My incentive is cost. My employer charges for parking. It makes no sense for me to get an annual pass, and it's a hassle getting a day pass in a lot close to my office. The only weather thing that stops me is icy roads. On those days I commute by foot.

Greetings likewise, I found your thread and posted to it. I envy your reverse commute!

My commute is really short. 2 miles on the way in and normally i take the long way (3 miles) home. Even then, I still give in to driving occasionally. Never believe the weather forecast the night before. Go outside in the morning and see how your body feels in your clothes. Keep your routine, so you can leave on time. You will always have enough time to take the car if you change your mind. (this only works if you have a car) Enjoy the ride, that will keep you coming back every time.

Convincing my self isn't hard, I simply don't own a vehicle other than my bike. 10 miles each way 5-6 days a week. Though if the weather is bad enough, I might get my housemate to give me a ride, but that is fairly rare. And the bus simply is no longer an option since my workplace changed locations.

If you don't have a car, an hour cycling commute beats the hell out of a 90 minute bus commute.

Which is why I rode everyday.

I'm lucky enough to have a very short commute of 1.8km/1.12miles one way and by bike is the fastest method I have of getting to work.

If I were to take the bus to work and back, it would cost me $AUD6.70 per day.

For me it's a goal.. and to make people think I'm crazy. Goal for next year is 3k, only 2k this year but that was due to a health issue. But my commute is only 6.5-7 miles on way. Alot of hills though which makes it tough. We have 3 cars so that isn't a issue.

No one commute is the same so just do what you can. Don't judge your progress based on others to many factors involved!

As I have said before I don't give myself a choice to commute by bike or not. I know it sounds silly because you always have a choice but it is part of self discipline for me. So no matter what the weather or how I am feeling I just ride my bike, its a given.

Some days just happen to be nicer than others.

I said that I "never" force myself, but it's not 100% true because I remember from a few years ago, two weeks when I did and I think it's relevant here.

One morning I realized that I had a "streak" going, almost a full year that I'd never driven in. Just a couple of weeks, and my attitude was that it was a trivial milestone. I hadn't really thought about it for 50 weeks, so what's two more? Yet it suddenly seemed more important, and more importantly seemed harder, which got worse as the two weeks went by. I didn't really enjoy the last two rides, and I drove in the day after just to make it over. Everything was good again.

It's purely psychological. One day at a time it was nothing, but adding the milestone was a different story. It's not logical, but there it is. My takeaway is just don't assign too much emphasis to a milestone or goal. Set a goal sure, but the goals are less important than what's in between them. Focus on the day-to-day and the milestones come naturally.

I haven't been "feeling it" for about a week. I'll get back into it within a few days. One thing motivating me is my goal of hitting 2,000 this calendar year. I've logged 1,886 so far, which doesn't include some rides.

Nice. I'm going to make a real effort to be on the bike consistently for all of 2017. I go through stretches where I ride a ton and then get lazy or have an overuse injury, and don't get back on the bike for a while. I figure if I continue to ride with my good streak into 2017 and don't stop, I can hit 4,000.

My commute is only ~ 6 miles, but I agree. Attitude is everything. I check the weather forecast and pack my backpack/pannier the night before, and lay out my cycling clothes to minimize "friction". If I want to drive, it's a little more work than riding. If I'm going to drive, I've almost always planned to drive for another reason - appointment at lunch, need to haul something bigger than the bike can carry, recovering from a cold, etc.

That said, it's a lifestyle choice, not a sacred vow. There are mornings I wake up late, or feel too tired, and I decide to drive. It's three-four times a year; even if it was 1-2 times a month, does it really matter?

I agree.

A few years ago...I was stupid about it. I would ride when sick in a snowstorm at night in 15F weather. I try to eliminate the truly ridiculous days. It take quite a bit to make me not ride, but there are scenarios.

I didn't commute much at all last winter. Lost the mindset to just do it. I wouldn't ride in high winds or rain either. Then I rode the Mississippi river trail in Minnesota this summer and faced some heavy head winds and survived just fine. Now I ride in the wind and rain. Watched the Bike Wanderer do his winter rides and realized it's all attitude. Come fall I deer hunt in freezing temps, winter is cross country skiing and ice fishing where its spending hours at a time in the cold. It's not bad weather, it's bad clothing choices that makes things miserable. Biking isn't much of a choice it's just what I do. Easy to say now, we'll see what happens once the cold weather really gets here. My one concern with snow is the highway I ride along has narrow shoulders and if the plow hasn't cleared the lanes cars will not move over, if they do it may cause control issues for some.

It's funny....I really, really hate being cold. Heck...I don't even like leaving my house in the winter. But I never seem to notice the cold on the bike if I've got hat/gloves/balaclava/goggles.

You're so right about the psychological effect of being on a streak. I am often disappointed in myself for not riding on a day when a streak is at stake, but it is soon forgotten. And when I look back at the year or the month and I see mostly rides instead of drives I am quite satisfied. Sure I could have forced myself to ride more, but I don't an extra ride or two is going to make any difference to my satisfaction.

I remind myself of what I could spend the $12 on rather than a parking spot for the day.

That's a big motivator!

My subway commute costs me less than $5/day.

-2 nice pints of beer at a bar on the way home
-nice takeout dinner after work
-1 nice piece of bike related gear every week
-2lbs of gummy bears

I'd ride every day if I were you as well

I don't. I wish I had the willpower to get up at 6am everyday for my 10mi commute, but alas, I don't.

Though I AM considering adding a day to my regular schedule, so I'd only drive Mondays and Friday (to bring in/out my change of clothes to/from the office). It's almost summer and already light when I go out (in winter I do both of my rides in the dark, that doesn't help lol).

Just out of curiosity, how long does it take you to drive the 10 mile commute? My commute is a shade under 12 miles, and I try to do it 3 days, drive in 2 with changes of clothes.

I normally only have to leave 20 minutes earlier in the morning on the bike. And it's sort of nice...no need to worry about figuring out clothes..just chuck bike stuff on, and work clothes are ready to go on hangers at work once I get there .

Parking is free, but fuel would be able $4/day driving. Not really enough of an incentive in itself to not drive. Time savings is about an hour/day.

When I drive it can be around 40min (or up to an hour on the worst traffic days, there are a few schools on my route). On my bike it's about an hour, public bus 1:30hrs.

Difference of 20 minutes is a no-brainer for me. But I do realize that 10 miles is not a short commute.

I guess that put in that way, it doesn't seem so insensible. And it is kinda the reason why I started riding in the first place. It used to take me almost as much time riding than taking the bus (back when I didn't have a car) so it seemed to me my time was better spent riding my bike than crammed in a bus.

(when I started commuting I had a very heavy bike and almost no physical resistance, I'm sure back then I was riding at less than 10kms/h lol)