Im trying to commute every day and for the life of me....I just can't. Heck, im lucky if I can get 1 day a week in...and im just at a loss as how people do it on a regular basis.

For those of you who depend on your bikes, what happens when you've been up all night working on a project? You only get 3 hours of sleep...how do you get up in the am to ride 30-60 minutes?

What about when you get sick? You can't take every day off...eventually you'll have to stroll in to work ..possibly nursing a cough....how do you ride in?

What about if you've just had a rough couple of days and a bout of insomnia strolls into your life...then what?

What about just sheer exhaustion?

I mean the list goes on, of things that happen to us that can make it difficult to get up every day. Many of you will say, well, I'll take a few days off....or the wife will drive me...but I guess im directing this to those of you who depend on your bike for work. You have no wife, brother, sister, dad, mom, roomate, neighbour to give you a lift.

I just end up taking my car..but what about those who have no car? or public transport takes hours to get to work. I wish I could ride in everyday but the reality is I can't.

Thoughts?

**edit** I forgot to add weather problems...such as high winds, thunderstorms...that's what kept me off my bike today..the possibility of thunderstorms that never materialized.

Yes. I do take the bus maybe 5 times a year when it's really icy. My ride is only 3-4 miles though. if you pretend your other options don't exist, it's easier...

Most of the reasons you mentioned are also reasons people use to not exercise period. Exercise is my primary motivation for riding my bike (recent gas prices are just a bonus) so I just make myself do it.

If you get in the habit of riding, you don't really think about other options. Getting on the bike is just part of the morning routine. I'm not really who you're directing the question at, but it's not hard for me to imagine.

My guess is though that a lot of people who DO depend on their bikes have other options they can fall back on. I would think most people do regardless of how they get to work. When I commuted by car every day I had alternatives if my car was getting worked on.

Your questions seem to revolve around commuting while in a physically degraded condition, either because of exhaustion or illness. It's not that unusual for me to be up late working on a project, ride home at 2:00 or 3:00 am and then turn around and go back again at 7:45. Which leaves me 3 to 4 hours to sleep. Here's the secret: Getting out of bed sucks either way, but I'll be more alert if I ride to work than if I drive. And in my case, for most of the year I don't really save any time by driving. Winter is the exception.

As far as illness goes I'm just lucky I guess. I get colds and stuff, but it's rare that I have anything bad enough that will cause me to miss work. If I'm well enough to work, I'm well enough to ride. If I'm too sick to ride, I'm not going to get anything of value done at work and I'd be better off staying home in order to recover anyway. A cough isn't enough to keep me off the bike.

Usually for me commuting is no problem at least 4 days a week. I do drive on occasion more because of logistics than anything else. I'll have to pick up the kids, or need to be some place after work that I can't get to quickly enough on a bike.

Are you asking this question just out of curiosity or are you having trouble making commuting a habit yourself?

Strangely enough, I fall asleep driving on morning after I got little sleep the night before. I stay awake better riding my bike.

I just got over a really bad cold, congestion and cough. During that time, I had to drive to the dentist so I cannot commute by bike that day. I was totally stuff up and sneezing thoughout my drive. The day before and after, I notice my stuffy nose and congestion was better sniffing in fresh air on a bike than behind the steering wheel.

That's part of the fun
Edit: It's even more fun when coworker ask me "Did you ride in today in the rain?", and I nod a yes with a big smile while they grin.

I work 12 km from home, and commute most days. I have (once) walked to the subway, caught the subway, then walked to work, but that took as long as riding, cooling off, showering then work.

I can take a cab, and it isnt that expensive (25 RMB, about 2.5 Euros, USD$4) and it is very easy, if I leave at the same time, it also gets me to work early enough that I have lots of time to do some catching up. However, after work I have to walk a couple of km, and wait until a cab arrives, and in the rush hour traffic of a moderatly large Chinese city, that can be maddening, and on Fridays, horrible. I think it is worse because I know I can go faster than the stuck traffic!

I only catch the cab if there is no hot water in the school apartment, or if there is something I have to take with me that will not go on the bike.


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If I am too sick to ride, I am too sick to work. If I work when I am too sick to ride then I will just get worse and in the end do less work.

Yeah, but I could easily walk it so I guess it isn't absolutely necessary, but it saves me 30mins of walking. I calculated how much time that would save and it is one full day 24 hours per year. So I got an extra day that I can jib jab on bf.

If you want to stick with commuting, do it one day a week every week. Plan to let your commuter habit evolve. Plan to add another day after you've got a stretch of 1-day weeks under your belt.

If you get to enjoy it, you'll soon be aching to add another day... then another.

