vol

Occasionally you can't or don't feel like riding to work (weather, health, bike failure/loss...). How do you go to work, then, usually? (This is a poll)

Also (not in the poll), what's the degree of your unhappiness when you have to use other means to commute than bike? e.g. I'm very unhappy to take the smelly, dirty, crowded subway that is not only unreliable (schedule-wise) but also sometimes dangerous.

devianb

I drive. Since I like driving as much as I like cycling it is a win win situation for me. If I had to take the bus again I would be quite unhappy. Public transportation was the reason I started commuting to work all the time.

PatrickGSR94

Driving for me. I like driving also, but I hate having to fill up gas in my car more than twice a month, so when I have to drive instead of cycle to work it still makes me sad. Even more so when I have to run an errand 1/2 mile or 1 mile from the office and have to use my car for that, when a bike would have been just as easy and even more gas saved.

Fishmonger

I only don't ride when the weather is so bad that it's dangerous (fog, ice, or heavy snow), and in those cases I jog to work. It's only 4 miles each way, so it's not a big issue, and I can pick my route carefully.

Giant Doofus

I drive when I can't ride. I don't mind the drive so much, but absolutely hate the search for a parking spot on my college campus at the end of the drive. The nice thing when I ride is that I pull the bike right into my building! Although driving doesn't make me unhappy, riding makes me positively happy. I arrive feeling energized. Driving, not so much.

mstraus

If I don't ride I take the bus. The bus is right by where I live but a 10-15 minute walk from my office. I either walk that or I joined the local bike share so if I prefer I can do a short ride from bus almost to the office. Sometimes I have taken the bus and gotten off a much earlier stop and rode the bike share bike.

Degree on unhappiness varies depending on why I am on the bus, the weather outside, how much sleep I had, etc. I generally feel better and am happier when I ride, but if I am not feeling well, sleep deprived, etc that may cancel that factor out. On the bus I have the option of getting a quick nap, reading, doing some work, etc that I can't do while riding, so some days that is a factor. My goal is generally to bike 4 days a week but there are to many weeks that doesn't happen, particularly recently.

downwinded

While I certainly enjoy the ride in the morning, it's the ride home I miss the most. I don't "decompress" in the car. On the bike, work is left far behind in very short order.

fietsbob

Disability/Unemployment/retirement






so I can sit around taking silly Polls..

Squeeze

When the weather's nice, I'm usually mentally on the bike before I've left my desk.

When it's not, I commute in a 15-year-old Honda Accord with 203,000 miles on it, and snow tires until April.

Jim from Boston

Bike ~ 60%, car~ 30%, Train ~ 10% going to work; going home, if not driving, I take the train with bike, except I do the round trip (14 miles one way) on Saturdays.

Unhappiness: Car>>>>Train>>Bike.

gerv 

No car here. I take the bus.

walrus1

Like most NYC residents I don't own a car and as a student the price of cabs really hurts. Plus as a cyclist I'm scared to death of them! In Brooklyn even with the SBS the buses are often horrible on the best of days throw in some snow or weather so foul their almost as slow as simply standing still. So walking and subway for me.

Matariki

I generally commute by bike 99% of the time. The few occasions when it's impossible to cycle, I walk into work. I don't have a parking pass for work and so I would either have to pay or risk a ticket. That's motivation to leave my truck at home.

megalowmatt

Drive

Jiggle

I'm one of those people who won't take public transportation unless there is no other option, and even then I'll try to avoid it. So I drive my Maserati.

wipekitty

I didn't cough up the money for a parking pass at my place of employment, and the bus service from where I live is quite bad, so my alternative is walking! Fortunately, I haven't had to walk yet. The only time I might consider it is if we had a true blizzard.

Fizzaly

I voted other, which for me is not going to work. Either I ride or I stay home.

spivonious

I drive in. This winter I'm practically up to my old "fill up once a month" routine. I was getting almost 3 months between fill-ups over the summer and fall.

gregjones

I usually take the long way to work when I ride and almost always go long when headed home, unless Cheryl is having problems. That makes my commute 6-9 miles each way, route depending. 6 miles--big hills, 9 miles--just hills

If I can't ride, I walk the short route. It's only 2.6 miles. I have driven a few times, it's easier just to walk.

WestMass

1991 Corolla baby

PatrickGSR94

wow, I wish I had options like that. A 2 1/2 mile walk sounds super nice.

Rick@OCRR

I drive once a week, on Tuesdays, since I live in Whittier, work in Los Angeles and have club rides (OCRR) on Tuesday evenings in Irvine. Four days of the week I commute by bike with a Metro Train ride in the middle of the commute (.55 each way on the Metro with my Senior Discount TAP card).

On Tues. I drive about 85 mi. (To work, To Irvine, Back Home) but I drive a 2006 Honda Insight and I get about 70 mpg. The current tank-full is right at 72.8 mpg with about 150 mi. left on it. The drive is almost all freeway, so yes, traffic sucks (91 West, 405 South, 5 North for those that know LA) but I feel its worth it for the work-out and the social aspects of the weekly club ride (we go out to dinner after the ride).

Rick / OCRR

PatrickGSR94

So you fill up with gas in your Insight what, every 2 or 3 months?

rhm

Other. If I don't ride my bike (to the station, where I catch a train), I stay home.

mconlonx

Drive a single car my wife and I share.

Otherwise, my commute is a bike-bus-bike affair, so I take the bus on a regular basis anyway.