i'm 9-11 miles from work depending on the route, so i can't walk; there is no mass transportation; and carpooling isn't realistic since the only coworker who lives near me is one who works 3 or so more hours each day than i do. i work with kids so i can't really telecommute :) until i learn to pilot a helicopter or can afford a chartered pedicab or whatever, i'm driving or i'm riding a bike. having bigger distances between fewer services with no public transportation is one of the lamer realities of living in a semi-rural area.

My current commute is about 3.5 (5.5 km) mi directly, but I actually cycle a 5 (7.5km) mile route. I put light rail down as my alternative option - which I have used 3 times one way so far this year. The cost of transit is included in my tuition, so there is no incremental cost - but the train takes me about 20-30 minutes and the direct bike ride is about 20 minutes, and the ride I usually take takes me about 30 minutes, so there is no time savings. The main reasons I would take the train are inclement weather and illness (I suppose intoxicaion is a third)

Something that may be pertinent to this thread:

My Father-in-Law drives or takes the bus to the train station. Then catches the train to work.

He doesn't bike, but here is the interesting part:
The company he works for subsidizes employee's mass transit expenses. Because they do, driving to work is grounds for dismissal.

LOL I could LOL
In order
Bike, Bus, rollerblade, walk, a ride.

Japan, right?

Yep. I wish more American companies would get on this, but our mass transit system just doesn't compare. Maybe in some of the large cities it could work.

If we're talking public transportation, you should mention streetcars and trolleys too. :p

Bike - 40 ~ 45 minutes
Car - 25 minutes (no traffic, $15 parking!) and up 1hr (to go less than eight miles!)
Metro - 45 minutes average
Viriginia Rail Express - 45 minutes+
Bus - who knows--a long time!

I could probably take the bus, but I'd bet it would involve a significant amount of walking at both ends of the line and take well over an hour for what is a 20 - 25 minute commute by car, and an hour bike ride. I should try it one of these days just to see if it's even feasible.

My bike-commute is about 15 mi., which is probably on the edge of practicality for all but the most enthusiastic cyclist/commuter (which hasn't been me, as of late. Been driving a lot :(.). Even at my most consistent I was only managing 3-4 days per week. The bus option would be such a huge hassle as to make it nearly unmanageable. Welcome to SoCal land of the car-worshipers.

Edit: I was curious, so I looked at the local transit website. In order to take the bus, I would have to be downtown, about a mile from my house, at around 6:00 a.m., to get me to within a 1 - 1.5 mi. of work, including a transfer on the way. If I ride, I need to be rolling by 7:00 to get there with enough time to clean up and be at my desk by 8:00.

Clearly, the people who are riding the bus do it 'cause they have no other choice, not because it's easy and convenient.

I ride two miles to a bus stop, 10 miles on the bus, then ride 1 mile to work all before sunrise. I then ride 12 1/2 miles back getting home just at sunset. The bus ride also avoids the most dangerous section of the route. All commutes are a matter of optimizing bike/bus/car with just how physically demanding the job is. No point in biking to and from if my 61 year old body is too tired to do the work at the winery. As it is the cycling I do get in allows me to compete with men and women half my age or less.

I have two jobs. My local retail job is about a mile or so away. I can walk it quite easily. Even if the weather was severely inclement, it's short enough that it wouldn't be too bad. My other job, a practicum for school, is in downtown Boston at night, and is not feasible to bike to -- I could do the distance, but there are a number of obstacles between me and my destination. So I take the T, and it sometimes makes me *wish* I could bike. It's an hour-long busride, followed by a 20 minute subway ride, and those are "good" times. The other option is to walk, bike, or bus to the commuter rail, take the train in, and then take the 20 minute subway ride.

I put bus, car or walk. I had walked in quite a bit before, but I have more fun riding my bike. That bus takes much longer than either of those options. Taking my car and parking in the free lot takes longer than riding my bike and parking at the building.

Hmmm. I didn't kow you could vote for two items in a poll.

OK, in terms of miles, carpool is my first option.

And I ride my bike to and from the park-n-ride.

If I have to go to a class in Orange County, I take the train along with my folding bike.

But trains don't leave early enough to get me to work.

Drive my car is always an option.

Ride my bike is an option, but I'm getting to old for 80 mile days!

I've been car-free since 1999, but a cyclist only since this past March. Before I bought the bike, I had six years of adapting work, shopping, and social activities to transport availability. For instance, there are five bus routes that pass one end of my block, and one at each of the next four streets in the other direction.

(Interestingly, when I first got the bike, I navigated and rode based on bus routes. It took me a while to figure out that I could take any route I wanted.)

For my self-employment, I put telecommute in addition to bus and foot. Other than meetings, I can do everything from home. I have one client who was nice enough to set up a cubie for me to work from, just because I needed to get out of the house once or twice a week. They're 20 minutes by bike, 45 minutes by bus, 1:15 to walk.

My part time job is 10 minutes by bike, 30 minutes by bus, 40 minutes to walk. Grocery store is 10 minutes by bike, 30 minutes by bus or on foot.

LBS is three minutes by bike, ten minutes on foot. :)

here were my other options for my old commute to school (still don't have a new commute because I'm still "between jobs"):

1. drive. saved 5-10 minutes but parking was $8/day for the guest lot.
2. walk. this took an hour.
3. shuttle bus. sometimes this actually took longer than walking assuming the bus even showed up.

so, bicycling was clearly the best option most of the time.

My commute is 13 miles so walking is fairly impractical. No bus service (rural michigan) could carpool (did for almost a year when my next door neighbor was on the identical schedule to me. ) however no one I work with is really close at the moment. So Car was the only answer I provided.

