Meeting People on your commute?
 

Ever meet random people on your commute? I live in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada and I met this commuter on my way to work....had a cool conversation.

A couple days later I ran into the same person on the way home. It was great having someone to chit chat with on the way home. I wonder if i'll run into this person again.

Do you ever run into people? Good/Bad experiences?

I've been commuting for almost 6 years now ,also in mississauga, ontario. My experience has been that it's very rare to meet other commuters or cyclists who actually want to slow down , stop, and have a conversation. Every time I see another commuter or cyclist they are just rushing along and have no interest in making any contact. Most of them won't even make eye contact or look in my direction. Few weeks ago I was going shopping on saturday morning and this roadie in full kit pulled up alongside me and we rode along and chatted for about 15 minutes, I was very surprised because most roadies don't do that.

I have. I have met a cool guy who rides early in the morning when I ride. Sometimes we stop and talk, sometimes we do not.

Same with a walker. A bigger guy who walks early in the morning. Sometimes we stop and talk, sometimes not. But we always say hi.

I meet more people at a stoplight. But same experience with the above post. Some want to talk, some not. I am the same way at times.

I enjoy meeting others who commute.

I do know everyone at work who commutes and we always check up on each other.

With ~80k commuting miles over 22 years, I can count the number of times on one hand here in the Twin Cities. My routes don't seem conducive to meeting other commuters traveling the same directions and speeds, etc. The two or three encounters over the years have been fun, leaving me energized after swapping stories. "I'm not the only idiot out here!!!"

On one route a couple of years ago, I came across an older fellow I regularly meet on one stretch. His bike was parked in the ditch and he was searching the road for something. I stopped and found out his derailleur had exploded and he was looking for pieces. :-) We spent fifteen minutes and found most of them. We had a good conversation and I expected we'd be greeting each other after that, since he said he knew who I was by sight. Nope. He looks straight ahead each time with no acknowledgement. So it goes... :-)

I met a couple of girls pushing their bikes up a gravel hill on my way home last week. It's the first time I ever saw anybody riding the same direction I was going, but I just said "Hi" and kept going. They probably weren't commuters, but were out for a fun ride or for exercise, or both.

I live on my own and am always striking up a conversation with folks along my commute. Most are downright friendly. I'm always amazed how bicycle people seems to be the friendly ones. I guess they are adventurous and outgoing. Whereas someone who likes to hide inside a metal cage is basically admitting they are terrified of the natural environment, and the things that they might encounter if they didn't have their protective barrier.

Feeling your sanctimonious electrons sparking today? Good grief, do you have many "friendly" conversations like that with the other commuters you meet?

I see two or three other regular commuters most days, but they are going the opposite way. I ride towards the outskirts of town in the morning, they ride into town. Sometimes I see them on the ride home in the afternoon too. We usually exchange waves.

I also see a guy who walks regularly and we wave to each other. I did stop to talk to him once when there was a road killed deer along the road in his neighborhood.

I have met a couple people; definitely fun to have someone to yak and ride with. There have been other opposite-direction folks I have a nodding relationship with. Also fun. I have wondered where some of them have dropped off to. It hadn't occurred to me until just now to wonder if any of them wonder about me dropping out since August. Maybe they'll tell me when I'm back in the saddle later on.

I guess here in NYC, especially here in Brooklyn, I talk to a lot of other commuters. There's usually a migration towards the Manhattan bridge where there's a steady stream of riders, and then on 1st Avenue in Manhattan. By the time I reach 42nd St uptown most riders have turned off. There are plenty of opportunities and some people are willing to chat while they ride, or at least while stopped, others not so much. I'll occasionally start or try to start a conversation, and I'm always willing to respond. A lot of people talk to me at night about my light. It is one of these cheap flashlights that is brighter than anything else out there that I keep on strobe. It gets everybody's attention. A few weeks ago a really cute girl rode up to me and said in a Scandinavian accent "you could have a party with that light". So yes, I do meet people on my commute.

Over the last few years, I kept running into a dude within a few miles of my house in various places on my routes. We had talked about our bikes and such (riding a mini-velo and using a kitty-litter pannier will do this). Completely unrelated, my wife and kids met his wife and kid at the park a few months ago. The wives and I put 2 and 2 together and we were formally introduced, but it turns out we already knew each other. We took our sons our sons to the park on their balance bikes today. :)

Other than that, using a kitty-litter bucket for a pannier really brings it out of people. Everyone has to say SOMETHING about it.

Once I pulled up to an old fella who was in full kit on road bike and we drove along for about a mile chatting about TdeF that was going on at the time. It was nice.

I meet people all the time, especially when riding the TRE train home every day. Its nice to be able to chat with everyone from all walks of life. In the same day I can talk to a man with a beat up walmart bike, two guys on unicycles, and a roadie in full kit.

I meet people all the time here in Portland, Or. I get passed - I pass - I catch up - get caught up - etc all the time and I usually try and strike up a conversation with people that are of similar pace. I've ridden miles with some of these people and it sure makes the ride short.

I've chatted with a few and have made one good friend along my commute. Ran into a guy a few times and started talking. Shares 90% of my commute. We've hung out a few times and done a couple rides including a century together. Most people I encounter won't even look at me or just pass really close without making a word. I try to say hi to everyone.

I don't start work until early afternoon, so I don't see any commuters at that time, or when I come home for that matter.

In fair weather, I take a long loop to work which includes roughly nine miles of the Erie Canalway MUP. I see the same lunchtime riders over and over, and the occasional retiree. If they're going my way, I've talked with most of them. Coming the other direction, we only wave.

I generally leave 20-30 minutes early to have some extra conversation time en route. The Canalway is part of Adventure Cycling's Northern Tier Route, which runs across the continent from the Pacific Ocean in Washington to the Atlantic in Maine. I run into touring riders nearly every day. Some days, up to three or four groups. Mostly, they're riding west to east--opposite of my direction--so I turn around and ride with them a bit to find out where they're coming from and where they're going to. I get asked about good lunch stops a lot. After a couple of miles, I turn around and head back to work.

My commute includes a 10 minute ferry ride across the main river in Shanghai, as bikes are not permitted on the bridges over the Huangpu River or in tunnels under it. Every so often a local will be interested in my bike (which is admittedly quite a bit flashier than the junkers most people commute on here) and will ask me questions about it. But that's about it.

I rarely ever encounter other cyclists on my commute, and when I do, they are usually going other directions. In fact, I have had more conversations with motorists than cyclists on my commutes. Sometimes drivers will start talking to me when we're waiting at red lights.

There's a popular cycling/pedestrian bridge over fairly busy stretch of road that's been closed off and on over the last few months. Whenever it's closed large clumps of cyclists will often congregate on either side of the road waiting the the light to change.

You might think it would be a good place to strike up a conversation and I suppose it is, but I typically don't and neither do other people. On the one hand that seems kind of strange but if you look at it another way it's perfectly normal. Large groups of pedestrians waiting for a light don't often strike up conversations with strangers either.

I'm not anti-social but all too often my work days are filled with back to back meetings. My commute is a way to unwind and I'm really not looking for conversation. On my commute I do run into some people I ride with recreationally every now and then. I'll talk a while with them, but that's about it and that's OK.