snow_echo_NY

i'm a little shocked at myself.

but then again a friend who has been commuting a similar route to me said he wouldn't be surprised if my commute eventually became 20 minutes zipping over the Brooklyn bridge. i hadn't commuted everyday, previously i had done 2-4 days a week. and my times have generally been 24 (BK bridge route) -29 minutes (Manhattan bridge route). but since March I've been commuting everyday and it's made a difference in my times.

my Brooklyn to Manhattan time (using Brooklyn bridge) has gone from 24 minutes to 20 minutes (4.5 miles)
my Manhattan to Brooklyn time (using Manhattan bridge) has gone from 29 minutes to 23 minutes (5.2 miles)

anyone else?

beerRun

When I started just a few weeks ago, I was taking 30 mins for my 4.5 mile commute. I'm easily doing 20 now (but it's mostly flat---I was just pretty skinny-fat having not gotten much exercise last year with our first kid being born and us being total newbs to parenting).

kickstart

My speed went up a bit initially, but has plateaued as its not a priority, and I don't consciously try to increase it. I cycle for transportation and recreation, not for sport or training.

bmthom.gis

I don't think my actual commute has gotten any shorter...I was cycling for awhile before I started commuting, and I don't really push myself while commuting. My morning avg has gotten maybe 1 mph faster over time. What has gotten better are my speeds/efforts when I am riding a group ride, especially climbing. Sure, there are still lots of faster people than me, but I have gotten stronger and riding with no fenders/racks/panniers etc has gotten way easier.

mcours2006

I can keep up with cars on the road now doing 30mph!

I kid, of course. My speed hasn't increased much at all. I was quite fit aerobically to begin with. Most of the gains happened with two months of starting riding as my body got used to the position and time on the saddle. The speed varies with the bike, of course, but I stopped trying to make it a race every time. It gets tiring. I just try to enjoy the ride as much as I can, pushing only about 60-70% effort.

wphamilton

I am astounded by the improvement when I think about it. I started at a typical recreational pace for a non-cyclist and I remember just wishful thinking about higher speeds. Half again faster was what I imagined, feeling the wind, and the sensation of speed, and being able to hold it for miles and miles. And I honestly felt that that target was just a fantasy, out of reach. After about five or six years, that fantasy speed is now a restful pace.

I think that it's worth the effort. It's about more than just going faster. You're stronger, have better endurance, better cardio-vascular conditioning. For the effort, I think you gain a general feeling of greater health and more vitality.

snow_echo_NY

exactly, it's not that i'm actually doing anything different on my commute rides. to me, i'm doing the same as i always do. but i agree, i'm stronger, have better endurance, especially for "hills" and i could probably do more of a climb. the result is a faster commute.

for a long time i was passing everyone on my route in April and May. Yesterday and today i notice others passing me so I'm thinking that over time, their times have improved as well. well, to me it's interesting. i haven't noticed it before. and i think i haven't noticed it before mainly b/c i'm a much stronger rider now than i was previously doing 2-4 days of commuting.

phenry24 

I've actually gotten slower. My commute is about 10 miles with hardly a flat stretch to talk about. I first started by pushing myself both ways, now I ride in at a leisurely pace and have found I'm much more productive at work. If I want to ride hard, I'll do that after work or on the weekends.

The rides home when I push myself have definitely gotten faster since I started commuting every day though.

pdlamb

I've slowed down this spring because of work, other commitments, and a short illness. But overall, I'm not sure my speed has increased much, if at all. Nowadays, I use most of my commutes as recovery rides, so I'm trying to ride easy. I save the speedwork for better rides.

hyhuu

As a commuter I ride slower by choice ever since I stop riding as a recreation on the weekend more than a year ago.

ptempel

I have been doing a "park n' ride" for the last two years. Usually drive to Leonia, park in Overpeck park and ride the bike across the GWB into manhattan for the last 10 mi or so. It definately has made me stronger. I think the key is to try to stick with it through the winter as much as is feasible. For me if its 20F or up and the roads are fairly clear then I'm good to go. I haven't really timed myself closely but I feel faster. Just this morning was riding with a younger guy who was in the big ring. I was still in small ring but higher gear in the back so my spinning has improved as well.

laflavor

Just roughly

April 2014 my average speed to work was about 14.2 mph
April 2015 my average speed to work was about 15.7 mph

But, I went from a hybrid to an actual road bike and I push myself on almost every ride. This month I've been consistently hitting 16.0 mph on my ride into work.

Daniel4

Compared to my winter commute that was 20 to 30 minutes for 4.5km, I’m now between 15 to 17 minutes.

But no matter how fast or leisurely I ride, I’m finding my time only varies within a minute.

ThermionicScott 

For me, a lot of it came from optimizing my route and then becoming more familiar and comfortable with it. I know about how long I'll have to wait at each intersection, and in some cases, I can approach them just right and ride over the sensors so that I don't have to stop at all. What used to take me 35 minutes is now 25 minutes or less, and I wouldn't attribute much of that to my improved fitness.

no motor?

I used runkeeper Tuesday to see how far it was when I rode home via the credit union, and I really was only interested in the distance. I was surprised to find out I'd averaged over 14mph for 2 miles on streets with plenty of stop signs. I don't think I was that fast before.

fietsbob

As You Age, It gets to matter less, then you Retire ..

caloso

Nope. Not at all. My average speed between home and office is mostly determined by the timing of the stoplights.

scroca

It's hard for me to tell. My speed is greatly affected by the wind speed and direction. There is no way for me to avoid it as my route is mostly out in the open. When there's a headwind, I ride slow; a tailwind, I ride fast; no wind, somewhere in between.

highrpm

My commute time is affected by the lights and traffic a lot.

My overall speed is higher on my hybrid than it was on my old Walmart mountain bike for sure, but the difference is not that great since I'm hitting intersection every mile anyway.

noglider 

@kickstart says his speed plateaued, and I suspect this will happen at the point where you stop caring.

I record most of my commutes with Garmin, and I just checked. My times have definitely improved since I started this job in December, but a big factor in that is the change of seasons. I have unquestionably gotten stronger on the bike at the same time, but it's hard to know how much to attribute to the weather and how much to my conditioning.

If more people are passing you now, I'd bet it's because there are more commuters now than there were in earlier months. With greater numbers come a greater variety of riders, so it will include a few very strong riders.

My commute is a reverse commute, so I don't encounter many people in my direction. I am rarely passed by someone in my direction. I was passed today by one. He was on a track racing bike or something similar. Definitely a fixed gear. I'm on a fixed gear today, too. He was a very strong rider, the type I'm not trying to compete with.

HardyWeinberg

My commute speed is always limited by traffic concerns, hazards, and lights. But I have used it for a lot of training by riding a pretty low-geared fixie which did wonders for my conditioning in general (and that has sped up my fun rides which I don't get to do as often as I might like).

globie

The speed of my commute remains steady, but when I get on an unloaded road bike for pleasure, I fly. I reduced my best century time by an hour last year. All that time pushing the loaded LHT makes the a road bike feel weightless (and twitchy).

jade408

Do not track speed at all. I am causally logging the distance. I want to arrive at my destination not looking disheveled as I ride for transportation most of the time!

spare_wheel

Is that what those funny glowing red orbs are?

spare_wheel

I consistently average in the mid 20s on the flat parts of my commute and 15ish on the very steep climb. However, my speed when I descend strongly correlates with the length of time since my last hard crash.