Anyway, the only reasonable way for me, apart from biking, is public transit. Actually, I could walk but the trip would take 1.5 hours one way. Now, that's not even so long and I will do it occasionally (or sometimes combine walking and streetcar/subway), but doing it every day would get very old very fast.

I am big on human-powered vehicles, so I thought of other options. I'd love to be able to rollerblade places but I live on a big hill and I'm not a good enough rollerblader to be able descend that hill and remain alive. :eek: :D I could possibly get a kick-scooter, but I've no idea whether that would work: never had a scooter. I think for shorter trips it would be way more fun than walking but once we start getting into the five-mile range, it might get a little boring... Plus, I think people have a favourite "push" leg on those things, so it is an ultimately assymetric mode of travel which may contribute to my mild scoliosis (a condition in which a spine is laterally curved).

Interesting. Why was there such a strong bus/bike link in your mind? :)

I checked the "drive own car" and "subway/light rail" box. My partner commutes to our university by trolley and subway and I could do the same. We could take buses but it's slower than the trolley/subway, would probably require more walking, and costs the same. In reality, i don't think I could get away with driving her car on a regular basis because the reason she doesn't drive it is that the repair costs, lack of time savings, parking challenges, and environmental costs make it impractical. The stupid thing has needed a new alternator, brakes, belt pulley, and gas tank. four repairs for about $1600 total over the last couple years.

I could afford the time to walk to school occasionally, but I couldn't fit 11+ miles of walking into my schedule every weekday. I can't run much because it makes my knees hurt- and bicycles are cheaper than knee surgery.

All in all the top choices are:
1. bike commute: about 30 minutes each way, with estimated bike costs at $0.30 to $0.50 per round trip
2. public transit: about 45 minutes each way, fare of $2.60 per round trip

Pff, I wouldn't think twice about doing 15 miles, and I'm not even such an enthusiast! Sure I teach cycling courses and spend several hours on cycling websites every day and my Christmas list has nothing but cycling accessories on it and my idea of dressing up is donning on my expensive Cannondale jersey and... ahem, never mind... I didn't realize the addition has gone this far. :D

Or they think they have no other choice because they don't have a car. ;)

I can ride my bicycle, drive the car, catch a train or ride my motorbike. I have walked to work but it takes over 2 hours (I was in training for a 100 kilometre charity walk).

my current workplace has bus service - in the same kind of sense that hitler had a heart. i could probably walk the 6 miles without losing much time. car or bike are the viable ones.

We have 3 (almost 4 drivers) and 2 cars in my family. If I can't ride, someone usually drops me off at work via car. I don't usually take the car myself. It just sits there in the parking lot all day doing no good.

Edit: When I lived in Japan, several of my neighbors worked for General Motors. GM paid for their cars and gas, but wouldn't pay for the bus/train. I worked near them, but worked for IBM instead. IBM paid for the bus/train. It took me about the same time to get to work as them if we left at normal times. We each chose the subsidized method. IBM -> bus/train. GM -> car. In their defense, they were test driving new models of cars, so there was some rationale to their choosing the more expensive and hassle filled commuting method.

For the past couple of months I have been working what is called a "slide shift" (where do they get these stupid names?): 9:30am-6:00pm. The bus gets me there at 9:32 to 9:35 which is cutting it really too close. I would be late everyday if my company didn't have a five minute grace period. I usually bike to work unless it's under 20 degrees F outside.

Our bus service in Raleigh (CAT) has mounted bike carriers on the fronts of their buses. I haven't tried it yet, but I see bikes on these carriers frequently. They appear to hold 2 bikes although I rarely see more than one at a time. The bus fare is $.75 with free transfers and no extra charge for the bike. It's going up to $1.00 next year, but it will still be a bargain. My 7 mile commute into the government complex downtown takes about 35 minutes by bus or bike. The bike route is more convoluted in order to avoid traffic and it's a lot more enjoyable unless the weather is really bad.

Telecommuting is tolerated by management on occasion, but I wouldn't want to push it more than once a week or so. The bus system in Portland Maine consists of a half-dozen routes in a star pattern with downtown Portland at the hub, so to get from 'burb to 'burb as I do, I'd have to take one bus downtown and another back out, turning a 10-minute car trip and 20-minute bike trip into a 45-minute bus trip. Needless to say, never done that.

I don't know if I should have checked "Own car"; technically, that's not an option for me anymore since I got rid of my car last year. But I could buy one again if I had to, I guess, and there is still the "Wife's car" option. :)

I can't walk, it's too far unless I have a spare couple hours. I've no access to a car. Though I can sometimes telecommute, I don't like to work from home unless absolutely necessary. Other options are all public transit, subway/GO Train/bus/tram.

Bike: fun. Takes a while to travel 28 miles each way.
Mass transit: bus and light rail. Very very easy. Catch the bus 1000 feet from my house and arrive at work a little over an hr later.
Telecommute: boring. No socializing and working with a 3 year old is not easy. I reserve this option for a sick kid or bad weather.
Car: I would rather visit the dentist.

My only sensible option is driving. :eek:
Taking the bus or train would require at least two changes making my bus or train commute 2 to 2.5 hours. I can drive in 30-40 minutes and ride in 40-50 minutes.

It wasn't that there was a bus/bike link, (I've used the bus only twice since I bought the bike), it was that after six years of using the bus exclusively, I sort of forgot that other roads existed. I've lived in this city all my life and suddenly had to rely on maps again.

You know how we joke about being asked by cagers for directions, then replying with, "You cut through that plaza, turn left through the parking lot, then go down to the MUP and..."? Well, I used to give directions by bus route. I have a history of confusing lost cagers.