Does your job make commuting easier or harder?
 

I pretty much have the perfect scenario at work for commuting right now. Only 3 of my team of 7 is in Boise. Every single customer I serve is out of State. This means that I am almost never in a meeting that is not done via teleconference.

My current supervisor is also on the Boise team but works most days out of her 2nd business in Oregon.
In short, nobody really cares AT ALL if or when I show up at the office and when I do, odds are that I will be the only person on my team in the office.

This means that if I want to work my first couple of hours from home and then ride in later, I can do that (like today).

Of course, it also means that I can sit on my butt at home all day and never commute in if I want (trying to avoid that).

Does your job help or hinder your commute?

Uh...well it gives me a place to commute to. I guess that's a help.

I have a place for my bike and stuff so that's good. My lathe and mills and EDM machines aren't particularly interested how I get there, ultimately.

That's an awful lot like my situation. I work at a campus with about 8000 people, but every single person I actually work with on a day to day basis is at another site in Ontario. The bike ride in is one of my main reasons for coming into the office.

Very easy. I've got a parking garage, guarded, with bike parking. In fact, my bike is much more secure than it is at home (under a tarp, protected by a padlocked fence).

My work doesn't have an opinion on my commuting and I'm able to park my bike in my office.

Nice lockup and shower facilities. Just too far from home.

I'd be awesome if I could bring my bike indoors, and store it in or near my cube. If that was possible, I wouldn't have bought my last bike, and I'd commute in even more style and comfort.

But I don't have a set time I'm supposed to show up, and they don't care what clothes I have on, as long as I have clothes on. Plus I can keep a pair of street shoes under my desk. On the whole, I have it pretty good. Bike issues aside, it's a good job, too, and I like most of the people I work with.

They are pretty stiff about the "no bikes in the building" rule here too. At first I was frustrated by it and only rode my beaters. Now I take my wheels in with me and it gives me a little more comfort. We basically just have some standard aluminum racks hidden from any security cameras. The building is right next to the river path and lots of people can see our bikes from both the road and the greenbelt. Not the best security.

Last fall a bike was stolen and they said they could not get the footage of the theft because ....wait for it....a TREE had grown over the view of the camera. Are you freaking kidding me? How long does it take a tree to grow over the camera? Why they never thought it might be a good idea to move the camera or trim the tree is beyond me! It kind of makes me laugh.

My current commute to work is just shy of 3 miles each way, I have my own office so I park the bike inside with me, nobody cares but I'm also the only IT guy.

We bought a building and will be moving in a few months once the TI is complete, the new place will have a cube farm layout instead of seperate offices for everybody so I'll probably be parking my bike inside the (massive) server room. There's a bike rack anchored to a concrete wall on the outdoor patio at the new place with a security camera on it but I would still rather the bike be inside the building with me than have to hassle with locking it up every morning. The new place is about 1.5 miles each way so I'll be losing some mileage but I'm looking forward to it, just means I have more of an excuse to take a long route home.

Mine is very commute friendly. I store my bike in a stairwell, out of the way in an unused area - with plenty of room for more to ride to work! We have 1 womens and 1 mens shower, with 4 full lockers in each room, 3 hooks in a locker & a top shelf. Only a 10 1/4 mile ride to work. Longer on the way home, because I like it like that. Able to store food in my desk cabinets, and can store a 1/2 gallon of milk and 1/2 gallon of OJ in one of the many refridgerators, and any other small item, as long as it has my initials written on it, along with the date purchased.

My work definitely makes it easier. While I have a longish commute at 15miles each way. We have a shower, are able to park bikes at our desk. This year we started the Bike Commuter Tax Credit, so we get $20/month for bike related expenses. You can also save them up and spend it all at once. They are working on making a bike rack section in the parking garage. I've also started Bike Lunch Friday, which is exactly what it sounds. We ride to a lunch spot on fridays. We've had at max 14 people join us of our office of 70 people. A lot of people bring their bikes into the office just to join us on Friday even though they drive to work.

It doesn't make my job easier, but I get to leave a few minutes earlier to catch my train.

It definitely adds complexity to my7 home life though, since my wife and daughter don't ride - I often ride from downtown to my home after work, then turn around and drive a car back toward downtown with one of them.

