Originally Posted by
chaadster
How about 'joyriding'!
We used to use that term for those who stole cars just to drive around in for fun, I think, but that's my point: I don't think the term is really used in that context anymore, so we could totally appropriate it for our own uses.
Where I live, joyriding still means stealing a car to drive around in. I think that bicycle commuting is a perfectly lovely term. Even drivers know what you mean when you say it.
Maybe the dutch or the danes have a good word that we can steal.
Hmmmm. I get hulpprogramma fietsen in dutch and bryggers cykling in danish for utility cycling. Bicycle commuting comes out as cykel pendling in danish or fiets woon-werkverkeer in dutch.