"I ride solely to feel alive and to blow off steam on the way home"

5.5 miles = 20minutes ... perfect way to start & end the day

It takes me alot longer to get dressed with the proper clothing and then cycle into work than it would to simply drive in. It takes 20mins if I drive. Its an easy drive mostly rural and a short jaunt on the highway and right to the office, no parking fees and I have my own parking spot. But I choose to cycle for excercize and fitness and its more fun even though it takes over an hour each way to get dressed and go. Also my bride and I only have one car now and sometimes she needs it to run errands etc. so the bike comes in handy for me. So with that being said, its a whole lot harder to cycle than to drive but I really enjoy it and I get to spend my gas savings on bicycle upgrades and gear. I think I'm running a deficit right now! oops. I've got to figure a way to make this commuting a cost savings. LOL.

Faster and easier to drive; more fun to bike.

If I didn't bike I'd take the bus, but that would overall take longer, especially on my downhill ride home.

Riding is good for my body and mind. The same commute via automobile is bad for the mind.

I don't have a car by choice. I use my bike all year long to do pretty much everything I need, including long distance travelling.

>> It's more convenient/safe for me to go to work by other means, but I choose bike.

Closest to what my situation is, but must be qualified. Safety is not an issue, my route to work is safe. It is also a mile longer that the direct route, which is less safe.

Also, I drive seven miles to a train station, take my bike out of the car and put it on a train for a fifty mile trip to where the ride to work starts. Less convenient in that riding the train/bike takes an extra half hour than driving in the morning. More convenient in that I get to rest on the train as opposed to driving. More convenient in that sometimes afternoon traffic actually makes the train/bike faster than driving.

CommuteCommando, so you are "train+bike > car" (actually the advantages you mentioned were from the train rather than bike )

Commute by bike because - I want to. It is not more convenient, faster, cheaper, exercise, safer, etc.
Bike commute as it pleases me to travel by bike.

not necessary at all.

i have a car, but biking brings joy to an otherwise monotonous workweek of boring nonsense, its good for you and all the other things people have said 50 times before

45-60 min bike ride > 15-30 min car ride in traffic

I don't really know how to answer this poll. I've just always commuted by bike to every job I've had since I was 15 years old. I'm now 58 and still commuting by bike to work. I have other options. Plenty of buses where I live, even a train and a highway that would take me right downtown. But the bike is cheaper often as fast or faster than any other means, keeps me fit, saves me buying a second car- my wife uses the car much more than I do so it's basically her car, which I get to drive once in a while.

A colleague of mine at work lives 1/2 mile from me and the college we are at subsidizes his parking to the tune of $200/ month- he pays another $180/ month on top of that! I get a nice beautiful bike room with assigned parking but I sure would love them to give me $200 to ride my bike in every month- I'd even take half that-$100/month. But that subsidy for driving a car seems ridiculous to me. Our culture is warped. The enticements to drive are highly seductive and the obstacles to biking are often demoralizing.

Quite necessary since on my current salary level it could quite hurt me a bit taking public transpo everyday. My other consideration is time-usage; doing nothing worthy inside the train for 2.5 hours, vs burning fats and keeping my body fit while on the bike (1 hour and 15mins).


Also, the city where i live in doesn't have bike-lanes.
So it's quite fun and challenging to get to and back from work in one piece, riding beside 40-70kph cars and recklessly-driven buses. (i need all adrenaline rush i can get after 8 hours of being stuck behind a computer dealing with codes)

If I include the time it takes to change out of /into my cycling clothes at work, it's about 15-20 minutes faster for me to take the Metro to work rather than cycle. But avoiding the rush hour crowds on the Metro, and saving the fare, is worth the extra time to me.

Why change clothes? Pedal a bit more slowly (I average 14mph), wear normal work shoes, wear work trousers (wool slacks), only concession is a wind stopper/rain jacket - admittedly I don't cycle in heavy rain.

Because I sweat a lot in summer and I have less than 30 minutes on some days to get from one place of work to another (up to 3 in any given day). Going slow is not an option. Neither is working is sweaty clothes.

I save $ 15 per day in parking alone. That is not figuring in the convenience and time saving of a bicycle.

Riding is completely by choice, but then so would be driving or taking the train.

It's slightly faster for me to ride during fair weather months. It takes longer to ride in the winter, especially when you factor in the amount of time it takes to get ready.

I am more concerned about my safety while riding than driving but that is easily offset by the health benefits I get via the exercise.

Because I have a 15 mile one way commute and even going relatively slow I still end up sweating quite a bit. And that's when it's not hot enough to make me sweat buckets - by the time mid-April comes around it'll be simply too hot to ride in work clothes.

I guess this is an advantage of the UK where temperature in the early morning is unlikely to go north of 15~20 oC and must average around 8~10 oC. A merino base seems to work on controlling perspiration. The ride to work ~20 miles ~ I arrive OK with little problem with sweat, the evening ride back - warmer, more pollution results in needing a change for the evening.

If I don't ride my bike, my only other commute options are to:
a) walk 5 miles
b) catch a ride with someone, if they are nearby/can get to campus on time/etc.

Basically, there are too many 'if's to getting a ride with friends, and I don't have a drivers license (I'm working on it), so commuting by bike is my only good option. Plus, it's too much fun.

Work is only about 2km away. I can walk it in 20 minutes or bike it in 10. That extra 10 minutes isn't really enough to justify the hassle of dragging my bike down 4 flights of stairs and locking it up in the maintenance room at the school I work at, but I like riding my bike and some weeks, I won't ride if it's not just to school and back. Kind of sad. I wish I had more opportunities to really use my bike. Things in this country are spaced pretty close to each other unlike the US where I had more chances to use a bike instead of a car. Bummer.

Driving my car is definitely the most convenient and quickest. But I have found recently that the less I drive a car the more exasperating it is when I do. Tailgaters and red lights, neither of which I have to put up with on the bicycle, are just a couple of problems.

A city bus stops is right outside my door at home. I could get off the bus about a half mile from work. Hassling with change and standing around seem to me to be less convenient that taking the bicycle to work. Maybe the bus is safer? Some day I may try it to see how it goes. I just can't think of a reason to.

I travel 12 miles, it takes 45 - 55 minutes by bike, and 30-45 minutes by car (depending on traffic), in part because I haven't shelled out $300 for a parking pass, so I have to poach a parking spot in a shopping center and walk in 10 minutes. A parking pass would cut 6 or 7 minutes off that time.

I could drive, but I've never been on the bike and thought, "Gee, I wish I'd taken the car today". I have, plenty of times, been in the car wishing I was on the bike.

There is also a bus option, though to be competitive, it's a bus/bike hybrid. Straight buses are over 1.5 hours travel time, plus timing arrival slots. With the bus-bike, it's about 55 minutes, or the same as bike alone. I do have a free bus pass, so the cost is identical, the only significant difference being timing the pickup and more roads/cars on the route.

If I didn't ride when it rains, I'd almost never ride! Not showering isn't an option for me, my commute is hilly = sweaty.

I chose to bike because its more practical, saves money, give me a reliable transportation, exercise, and i only use the family car a few times a years, plus i don't like to drive.