Hell... I sometimes get up on Saturday wishing I could head off to work.

I commute twenty miles round trip and it's one of my highlights of the day since I don't get much riding in besides that. I work to late to hit up all of the group rides put on by the bike shops around town. I've also got decent arsenal of bikes to ride so it never gets old. I try to change up my routes also. But I could ride the same route every day and still be happy. We were a two car family up until two months ago and sold our minivan to pay off some credit cards before I head back to school soon. Also I don't like leaving my wife and children home alone without a car so that also pushes me to commute. Also commuting stops me from going out for lunch which racks up pretty quick since there's McD's, BK and subway within driving distance. It just give me more money for spending on bikes is how I look at it. No gas money, lunch money, etc. It probably saves me easily $100 a month and now more with gas going up. I'm trying to get to that thirty minute mark to or from work which I should hit in a month or two. I'm at about thirty five minute mark now and that's with a 12spd 73 Raleigh Competition with tubulars. Yeah that's right...I commute on tubulars.

I'll take a day off if I'm feeling extremely sick, but that is rare. Or I might drive in if I plan on running some errands that require the car (this is about once a month now). I'm not car-free by any means, but it's not really difficult to ride every day of the week. Even if I don't get much sleep and feel a little out of it I perk up once I'm on the bike, and by the time I get to work and hit the shower I'm feeling great. Some days my legs are really tired and I feel a severe lack of energy especially in the afternoon, but I use it as an excuse to take it extra easy and I still end up enjoying the ride. Headwind of course totally sucks, but every other part about weather makes if fun. I live in Texas and wish it would rain here more often.

Im asking because I regularly suffer from insomnia. I don't understand it....and I am reluctant to go on sleeping pills...but by the time i get to bed....its usually time to get up to go for work...if I drive at least I am somewhat alert...if I bike it in, I am COMPLETELY exhausted.... so I just wonder how people do it when there are no other options. At least my option is to drive or get a ride from someone else.

What's your commute like?

My bike commutes have been between 3 and 8 miles and sometimes I ride, sometimes I take the bus, sometimes I drive. Check into the commuter benefits at your work place. Some employers have emergency ride home programs which reimburses employees for taxi or rental car in case of an emergency because it is something that can deter people from not driving to work.

i dont totally depend on mine. i have a car and bus card just in case something happens.

I sold my car about a year ago and my bike is the only option. My wife has to take the kids to school in the van so that is not an option. I got about a 22mile roundtrip for my commute and that includes the day and the night job. I find that the ride actually helps when im feeling a little sick but if it's really bad i would just catch the bus. My opinion may not count though because i do live in Hawaii. The weather is never really a problem.

last year my commute one-way was max 8 miles, and i did it because i had to. i think i took the bus a couple time for various reasons. this year, my commute is 3 miles and i rode every day through the winter. during our worst blizzard, i rode. when i feel like i'm coming down with something, i swear that riding alleviates it. but i am young and have no real responsibilities. it might be different if i had to endure late nights often.

A few thoughts. The first is that you're dealing with insomnia which is going to make a lot of things difficult that wouldn't be as bad otherwise. Are you more alert when you drive because of the big cup of joe you picked up on the way?

The second thing is that I think your premise may be flawed. I doubt that there are many car free or car light people who live in areas where there aren't alternatives to riding such as public transportation or even walking.

Finally, it's about mindset. If you've decided to go car free, you've considered (hopefully) how you'd deal with things like illness, fatigue and inclement weather. You're either in a situation where you've got some flexibility about when you get to work, you've got another way to get to work, and/or you're just going to ride come hell or high water.

For me it's a little of all three. It's extremely rare for me to decide not to ride due to weather. I have stayed at work a little late to avoid riding into the teeth of a bad storm. If I've worked really late one night, depending on what's going on the next day I might be able to come in later. I can always take a bus if I want or more likely, just cut my ride short by riding to the train station.

We had a lot more snow than normal this year. There were a few days where my usual route was either impassable or nearly so. I didn't drive on any of those days. I either walked to the train station (about a mile) or rode there. My office is another mile from the closest station so I'd have to walk another mile when the train ride was over.

I hesitate to be so blunt, but I just ride no matter what, and I think you should be able to do the same. Even if the weather sucks (i.e., always). Even if you're a little under the weather. (If I'm running a huge temp., I stay home to rest and to protect others; if it's just a cold I just ride slower.) Even if you've been up all night doing your grad school work like I have. Keep it in perspective; you're riding a bike, not fighting the Taliban, fer chrissakes.

I believe that commuting on a bicycle is easy to do, and almost anyone can do it. I also think getting regular exercise gives a person more energy and focus, not less.

