Riding To Lunch
 

What kind of reactions do you get when you ride to lunch? Based on the number of stares I get I think I would attract less attention if I walked or drove naked.

nothing negative. i've brought back lunch for three once on bike.

but i'm sure my co-workers here in my bland sterile office park think i'm weird.

we have a gym at our office which is nice, (showers too), but the same co-workers who think i'm odd for biking everywhere are the ones walking on the treadmill watching dr. phil. (when it's a perfect 75 out)

Nothing special I've noticed going to lunch. But then, maybe I've become immune to it. I've even begun leaving my helmet on when I go inside a grocery store or a lunch place (if just picking up), just as another method of silent advocacy.

I've started biking during lunch
and that gets some odd looks/comments from some of my coworkers

even today
its raining off and on. so i thought why not go out? its my lunch hour i'll do what i want. So i change and get out of the parking garage just as it begins to rain again.

I actually didn't mind the cooling shower all that much.. kind of refreshing
a quick 15 miles and i head back SOAKED.

so lesson here is ride whenever you can and to hell with what they think.

If I go anywhere doing lunch it's almost always on my bike. My co-workers are all used to it so I don't think I get strange looks.

RFM

I ride my bike at lunch to the nearest food market, about a mile from my work place. Well, yeah, I get some stares from customers waiting in line there to pay, but not much, of course 99.99 % get there in their bright and shiny cars or SUVs. Mind you that bybthe time I get to the store I'm wearing my regular office clothing, which makes it ever weirder.

Corsaire

I'm with you on this one, John. I do the same thing. The attention doesn't bother me, besides, people are getting use to it because I'm not the only one doing it.

Since I started commuting, I often go to nearby Subway for lunch - it's about mile from the office - personnel got used to me, so did most of the customers :)
There was a funny episode though - once I just turned to the road from the parking, and a coworker in his huge pickup-cage passed me yelling something like "nice bike"... whatever.. I arrived at starbucks, locked the bike to nearby sign, went inside.. few minutes later I saw him coming in :) I don't know how did I pass him, but he felt kind of awkward that I managed to get there before him and told me that he was talking on the phone - that's why he was late :)
We had lunch together and when he offered me to load the bike in his truck I thanked him and said that I'd rather ride it :)

I ride to lunch sometimes, and haven't noticed anything unusual about the way people may look at me. But here is what I like best. I am the only full time bike commuter in the office, but we have set aside one day each month in which we all bike to lunch together. It is really great seeing as many as eighteen people riding together in the middle of the day on our way to lunch.

As the only bicycle commuter in my office of 600 people, I still get lots and lots of comments about it -- on a nearly daily basis. Come on guys, it's nothing new.... When I have to run an in-town errand in the middle of the day, the comments only increase. I once biked to a deposition in town, about 5 miles from the office (I'm an attorney). I got a real kick out of the fact that the plaintiffs' attorney, who fancies himself a committed liberal, showed up to the deposition driving his H2, and the big, bad, corporate defense lawyer rode a bike!

I'm the only one who can find a place to park.

Paul

One place I've gone to twice now is in a little mini-strip, and the only place to which to lock up my bike is a pole holding a sign that says "No Parking - Fire Lane". So of course I have to park there, because I can! (There is actually a spot of grass where the sign is, so I'm not really in the fire lane, just next to it.)