frpax

Most buses here in the Phoenix area have racks on the front for bicycles. For some, that might be a good alternative. But for me, it's just faster (not to mention better for me) to ride my bike.

no1mad 

I have previously and may or may not in the future. Just kinda depends on where my next employer is located.

I do have an interview set for tomorrow that is 12 miles away, but there is no bus of any kind connecting these two towns at either end of a State Highway. If I have to rely on a taxi at any point, I'm estimating $25 for a one way trip- I could ride the bus all day long for a week and a half for that.

sinclac

Five days a week, i ride 6 miles catch the train and then ride 1 mile on the other end.
Then reverse in the afternoon.

CptjohnC

You must be much closer in that I am; my fare on the train is $5.20 each way :-/

bored117 

I am kind of forced into it as I have to go about 59 miles one way on a bike. (47 miles if driving)
It's wonderful though... I take about 35 miles of it on bike a day and rest on train Good for base building, etc.
One of these days, I hope I can ride back to home from work... just going through local trail where it is seedy is preventing me from it.

Mark Stone

My son goes to college in Phoenix, and when we go to visit him I look at the bicycle routes and bicycle culture in Phoenix and wish my poor little backward cow town of El Paso could do that . . . Yes, I'm jealous!

wernst

Get a folding bike. I have yet to hear of a transit authority that forbids their use on buses when properly folded.

-Warr

wernst

30-mile commute for me. Two trains each way.

Ride 1/4 mile to MetroLink station. Ride MetroLink two stops (12 minutes). Get off and ride about 3.75 miles to Green Line station. Fold up bike and board Green Line and take it about 25 minutes. Unfold bike and ride about 1/4 mile to office.

Reverse in the afternoon.

Total commute time: about 1:05. Drive would take 1:30 during rush hour, and cost me more than $3700 a year in gas. I save more than $3000 a year doing this, and it's way more pleasant too.

-Warr

JeremyZ

Wondermonkey - I actually have the opposite problem. I live about 1.7 miles away from the train station on the home end of my commute. On the work end, the station is only 0.7 miles away from work. I could drive it in slightly less time, but the commute is more stressful and expensive then. My workplace is 26 miles away from home.
What I've been doing the most of is biking to the station on the home side, locking up, take a 35 min
ute train ride, and walking the 0.7 miles on the other end. If the weather's bad on the work side, I can take a shuttle bus. But that walk kills me; It takes me about 15 minutes to do the walk, and I think that if I were riding, it would take about 3 minutes.

Last year, I had a bike on each end of the train, and that was A Beautiful Thing. That wound up being just as fast as driving, but with no tolls or gas expended. But I didn't have two good locks, so I left my Gary Fisher Simple city locked up overnight at this end with a thick cable and a heavy padlock. Turns out that was not a good enough lock for that bike, as someone stole it.

So now I'm back to walking on the work end.
One time last year, I rode the whole 26 miles, worked all day, then rode the 26 miles home. I can't remember a another day when I felt so good. At the end of the day, I came home and went to bed 2 hours early and felt good the next day too, even though I took the train and drove.

Another option I've been considering is to ride the 26 miles one day, leave the bike and take the train home, then I have a 40 minute walk home. The next day, I'd walk or get a ride to the train station in the morning, then ride home in the evening. Can you do something like this? Then you do the whole distance only once per day, instead of twice? That seems like a good compromise until you're ready to do the round trip wholely by bike.

Lastly, I could ride to a train station further from home, and extend my bike commute that way. But that feels like artificially boosting it, and for some reason, it just doesn't "feel right."

Keep us posted on what you do. Resurrect this thread from time to time.

stdlrf11

I bike 21 miles door-to-door to work. I ride the whole distance starting at 3am.
Bike 1-6 miles from work to the train, depending on which route and how much sight-seeing I want to do.
The train ride takes 30 minutes and covers about 10 miles.
Bike 5 miles from the train station to home in the afternoon.

scorch

lately i been using the bus to get a bit closer to my job. My job like yours is about 20ish miles away And i hate to ride in the morning. Not a morning guy, so i basically ride to the bus stop, put the bike on the rack and ride down for about 10 miles

then i have 10 miles to ride. i prefer it like this, the first 10 rides are on busy streets with tons of pretty long hills. so i much rather not do it. The bus rack works great, its cheap easy to use and there are never any bikes on the racks.

bmeate

i had the best commute ever... 6 miles down the expressway with buses stopping every 7.5 minutes. If i ever got a flat, just pull out my free school buspass and hitch a ride the rest of the way


although racing the bus is much funner than riding it