geebee

How do you all travel when your too ill to ride?
Do you use an electric or gas assist or car, taxi etc. asumption being of a very poor public transport service.
Just recovering from an extremely prolonged illness that allowed me to do a days work most days but no chance of being able to ride to or from work and survive.

gwd

Since going car free, I've been healthier. When I got the flu a few years ago, when I was too ill to ride, I was too ill to be driving a car. I didn't go out till I got better.
I rode my bike to work but when the boss heard my cough I was ordered home and get better before returning. I'd call a cab to go to the doctor or hospital if I couldn't ride. I've gone grocery shopping for car free neighbors when they were laid up for whatever reason. I suppose they'd reciprocate.

evblazer

I've ridden my bike to the doctors, for an MRI and for my twice a year 2-d Doppler echo. If I couldn't ride I would just call a cab as I don't have any friends and probably wouldn't bother then if I had. Yeah it is expensive and it's a car but it is cheaper then the doctor or the ambulance to bring me when I collapse on the side of the road if I road. If I couldn't ride I probably _shouldn't_ be driving either at least with any injury/sickness I have ever experienced.

I think of taxis as part of public transportation they just carry alot less passengers If you lived where there were no taxis though somewhere out in the country not sure what I'd do.

Chris L

I have a policy that if I'm too sick to ride, I'm too sick to work, full stop. That said, my commute is not physically demanding in any way. In fact, my desk job probably places more physical strain on my body than just riding the 17km round trip.

Public transport in this part of the world is simply not an option -- unless you're prepared to walk about 2/3 of it.

AStomper

I don't have public transport and amazingly enough taxis are for the airport and would want to charge me 20 bucks to get to my house and the regular charge for delivering me wherever. I'd rely on friends. I'd just buy a bunch of beer for them (and if I was sick whiskey for me).

Newspaperguy

If I'm feeling too sick to ride, I'm probably also too sick to work or get out. If I'm feeling a little low but not too bad, I'll cut back on the cycling for the day. Any trips will be as short as possible. If I'm too sick to pedal, I'm probably also too sick to drive a car. Fortunately, I haven't been sick enough to miss school or work for many, many years.

becnal

When I'm ill, I don't travel. I stay home and get healthy. If I need medicine, my wife picks it up. If I needed to get to a doctor, I'd take a taxi.

East Hill

What everyone's been saying, in other words, is that if you are so ill that you can't ride your bike, you are too ill to work--it's your body's way of telling you to slow down.

If you've sustained a long term illness, say cancer combined with chemotherapy or surgery, the same response applies. You should be recovering, not going to work.

Voice of experience here...

East Hill

Newspaperguy

If you're healing up from an injury or a minor surgery, you may be in a position where you feel fine and need to get out and about, but riding a bike is not a good idea. In those cases, use any method that works for you.

Chris L

This reminds me of a story of mine from a few years ago. I was recovering from a crash on my bike at the time, and my office was located in one of the few parts of this city that is actually served by public transport. The only problem was the notoriously low level of skill possessed by Gold Coast bus drivers. Basically, riding on the bus was doing my injuries more harm than riding to work would have done. I know this for a fact because when I went to see my doctor a week later, he ordered me back on the bike. True story.

Roody

Twice I've been injured and unable to ride for 4 to 5 months. The first time I couldn't work either, so I took the bus and walked everywhere, no problem. The second time, I was working OK, but every time I rode my knee reinjured. I took the bus to work. The bus doesn't run when I get out of work (almost midnight) so I got rides from co-workers or cabbed until I could walk again. Walking at night is a little scary due to crime concerns, but I toughed it out. I feel a lot safer on my bike!

I'm glad geebee brought this up. I think this is a very important issue for people who are thinking about going carfree for the first time. You should have some backup plan for getting to work if you can't ride. (Same goes for drivers, but they usually don't plan ahead as well as we do.)

SouthernGothic

I have bicycled to the Dotor's and then to the Pharmacy running 101 degree temp. It was not fun to start, but a very surreal experience during the trip.
Too ill to ride? Probably, but I had little choice and my thinking wasn't quite right as well.
I guess all that would stop me would be broken bones, pulled muscles etc.
I know when I broke(my girlfriend broke it for me) my little toe, THAT put a stop to me bicycling for a while.

stevegor

Probably true, however, when I was recovering from a very serious accident, (car hits bike rider), and my thought processes where in fairy- land, I cycled into the hospital for a rehab session. But picture this......I'm in a full back brace, a compression stocking on my r/leg and my crutches tied to my top bar and hanging out the back, (I could barely walk), right through busy town traffic, getting amazed stares, hurting like nothin' on this earth, but I made it
My Physio, who I used to race with, was NOT impressed, and my wife tore strips off me, but like I said...my brain was cycling around Saturn at the time and I didn't realise a lot then. Now I use the car if on the rare occassion I'm too ill.

