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-   -   How much time a week is devoted to commuting? (https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/684602-how-much-time-week-devoted-commuting.html)

Drew Eckhardt 10-01-10 07:31 PM


Originally Posted by WalksOn2Wheels (Post 11553794)
I just got going myself, but I easily spent 2 to 2 and a half hours each day I commute just between riding and showering. However, I think it's worth it. Being off and on the bike every other season, it's hard for me to find regular times to ride. Commuting sort of kills two birds with one stone.

90-110 minutes a day which is currently 6-7 hours a week.


But at what point would you just say forget it and drive to work rather than ride?
There are other options I've used in the past. While owning real estate I just didn't apply for jobs that weren't a comfortable biking distance away. After selling near the market peak and becoming a renter I just move.

tligman 10-01-10 10:57 PM


Originally Posted by Kojak (Post 11553833)
How much time a week is devoted to commuting?

Not enough. :) I'd feel different if I drove.

+1

on the other hand, my commute is about 6 minutes in the morning and about 15 in the afternoon :)

tjspiel 10-01-10 11:31 PM

I chose to live relatively close to work. I didn't want to spend my life on the road, either in a car or on a bike. Right now it's about an 50 minutes to an hour each day. Some times I take the long way to get a little extra training in.

Winter adds a good 10 to 15 minutes each way plus additional prep time. That's about my limit. If I lived further away, I might go multi-modal or just choose to ride once a week.

Don't get me wrong. I like to ride but I don't want to set aside much more time to bike than I already do at this point in my life. If I do some non commuting rides I prefer to do them with other people and make it at least partially a social outing.

macteacher 10-01-10 11:32 PM

I don't understand how some of you are able to ride to work in your work clothes.

Mine is 30 minutes and im drenched. In fact, im sweating by the 10 minute mark..and it doesn't matter how 'slow' i go, or how few layers i wear..i sweat. I envy people who don't...but it still perplexes me

jeffpoulin 10-01-10 11:34 PM

I spend between 3 and 4 hours/day riding my bike to work and back, or roughly 18 hours/week. In the winter, or on really bad weather days, I multi-mode commute (bike + train) which drops the biking time to around 1.5 to 2.5 hours depending on whether I take the train both ways or just one way.

tjspiel 10-01-10 11:42 PM


Originally Posted by macteacher (Post 11557425)
I don't understand how some of you are able to ride to work in your work clothes.

Mine is 30 minutes and im drenched. In fact, im sweating by the 10 minute mark..and it doesn't matter how 'slow' i go, or how few layers i wear..i sweat. I envy people who don't...but it still perplexes me

I used to ride in work clothes but I'd only go on days when it wasn't too hot and I'd take it a bit easier in the morning. I'd sweat a little but I wouldn't be drenched. On a hot day, I'm going to be sweating by the time I walk from the parking lot to the office anyway.

Now I shower/change when I get to work and I ride as hard as I want. It doesn't really add much extra time. I just shower at work instead of at home before I leave.

AdamDZ 10-02-10 10:30 AM


Originally Posted by colleen c (Post 11554290)
I don't consider my ride time as a commute time anymore. If I was driving then the drive is commuting time. The ride on my bicycle is part of my recreation time since I would have rode my bike after I got home on days that I drove. That amount of time I ride would have been the same as if I rode my bike to work.

Excellent point, I missed your post before :( Totally agree. Time on a bus or train is time wasted for me, not true when on a bike.

Adam

1242Vintage 10-02-10 11:03 AM

I live far from work so my commute is a bit long, 22 to 25 miles each way depending on the route. Takes 1-1/2 hours each way.

The alternative to the bike is to take the bus for a one-hour ride to work.

I would rather spend the extra time on my bike and get a workout, rather than sitting on the bus.

I'm very fortunate to have a bike locker right outside my office building to store my ride and a full locker room with showers in the basement of my office. Only takes about 15 minutes to get cleaned up after a ride and ready for work. That's about the same time it takes me at home to get ready for work on the days I ride the bus.

TamaraEden 10-02-10 11:19 AM

Mine is about the same and I'm still lazy about it and won't do it when it's hot :). Is 1.5 miles even a commute ;) ?

Originally Posted by tligman (Post 11557320)
+1

on the other hand, my commute is about 6 minutes in the morning and about 15 in the afternoon :)


Maxxxie 10-02-10 11:40 PM

I have a mixed mode commute: home-bike-train-bike-work. I leave home at 0500 and arrive at work at 0715. So 4.5 hours is taken out of each day for commuting. I do this 2 or 3 times a week. But as others have said, I don't regard it as time spent transporting myself to/from work. I see it as a great opportunity to spend more time with my bike :D

Max

CptjohnC 10-04-10 12:09 AM


Originally Posted by mustang1 (Post 11555221)
Benefits of commuting by bike are the fitness. Benefits of commuting by train is I get to read a book. Both are important things to me.

