I commute for a 15 miles round trip between home and school. I'm a grad student in Forest engineering who is thinking about doing a certificate in creative litterature, you know, the nerdy and distracted one kind of student! But I am also a player on the university rugby team (and I try to run an occasional cross-country with the U Club aslo), so my commute always mean in fall that I have a lot of stuff to bring: gym clothes, rugby clothes, riding clothes, my books, papers, rugby ball, lunches..... Yes, I like to wear my bike clothes 'cause I sweat profusely, and it rains often, so getting wet is usual business. Usually I commute from early April to late November. Too much traffic causing bad riding conditions when it snows lots (i.e. slushy and mushy rather than fluffy and powdery), which is one of the reasons why I don't commute in winter. Takes me around 25 minutes by bike, 40 by bus, so not a big deal.

I usually carry my books and mice clothes in my messenger bag, usually my snacks/water/coffee mug in there also. The other clothes/big lunches go in the rackpack bag or the panniers. I have an old (1996) steel mountain bike with Tom Slicks tires, rolls fast enough for me and plenty of gears to move around the hills with 10-20 kg of stuff on me/my bike. One of the most enjoyable part of my commute is getting in the Campus: it's green eveywhere, not much cars, lots of bike and people on foot means I can go fast in every direction. Mostly one way automotive traffic around and very very large roads. And I can slack my pace, making a little cool down to get to my faculty.

Bike thefts have been quite a problem lately in the Laval University Campus, but thieves are dumb and lazy: they pick the easiest bikes to grab (i.e. poor cable lock) and get along almost only when the weather is good. That is when you park in the 3-4 most used buildings overnight. My faculty is one of the farthest buildings, so we don't worry much around. Since there is a lot of foreign students, they roll on beater bikes, another good solution for short trips. Anyway, after 3 years of parking my bike outside (my 96' RM Whistler), no quick release and just a U-Lock, I had no problems. I even left if 2 days overnight when I sprained my ankle and it wa fine (I was stressed though)......

What else could I say? We are a big University (30 000 students, 28 000 on campus), and lots of people live close to it. Parking permits costs are awful, so lots of commuter and buses around. I love to commute by bike and I'm lucky enough to have 2 accesible showers in the basement of our building. Or else, I would shower at the Sports building, which is 2 min from my office/classes. Now I just can't wait for the beginning of our training camp on next Friday!!!!