Why do you commute ?
 

Besides the fun of being on two wheels, I commute to hog miles, transportation, and to be the best rider I can possibly be. So I treat my almost every commute as a training session, at least 2 or 3 times a week, the other days I just cruise along, tempo riding just for the fun of it, which at the same time are recovery days.

How about you ? Notice, that the POLL doesn't include the fun factor because is already understood that bicyling is fun, at least for us bikers ;)

Corsaire :)

Well I commute because I need to lose weight and get some exercise to help with my high blood pressure. More and more though to save money over buying gas is also a compelling reason. Regular just hit $2.09 a gal here and I am seriously thinking of selling my car all together, if I didn't have a 3 yr old that needs to go to Drs apts and daycare in the winter I would do it I think. I can take him on the trailerbike in the summer but wouldn't do that to him in single digit temps in the winter.

I voted "Just commute for some, fitness/transportation but no real training"

The main reason for my commuting is the fitness aspect. It is the easiest way for me to get some exercise. I also like to keep the the miles off of my truck, especially now with gas around here at about $2.12 a gallon. I have found myself riding more to the store and a few other places. The transportation aspect is becoming more of it.

Like you, maybe a couple days of week I will go all out on my commute, but most days it is a low impact ride.

I commute to support my beer and pizza habit :D

The workout and that I still can.

I started commuting 3 years ago after 9/11 . I figured oil was the cause of most of our woes in this world.

I commute because it's the only real exercise I get all day. It's also almost as fast to ride as to drive and it's remarkably cheaper. And, as TheDL said, there's more money left over to buy the beer that I earned (or at least feel like I earned) by commuting.

You forgot political and/or enviro reasons.

It's actually greed and intolerance, but oil is a good conduit for it.

Admittedly I started riding because I got sick of worrying about my car being parked in a public lot all day. Nothing ever happened but I'm clinically obsessive-compulsive about door dings and/or people mucking with my car. (Stage 2 Subaru WRX.)

But it morphed from that into, "hey this bike commuting stuff is fun", and now I'm thinking about selling the car, which collects dust in my garage and gets driven a few miles maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks. Our other car is an Outback and is also used purely for recreation. (Wife telecommutes.) No need for 2 cars!

I commute because I can't stand public transportation. It sucks and it costs too much and who want to be inside a bus in the middle of a summer day? Certainly not me. I can get wherever I need to go faster by bike that I can by bus, not to mention I don't have to look at idiots all day, a trip by bus noramlly takes around 40 minutes I can do it in around the same time and most times even faster.

Oh, yeah: what about : for fun!

The FUN part is already implied, read OP.

Corsaire

Oh, yeah...sorry, skimmed, then forgot!

I started bike commuting because of training. I found that if I had to ride the bus home to get my bike, it was more likely that I'd just plop on the couch and never get back outside. So, I'd usually just take a long detour home. The great thing is that if it's a hard day, you can just hammer as long as you want and if it's an easy day you can just take a nice spin directly home. After awhile it just became so natural that driving or taking the bus seemed so lame.

And now that I have kids, I hoard every mile I can get my hands on. Even if I just get a 4 or 5 mile detour on the way home from work, it adds up so I can still make a 100 a week.

Because I want to live.

DanO

Because I don't own a car.

It's not so much the money saved that supports my beer and pizza habit but the commute (~37mi. round trip) that lets me eat that stuff and keep my "girlish" figure.
:)

Same for me. That's why I started. When I first took my bp 2 summers ago, I got real scared (it was VERY high). Now it's going down. Keep at it, you'll feel better.

Because bikes are far superior than any other form of transportation. Duh!

To get to work and back.

Al

I live so close to work, I would be stupid for driving.
I commute for fun, for health, for the environment, for my wallet...

I just like to ride my bike.

$2.12 a gallon?? You lucky dog! Here in Socal, you can add 20 cents per gallon to that on a good day!


I started riding to work (14 miles each way) one day a week last summer, just for the fun of it. Now I'm training for a Century and hope to ride at least twice a week and save some $$ to boot!


Sheldon
OCR2

Riding a bike is cheaper??? ....I'm doing something wrong.... but my bike is worth $2600 so far, and I still am working on it.

Well, I'm told cars can cost even more than that! Plus you have to pay for fuel. Pancake batter is cheaper than gasoline and you will get more miles per gallon!

For the ride. It's prettier. It's slower. It makes me faster. Time well spent. Money well spent. To pick up beer, my liquid of choice over gasoline, which doesn't smell as good (but does burn better). Gotta fix something, so ride it. 10 miles each way, nice round numbers for nice round wheels. Commute it or lose it. Cheers.

I ride for fitness and also for stress. My boss is a maniac and I need the stress relief. Also because I have a recumbent and recumbents are just too much fun not to ride.

$2.12 for gas? Add 20 cents and you've got So Cal prices? In Santa Barbara I've seen a few stations where they're too chicken to put that 3 at the beginning, so they hold back that 1/10th of a cent.

Yea, but my car is worth more than that and is a piece of crap. That's not including >$25 of gas a week I have to spend for the 40 mile round trip to work. Cutting out half of that by biking is totally worth it on a purely economic basis.

I also commute because I need to lose about 30 pounds and I refuse to go on a diet.

I have a long commute, so the more I can do it, the better my base miles will be.