Sianelle 

I live with a fatigue illness and if my ability to concentrate and remember things is out the window I stay at home until I can cope with attempting to communicate with people. If it's just a matter of energy reserves being low and my co-ordination being a wee bit off I take my electric assisted tricycle. Otherwise I ride my bike(s).
If I really do have be some place and I'm not well I'll call the local taxi service. Being a small town the owner of the business is usually behind the wheel and he's very good with helping out. The way I see it my energy use footprint is still waaaaay smaller than if I owned a car myself.

fordfasterr

I don't have a health problem that holds me back from riding every day, but I've been toying with the idea of setting up an electric assist motor on my bad weather bike just for situations like this or if I'm feeling too tired to ride but not tired enough to skip work...


I wonder what an electric add-on drive kit would cost? .. hmm... I've seen some with a drive hub on the front wheel, and others with a chain drive to the rear wheel...

Sianelle 

For sheer fit and go, no hassle operation I'd go with a hub motor wheel everytime. I've been using a 24volt 250watt hub motor wheel on my tricycles for well over a year now and they just go and go and are totally reliable. I paid $NZ299.00 for my wheel kit which came with everything including two SLA batteries. It does pay to shop around though because here in NZ I noticed that various vendors had much the same sort of thing for a wide range of prices with up to $300.00 difference in price in one particular case that I remember.
It's easy to get blinded with science and to get wound up in the debate about battery efficiency and whether hub motors are the best choice re. performance & etc, but if all you want is stone reliability without any messing around a hub motor is the way to go.
Apologies for wandering off topic, - only I thought there would be others interested in an e.bike as a solution to carless transport problems when ill.

Earth1tree23

If I am too ill to ride, I am too ill to work. Simple. If need be I can usually work from home. Cycling everywhere and everyday means I only get ill once every two years or so, and then it is usually from riding too hard and too much (chest infection/flu). I can understand accidents seriously impairing that choice, but I have luckily not had any that severe. Ever. And that is in 33 years of cycling. (some serious knocking on wood)

Earth1tree23

There is also no point in driving to work instead of cycling. It would take me approx. 2 to 3 hours, cost a small fortune in petrol because of that, with a £7 (about $15) congestion charge on top for simply driving into the centre of London (UK). There are no parking spaces either, really, and where there are, expect to pay at least £5 ($10) per HOUR for the privilege.... An 8 hour working day would therefore cost around £55-60 ($110-125) just to use the car. I'd rather spend that on some new cycle gear.

Sparky005s

Years ago, when I was commuting regularly on my bike, I got hit by a pickup truck. Trashed my bike, and left me with severe deep bruising on my right leg. I had just started a new job a couple weeks previously so I did not want to miss any work. I actually rode to work on my backup bike by pedaling with only my left leg. Hurt a lot, but at least I showed I was dedicated (and stupid) to my employer. Now, I work from home.

Newspaperguy

There's a one-legged bicycle courier in New York City. I think that's the ultimate in dedication to a cycling lifestyle. https://www.messmedia.org/061227-nyc.html

dynodonn 

I haven't called in sick to work in 10 years, like most here on this forum, if I too sick to ride, I'm too sick to work. When I was sick 10 years ago, even watching TV was too much work, so I decided to just sleep for the most part of the day.

Sixty Fiver

I have to be pretty wrecked to not ride and if I'm not well enough to ride then I definately won't be working as my current job can be extremely strenuous.

I stayed home from work yesterday as I strained my back earlier in the week and the body finally said enough was enough... I spent the day kicking around this place, napped alot, and took it easy and was back on the bike today for 20km of rather pleasant light riding that was sponsored by Robaxicet.

I have ridden and gone to work with broken ribs and continued to take little one legged rides around the block after I ruptured the bursa in my knee in a cycling accident last summer... I had to be clipped in and could only ride in the granny gear on my mountain bike.

I missed nearly a month of prime riding time but was still able to work as I was driving a desk and could take the bus which stops a block (about as far as I could walk) from my house and then stops right in front of my old office.

My employer knows of my passion for cycling, the fact I live car free, and understands that if I'm not well to travel then I'm definately not well enough to come to work.

crazybikerchick

As others have pointed out, if I'm too sick to ride I'm too sick to work. However, of course the perception of other people regarding cycling is different. I left work one day as I was feeling quite ill, and my boss asked me if I rode to work. She then offered to drive me home. Its like I'm fine to ride home (I hope that didn't sound like I was not sick)

I have a short commute though (6 km) that I could pretty much do half keeling over and with my eyes half shut. Actually I did the eyes half shut one before when I had my eyes dialated at the optometrist and didn't bring sunglasses (but I would not really recommend that one...)

If you have a longer commute where the commute takes too much energy but you feel able to work... I'd either try to work from home that day (if you have a job that allows you to work from home), or either get a ride from a coworker (if you have one nearby) or take a cab. (if public transit is non functional where you are) Yeah the cab is pricey but so much cheaper than the ownership costs of a car.