Can't bring bike into building; no showers. Not exactly bike friendly, but I get by. At least the bike rack in the garage is fairly safe.

I started commuting by bike in 2006 because I had a long commute of 45 miles. It took almost 40 minute longer than driving since it involved two trains (High speed commuter, and light "snail rail") and a whopping two miles on the bike.

My current commute is 65 miles, but since I only have high speed commuter rail to a five mile ride, it is only 15-20 min more than driving. At my old job, I drove about 40% of the time. At this one I am aiming for 0%.

Two words: private change room with shower. Wait, that was 5 words.

Easier, no doubt. DoD compound so it's fully fenced w/ armed security force, cameras etc. Locker room w/ showers. The bike rack is more exposed to the weather than I'd like so I park my bke in a corner of the covered patio outside my window. The boss is fully supportive and wouldn't mind if I parked inside but my cube is a little small...and with security a non-issue there really isn't any need.

It really sucks that your bike was stolen at work and security wouldn't do anything about it.

I'm not all that concerned about theft - only a little. (People have been in the building where they shouldn't, and a few years ago some purses or something got stolen, so maybe I should be more concerned than I am.) But we have the same alu bike racks that you have, and when it's nice, there are a few other cyclists who use them. I've got a nice carbon bike, and my concern is that it will be damaged if I lock it up outside and walk away. I bought an aluminum bike to commute on for that reason.

200 square foot office gives me plenty of room for bike and gear. Shower available. 5 miles from home. Company truck to use during the day and, if something comes up and I can't ride home, I can take the truck home for the night. Got it pretty good.

The folks that I work with think that I'm CRAZY to commute to work on a bicycle...along Hwy 441 which is heavily traveled during the commute times. But the job itself allows me to commute on a bike, only 8 miles each way, my own office where I can park inside, or outside under the awning where my company (state) vehicle is parked. I have no issues with security as I work with the same dozen people every day and know them all to the curious about my recumbent high-racer bike, but not dishonest about it and we are well off the side of the highway. I have places to hang clothes, I have access to a shower if I need it, and me and the district manager are the only ones with keys to my office. They all make it very easy to commute on a bicycle! I have it good...

Tractor Tom in Okeechobee, FL

great posts. I forgot to mention that we (due to recent construction) have, not one..but TWO locker/shower rooms for each gender and a pretty decent gym. :). Minus the rack situation, I am feeling the love.

My situation is perfect. I live just about exactly 10 miles. To too far, not too close. I can take trails most of the way, or a few road routes that have hardly any traffic even during rush hour. The only somewhat busy street I deal with is the one my office is on and I have a little less than a mile of a 4-lane road with light to moderate traffic moving about 30-45. At work, there's a big storeroom where I leave my bike. There's even a roll-around clothes bar where some of the sales guys have always kept a dress shirt to throw on in case a client comes by the office. I keep 4-5 shirts hanging on there and a pair of jeans and spare underwear folded up on a shelf. We dont have showers, but I havent found that to be a problem if I start off clean, cool down for a minute when I arrive and towel off.

+1

In this economy I am thankful that I have someplace to commute to. Makes it very easy !

17.5 mile round trip, with hills to climb on the way home for exercise. Have a locker and shower access at work, so I can cruise in and shower up there. My boss knows it does my attitude good to be on the bike, so he does his best to facilitate my schedule. Only drawback is having to leave my bike outside, but hey, it's a CX bike and gets really dirty and muddy during cross season.

+2

I'm an artist and I commute to my studio. Besides biking shoes and any biking outerwear, I just ride in whatever painty clothes I have on. I don't worry about showing up sweaty or wet from rain, because it's just me in there, and I'm just painting anyway. I come and go as it pleases me. My studio is about 500 sq. ft. so there's plenty of room for my bike. I even have an area where I can comfortably work on a couple of bikes at once, leave out parts, tools and stuff, and not have it get in the way of my work. My studio is really my home away from home, and biking to work couldn't be easier. I'm fully aware that I don't have the obstacles or hoops to jump through in order to bike that many of you do. I tip my hat (or helmet) to you all!