xtrajack

I started in '81, care free for ~5yrs then, dropped it for a while. Started again in'08, 3-5 days a week, year round.

Rode into a parke car once. I thought I had gotten doored.
I almost turned left in front of a car twice.
Gone down due to ice, a number of times. I was using studs-they help, but, they are not magic. Physics still rules.

I took a header over the bars once--I didn't think the truck behind me was going to slow down, or move over due to oncoming traffic. I decided to give up my lane position and took the shoulder, which had been frozen the day before, I had no idea an Xtracycle could or would stop that fast.

tim24k

I got the commuting bug seven years ago.

Bike Gremlin

Since I got my first job - 1999.

alan s 

On and off since I learned to ride a bike at age four.

downtube42

I said 'nothing memorable' in my post. Because concussions do that I suppose. Black ice got me once, regular ice proved my homemade studded tires were ineffective once. Nothing else memorable that I remember.

spare_wheel

Did none of you commute as children? In the states I road my bike to middle and high school for a big chunk of the school year.

cat

Good point, I commuted between campus and downtown for work in the early 90s and rode to school from elementary through high school.

wolfchild

I became full-time bike commuter in Aug. 2007, so it's been a little over 6 years now.

Sixty Fiver

I was a full time bike commuter from the age of 6 to 20, drove extensively through my 20's and early 30's and then became car light until I was 40... then I went car free.

After 6 years of being car free we got a used car to take longer road trips with and to shuttle the little ones over distances that do not work well by bike... it has been cheaper than renting a car when we need one.

Mr. Hairy Legs

Yes, in grade 6 and 7 I commuted on a Norco Spitfire BMX.

jeffpoulin

If you mean to work and back, then it's been since I started working in 1991. If school counts too, then it's been since 1977.

tsl

Yes, but I didn't think something I did 40 and 50 years ago was pertinent to the discussion.

mustridebikes

I've been commuting since college, which would be about 7 years ago now. Gee, feeling old as I look at the date on my degree!

vol

Curiosity: does "commuting" apply only to going to one's job (paid or volunteering), or also include, say, students' going to school? or even a patient going to see his doctor on regular basis (whatever crazy illness it may be that may require him to see doctor on weekly basis, say)? or going to an entertainment regularly, etc...? I know regularity is one key feature of "commuting", but does it have to be exclusively for work?

CaptCarrot

For about 5 years I went everywhere by bike. Then I learn's to drive. - that was 10 years ago. I am only just getting back into using my bike as a serious mode of transport.

I am fair weather at the moment, am in the process of sorting out a helmet and once I have sorted out my wet weather gear I will get serious serious again

Back to when I was commuting years ago, I got knocked off my bike once. I was cycling down a main road when a lady pulled out of a side road. She was blinded by low sun and didn't see me. I was on crutches for a couple of weeks, but nothing broken.

I claimed off her insurance and got £600 for damages to clothing, my bike and loss of earnings.

tsl

Well, according to the dictionary,

and


The term is frequently expanded to include school, as in "commuter college". I've seen it applied to volunteering, when it's a regular thing. A one-shot volunteer gig or something irregular wouldn't necessarily apply. Both dictionaries cited require regularity.

You'll also note on the "commute" definition page at Dictionary.com under "Relevant Questions" are

• How To Convert a Bike For Commuting
• How To Choose a Bicycle For Commuting

noglider 

I guess since I started a bike mechanic job in senior year in high school, which was in 1978. So that was 35 years ago. I haven't commuted on bike to every job I've had, but I've been using bikes as transport to varying degrees.

KGood

Started commuting this summer. Only one collision with a opossum on a dark country road but no collisions with automobiles or cars thankfully. Had a very close call with a car coming at me head on. He made a left turn off the state highway as I waited at the stop sign left of him and he skidded to a stop inches from my front wheel.

vol

According to freedictionary, the first definition of "commute" is:

"1. To travel as a commuter."

The first definition of "commuter" is:

"1. a person who commutes, esp. between home and work."

No wonder it's free.

cyka37

(vol) I was referring to consistent use of your bicycle for a majority of your travels.

tsl

Yup.

You could have chosen to hire a researcher, but instead, you chose to ask for free.

Don't be upset if you got what you paid for.

irwin7638

I don't know exactly when I started, Nixon was president, I remember that, so it must be more than 40. I've been hit by two cars. One a woman at a stop sign, looked both ways down the street where I had right of way, waited a minute until I was directly in front of her, looked straight at me and accelerated. She drove 1/2 a city block with me on her hood and dragging my bike beneath her. The other was a minor contact when an old man turned into his driveway, just touched me, then realized what he'd done and stopped.

Marc

PennyTheDog

You've had one flat in your last 1,550 commutes?! That's totally amazing! How often do you change tires? This gives your tire advice in the studded tire thread a lot more support!

dscheidt

If the drivers in Novi Sad are like they are in the rest of your country, you're a brave, brave man.

tsl

Look closely. I flatted once on the way to work.

Except for that one, all the rest seem to be on the way home or on non-commuting rides.

In the other thread I say something to the effect of going eight to ten weeks between flats on the three-seasons tires. So that's three or four flats a year in the three-seasons. (Which still isn't so bad spread across four bikes and 5,000 miles a year.)

Still, I've never flatted a studded snow tire. Yet. The flat gods will now take their revenge…