Gas around here is $4/gal or more, but that had little to no bearing on whether I commute or not. Parking is $400/month in my building, and I can ride to work about as fast as I can drive, twice as fast as a bus, and 4+ times as fast as walking. Money and time are two of the main reasons I commute, and the fact that I love to ride is right there as well. If I lived close enough to work that I could walk there in 30 minutes or less, I wouldn't ride.

It looks like the straight answer makes me fit in with the majority, but it was really 2 of them equally. The recreation of it AND the gas savings. I live in rural America so some of these obviously didn't fit. At 50+ years old, I'm amazed at how many my age and younger are so much older than me! (does that make sense?) They are amazed at how I could do that. It's only 12 miles one way for pete's sake. I figure instead of 25 miles per gallon of gas, I get about 24 miles per cookie!!!

I ride for exercise, and because I don't want to put up with the hassle of driving and trying to park in downtown Seattle.

My young son lives on his own, has a poor paying job and just had a baby with his live-in girlfriend.

He was putting the squeeze on me for gas until it started to get to be a weekly pinch. Finally, I put the kabosh to that and gave him a three-speed so that he can commute to work. He knew better than to try to convince me that bicycling is not practical.

So now, despite the winter cold, he is bicycle commuting - not because he likes it, but because he cannot afford gasoline.

So, I can tell you that right here today in the USA is at least one person who is bicycling for the single reason that gasoline prices are to high for his family budget.

Commuting by bike doesn't save me any money. However, it does defray the cost of my cycling hobby.

Commuting by bike doesn't really save time. My drive is 20 minutes and my bike is 45 minutes. However, it does save me time if you consider that when I get home, I don't feel the need to go for an hour ride or disappear on my bike for 2 or 3 hours on weekends.

When i first started commuting to this job (8 years ago) i had the choice of a car, motorbike or bicycle.
The car quickly lost favour as it was at the mercy of the other traffic and as such was the most stressful way to travel.
The motorbike was equally frustrating, dodging through the traffic at low speed not being what it was designed for.
The bicycle soon became the vehicle of choice since i could go at my own speed, i could guarantee the journey time most days and it was keeping me fit.

If i was starting out now, though, the cost of driving would probably be the main push.

I voted "fun and recreation/excercise" because that is what keeps me coming back to the bike everyday. If it wasnt fun, then I would just "say screw the envirnment and gas cost, I am driving".

The main reason I commute by bicycle is exercise and overall fitness/health. It is just a bonus that it happens to be great adventure, a lot of fun, and that it makes me feel good. These days I feel slighted if my work schedule does not allow me to commute on bicycle!

I checked environmental reasons on your poll, but it's really a combination of factors for me -- the exercise, conserving gas, and the environment. To be honest, though, probably the biggest reason why I bike commute is simply because I like to ride. Saving money is probably the lowest priority for me because I spend enough on bike gear (clothes, parts, tires, etc.) to offset any savings from not buying gas. Bike commuting does help me justify some of my bike expenditures, however, which is good.

My main reason is health and mental stability. I stared because of my weight, diabetes, and high BP. It is still my main reason, but the mental health it gives me is amazing. My wife kick me out to ride when ever I go more than 3 days without a ride. It now is the highlight of most of my days.

Could you not have made this a multiple choice poll. I'd vote for all the above. All seem to be about equal in importance. Guess, I'd place number one to be congestion. Often I made it to work in just about the same amount of time, as if I had driven.

I started commuting because I was too lazy to drive, as a result of congestion and scarce parking. I've kept at it because it is fun and is the only way I can imagine getting any exercise.

I had a bike, but never rode it until congestion got me out of car commuting.

Paul

nothing puts me in a more foul mood than one hour of rush hour traffic.

Nothing puts me in a more foul mood than one hour of rush hour traffic, when I'm in a car.

When I'm in a car, the last third of my commute takes longer than the entire commute does when I'm on my bike.

There was no poll choice for "Because I love to ride my bike." So I chose congestion: gas really isn't that expensive but parking is.

Recreation and fun. However reduced environmental impact and gas savings are very important bonuses.

Al

i started bike commuting, hmmm lessee.... when i was about 7. Riding to school. Been commuting by bike for 23 years now, but for one ill-advised internship when i had to drive to work.

gas prices don't bother me too much. let em go up, say I! fewer cars on the road = more space for me on my bike!

It's just so much nicer than driving.
Then on days that I do have to drive in I don't feel as guilty, as if I've earned my driving time.
So many benefits to riding as stated above.

As others have pointed out, it's a great stress reliever. Co-workers have told me I look less stressed when I cycle in as apposed to driving in. Since I only comute 10 miles each way, gas ins't an issue. Besides, cycling takes me about 40 minutes, while driving takes about 30. Aside from that, cycling is HEALTHIER (that's not on your list)

I voted congestion but that is just part of the reason why I started to commute by bike. I noticed a while back that I was always upset, stressed out, and angry. I then noticed that I am more so when I drive because of the traffic and the countless clueless drivers. I’m already stressed out by work and some personal problems. Then the drive to work and home doesn’t help any because now I am in control of a killing machine and I can’t really use it. The best you can do in a car while stressed out is speed up, curse at others, and maybe honk your horn. But because of congestion, speeding up is not a great option and yelling and honking just makes it worse.

I used to play a lot of basketball and spend a lot of time with the heavy bag to decrease my stress levels. But because of the family, time constraints, bad back and lack of a heavy bag there is just no more outlet for me. Then I started to bike in to work and I noticed that I am much calmer and more at peace with my self. All that pent up energy and stress can be transferred to the pedals. I get the benefit of going as fast as I could and burning up excess energy. So I guess the primary reason is really exercise and stress relief from the everyday mess.

I say none of the above, but it really a combination of recreation, exercise and a bit of concern for the environment... all that coupled with something of a renegade spirit. (not wanting to be like the rest of the crowd.)

Before I moved to MD I would've said exercise and recreation - but that was in CA with a nice 20 mile path to commute home on. In Baltimore it's all about congestion since my ride is 3 miles round trip and there is nothing recreational about riding through Balto traffic.

I started from environmental concerns, after moving closer to work and first checking into the local bus. After realizing that the bus would turn a 10-minute by car commute into a 45-minute bus commute with a change in the middle, I turned to biking, which I hadn't done regularly for over 10 years. After I did it for a while, learned more about what I was doing, and discovered BikeForums, I became more passionate about it for its own sake. It's made me feel part of a real community of people, those who use bikes for transportation. We've been able to go from a 2-car to a 1-car family (of 4), not only saving money but also giving me the satisfaction of finding a way to live my convictions in a tangible way.

Learning to maintain the bike myself has also advanced my mechanical ability beyond what it was, and of course the fitness is a nice plus too. That was never my primary motivation, because I've always been skinny anyway, but being just over 40, it was certainly getting time that I paid more attention to it for other reasons! (I've ended up with high blood pressure anyway, but who knows, without biking it might be worse. It does run in my family.)

I just don't get the same high from driving as I do from cycling when all the oxygen-filled blood floods my brain...

I feel our (USA) dependance on foreign oil is the biggest threat facing our nation right now. Next to radical Islam. So I voted price.