often find when I talk to people about bicycle commuting they look at the world with car eyes and can't see any alternative. Is there another route you could take, something that you haven't thought of? Or you could ride the route on an early Sunday to see where the problems are and work out ways to avoid them. How wide is the emergency lane? You say narrow but is it 5 feet narrow or 1 foot narrow? Is the bridge close to home or close to work? If it's close to home, drive across it, park your car and ride from there. Be flexible and creative.

Stuart Black

How long is the bridge? You could just take a lane across the bridge and be unpopular for a few hundred yards.

How long is the bridge? You could just take a lane across the bridge and be unpopular for a few hundred yards.
Californian's and New Yorkers'...They would run you over faster than you can squat a centipede, should the bridge be longer than 1/4 mile.

Hey, I ride in the city that was blessed to recieve Bicycling magazine's inaugural "worst city to ride in" award but I'll take a lane across a bridge when I need to. (Anyone whose been across the Longfellow recently knows what I'm talking about!)

edit: oops, it got the IBMA inaugural worst city to messenger in award, not Bicycling Magazine which has had a shame list for much longer. Still, it was ranked worst in '99 by Bicycling (the same year it was dissed by the IBMA).

Current commute is 17; I would say 14 would be nice. With a big hill in the middle, rather than and the start *and* the end....

I had to vote 13. That gives me the committed 13 miles and the option to extend it. My current commute is 7 each way and it just isn't enough.

Incidentally if I was voting in the summer I'd vote 18, and again with the option to extend it. I'll take 100°+ days any time over the chill of winter (anything less than 40°F is chill of winter to me...).

I was doing 15 but have just moved office because it was too long to do both ways every day. My new distance is about 8 miles so I should be able to comfortably do this both ways every day.

8 miles each way is my vote. My last job was 7 miles each way, and I rode every day.

Now it's 18 miles each way so I ride only two or three times a week, depending on how hard the weekend ride was.