Originally Posted by
VictorMikeLima
My father put up a few points on the bike and commuting, such as, if the weather's bad you can't ride your bike. I live in Florida, so there's always storms and rainy days. Always. Plus the blistering sun, and at the moment mild chill weather. Nothing I feel I can't handle. But again, I've never commuted in such conditions.
Oh baloney.
There are dozens of us here who commute year round in conditions that cause many to move to Florida. All of us east of the Rockies have to deal with heat and humidity in the summer, and we all have ways to manage that and still meet social norms for work appearance. No, it's not as easy as driving an air-conditioned car, but it's also not difficult at all. A little planning ahead and an application of common sense is all it takes.
Originally Posted by
VictorMikeLima
Others say that I'll be too tired and sweaty to commute to work and have energy to continue my day, even though I run between twenty to thirty minutes a day right before work. So maintaining my energy has never really been a problem, as long as I grab a power/clif bar.
Then it won't be a problem cycling to work either. My direct route is 4½ miles. I feel better on days when I ride my 16½ mile route to work. Then I spend my entire shift standing and moving about behind the front circulation desk, then I cycle home.
If you need some positive peer pressure, join us over on BikeJournal.com in the
Commuter Cycling Century Challenge. The goal there is to commute 100 days in a year. Check our Standings Table and you'll see that many members of the challenge are already over double that, and several (including me) have a perfect record commuting so far this year. My unbroken run of daily commuting extends back to July 2006.
That said, I have nothing to prove to myself or anyone else. I use a bicycle for all my personal transportation because I like it. If it didn't work for me, I'd do something else.