To answer the original question, I depend on my bike to get to work because I don't own a car and there is no public transportation to my workplace. Even if there were public transportation, I'd probably bike anyway. I live in MA, and riding in New England snow and cold is quite doable, and enjoyable. My commute is 17 miles (34 R/T) and takes me about 1 hour 20 minutes, and I love it! it is the best part(s) of my day frankly. I don't get sick often-- knock on wood-- but maybe that's because I get regular exercise from riding to work. Actually, if I am not feeling well, going outside and getting on my bike actually seems to help.

My favorite part of the day is early morning before anyone else is on the road, save for another bicycle commuter I sometimes see when I'm about halfway to work.

Something doesn't make sense here. So you not getting enough sleep and yet you feel alert when driving ? But when you get on your bike it makes you exhausted ? I think it should be the other way around. Seriously if you have problems with insomia then go to your doctor and get some treatement. As for not riding in "bad" weather. whatever that means, you're just making excuses.

I depend on my bike for my commute but i do have a backup bike and if i must i have a car as a backup for my backup bike.

Exhaustion, late shifts and bad weather almost never stop me from riding my bike, i love to ride my bike so i try to ride it as much as possible. It's liberating, its good for the environment. it's fun to blast past traffic jams and good for my body so why not ride my bike?

I take the car only when i'm really ill or the weather is bad but if the weather is REALLY bad (lots of snowfall for example) i will be taking the bike again. Too afraid to crash the car

Get that biking mindset and ride your bike i would say! Once its a habit you will never look at your car again in the morning .

Just ride when you feel like riding. Try to enjoy it. Little by little it will become your preferred choice and the exceptions will become rare. Maybe it will even help with your insomnia.
I think that which ever commuting method one relies upon, one always has some kind of a back-up plan because nothing is bullet-proof (except kevlar). The bus-drivers go on a strike, your car doesn't start, the bike was stolen or you stepped on a land-mine

I started out as a fair weather commuter. After a while, I started taking more and more chances that it might not rain, because I enjoyed riding more than driving. After a while, I just rode anyway and found out I didn't melt and changing out of wet clothes didn't matter much at work. I have a nice place to dry my clothes in front of a fan though.

After a while I challenged myself to see if I could go a whole year without driving to work. My end goal was to sell my truck and go down to a one vehicle family. We did that last spring. It's been almost a year since I decided to sell my truck.

As for when I feel sick, if I'm too sick to ride I shouldn't be at work. Although I find that my illnesses are much less severe than when I wasn't biking every day. If I don't get enough sleep, I do better riding than driving. I feel more alert for most of the morning.

If you really want to ride instead of drive but lack the motivation in the morning, just make it harder to drive. Give your keys to a neighbor, freeze them in a block of ice, or make sure your car tires are so low you couldn't possibly drive without pumping them up. Anything that would make it inconvenient to drive.

I think you should see a doctor.

+1 This isn't a question about bike commuting, this is a question about insomnia. Thank bike commuting for flushing the problem out and magnifying it. Being in the health profession and having suffered from insomnia myself, I can tell you SLEEP is the important thing here and the necessary priority that all things are affected by. I too have a deep philosophy of not taking prescription meds, but if all natural remedies have failed, it becomes more important to take meds and SLEEP rather than upholding your philosophy and having insomnia.

Eventually you will not function at your job whether you bike to work or take a helicopter, it doesn't matter. You are stressing out your adrenal glands to the point of chronic fatigue. Agreed with chipcom. See a sleep specialist. In the meantime (when you get home) do not fight afternoon naps or just going to bed early evening if you feel exhausted. I missed the NCAA finals and couldn't care less because I was whupped. I cycled 50 miles (commute to work + errands, etc) and trained with a really hard upper body workout in the gym. If you get home and you feel tired - listen to your body and SLEEP then. So what if you wake up early. Worry about sleep rhythms later.

I used to have a 33-mile round-trip commute. I didn't do it everyday. I probably averaged 3 days per week. I would drive otherwise. I found that level of exercise to help me sleep at night. I also never get sleepy on the bike. I have fallen asleep driving, and don't want to risk that again.

My current commute is only 7 miles round-trip. I don't get enough exercise, and I've had problems getting up in the morning. I ride every day now. Yes, I have a wife, a car, there's a bus available, I could even walk if I had to, but I ride.

Reasons not to ride:

• Weather: I ride in anything
• Sick: Too sick, and I'll stay home
• Tired: I'd rather ride and wake up than drive and cause an accident
• Overslept: I guess I'll be late

I realize I probably have a shorter commute than many, so it makes it easier. Most days I can ride in my work clothes. For the distance I need to travel, bicycling is the easiest way.