This is one of the reasons I like my multi-modal commute; I get to do both :)

I realized that I didn't answer the actual time question originally posed; my total daily commute at present is about 2.75 hours. I spend about 45 minutes in the car (getting daughter to school and then getting car back home at the close of the workday). I spend about 1 hour on the bike (riding from school to metro and back) and 1 hour on the train.

This post made me look into what the distance would be if I ride all the way in, and skip the train, and I just determined that I think the total would stay the same. I plan to try it on Tuesday or Wednesday, just to see.

ilynne 10-04-10 07:30 AM


Originally Posted by Kojak (Post 11553833)
How much time a week is devoted to commuting?

Not enough. :) I'd feel different if I drove.


Originally Posted by colleen c (Post 11554290)
I don't consider my ride time as a commute time anymore. If I was driving then the drive is commuting time. The ride on my bicycle is part of my recreation time since I would have rode my bike after I got home on days that I drove. That amount of time I ride would have been the same as if I rode my bike to work.

Same. I only "commute" a mile each way. I go home for lunch, just to ride a little more. When I lived on the other side of the bay, I never considered riding a bicycle. Basically thought it was much too far. I look at what my commute would have been now and kick myself. I could have been riding 40 miles a day!

I hated every minute that I was locked in that cage when I drove. I love the bike ride so much that I wish it was much longer.

agarose2000 10-04-10 07:34 AM

2-3x per week for me, 36 miles round trip. Takes 2 hours, and it's a great workout. Unfortunately, takes about 45 minutes longer than if I did it by car, since traffic isn't so bad around here during my work leave hours.

ghettocruiser 10-04-10 07:39 AM

5 hrs.

Typically save about 10 minutes a day vs driving (including bike prep. and getting changed).

More time savings in bad weather (i.e bad traffic).

scroca 10-04-10 07:51 AM

Between 6 hrs and 8 hrs of riding depending on the routes I take and the weather. It takes considerably longer in the winter to travel a given distance; 55 minutes in the winter versus 35 minutes for the same route in the summer.

noglider 10-04-10 09:44 AM

I spend a negative amount of time commuting.

How is that?

I figure that the time it takes to drive plus the time it takes to exercise at the gym is greater than the time it takes to cycle to the workplace. So by traveling by bike and with the freedom from dedicated workout time, I'm saving time!

benda18 10-04-10 10:48 AM

20 hours per week.

i live about 40 miles from work. i bike an hour to a bus stop and take the bus another hour to work. reverse that for the way home. multiply that by 5 days per week.

Steely Dan 10-04-10 10:50 AM

i do not own a car, so drive time is out of the equation for me. my commute times by various modes:

by bike: 45-50 minutes on my titanium road rocket, my other bikes are slower, but they're only for inclement weather.

by train: 50-55 minutes door to door once walking to/from stations is included.

by kayak: 10 minute bus ride to put-in, 20 minutes to set-up my boat, 165 minutes on the water, 20 minutes to break down my boat, 2 minute elevator ride from the marina level dock up to my condo.



when i kayak commute (which is only about twice a month), it's only a one-way trip home from work because it would just take to much time to kayak up to work in the morning, i'd have to wake up at 4 in the morning to make it in on time, which ain't never gonna happen (i take my kayak with me on the train for the morning leg). so all things considered, biking is my fastest way to get to and from work and if i bike commute all 5 days in a given week, that means i'm spending 7.5 - 8.3 hours commuting by bike that week.

hubcap 10-04-10 11:28 AM

Pretty much 3.5 hrs per day minimum. Each leg of the commute is bike-train-bike. I do it every work day (5 days a week). So that is about 18 hrs or so a week. By car, my commute would take me 2 hrs per day, or 10 hrs per week. So I have invested 8 hrs a week to get execise, stress reduction, reading time on the train, and cost savings.

dwilbur3 10-04-10 03:34 PM

My commute is 40-50 minutes (depending mostly on the wind) each way. Add in about 10 minutes to change clothes and get the stuff on and off my bike. So between 1.5 and 2 hours a day. That's comparable to the time it would take by bus or shuttle.

The drive would be about an hour round trip. And that's only if I'm willing to pay $100 a month for parking. If I want to cut that to $40 a month, I won't save any time by driving either. Figure in the time cost of a 45 - 60 minute exercise program and I'm way ahead on time.

That said, I wouldn't want my ride to be much longer than it already is. (Especially in lousy weather!)

velosprinter 10-04-10 05:03 PM

Just under 2 hours a day, 600 miles a month towing 3 kids. I never have to find parking only takes seconds to load the crew and everyone benefits from the ride. In the car it is nothing but a scream fest. I will take the tranquility of the bike any day.
I can change in about the same time it takes most people to use the bathroom and that has sort of cast me as this Clark Kent guy.


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