nashvillwill

I'm curious if anyone else has dealt with this.

I went from a job (and a living situation) where my commute went from;

1. Fun; city riding, fair distance (6 miles each way), fairly flat, lots of turns, good mix of protected lane and aggressive lane taking. Moderate speed limit streets (40 mph or less). Easy time comparison between driving and riding. The goal is to get to work in one piece and to have fun doing it.

To

2. A literally straight route, down a high speed highway (60 mph+), a mostly separated, 12 miles each way, nice ride but with challenging hills. Driving is the clear time savings (x10). Some (2 mile stretch) of no-shoulder riding. The challenge is simply to make it there.

How did you deal with the transition? What was your self encouragement to continue? How do you justify the time loss? Do the high speeds scare you off? How do you keep the "spice" in it when it's so darn straight?

Thanks for the response.

Leisesturm

Lose the car. Now the choice is: Bus (or train) $2.50 each way vs bicycle (value in$$$). Each time I ride I have saved $5 against the cost of the bike. In the summer and nicer weather I find longer more rural routes. You can play the game using the car as the Nemesis, but its not as clean because so much of car ownership is payments that are ongoing whether you use the car or not.

H

gregjones

Advice (???) in bold.

Insidious C. 

I would be worried about the 2 mile stretch with no shoulder. The rest may not be ideal but at least your cycling. As far as distance, try looking at the 12 miles vs 6 as a benefit. If you were willing to go even longer, say 20, does that enable a better route for your commute? It would be a major commitment time wise but you would be in great shape putting in extra miles. Good luck.

imi

New super light weight road bike and just hammer it?!

Darth Lefty 

That's exactly what I was thinking. @nashvillwill that hybrid in your profile is a decent all-arounder. But a stiff drop-bar bike with clipless pedals will take you up two gears, making it more fun and getting you home sooner.

If you track your performance and try to beat it, it gives you something to do and it would also reduce your commute time. You can use Strava or you can use a simple $10 Wal-Mart bike computer. For the latter, a good game is to keep an eye on your average speed for the ride, and try to up it. Not easy!

If you can't keep your brain on, get some podcasts. I suggest Dinner Party Download and The Moth Radio Hour. Or Coffee Break French. Or just listen to the drive time radio if that's what you prefer.

nashvillwill

Thanks for the the idea guys.

I should have clarified that bus/train isn't even an option on this route. Believe it or not, I live in the city, but my job happens to be in the one direction that rapidly turns into non-developed rural land. Nashville is a small city.

Actual distance is 17 miles each way, but the first 5 is pretty unsafe, so I figured it at 12, because I am thinking hybrid car then ride route.

I do use strava and have a few podcasts I like (This American Life!), but maybe I should think about a different set of wheels.

Thanks again.

5matt

Agree with the "make it a challenge" advice, but not with the podcasts-while I am a fan of some of those mentioned, I wouldn't dream of listening while riding on a busy road or indeed any road. My commute has several long (from 3-4 miles to 9 miles) straight sections, they are all segments on strava but after a while my perfomance doesn't change so I hammer them anyway and use the time to think. I used to think I wanted an exciting ride but then realized that "boring" is just fine-no near misses, no stories to tell, I get enjoyment just from riding.

spivonious

I'd try to find an alternate route. Riding on 60mph roads with no shoulder is not my idea of fun. Plus you'd introduce turns and different scenery that would keep the ride interesting.

17 miles each way is a little long too. The benefits of riding over driving really drops once you get over 10 miles or so.

5matt

How do the benefits of riding over driving (or using the bus in my case) drop once you get over 10 miles? My commute is 30 miles one way, perhaps I'm doing it wrong?

SJX426 

Sorry, I don't get it. ANY bike ride is fun and NEVER boring! There are lots of things to keep you busy to improve, technique, equipment, awareness, clothing, gearing (shifting choices), lighting, performance.

dramiscram

I never had a commute like the first one you had. My commute is 34 miles round trip on rural road with no or little shoulder, there's very little traffic but the speed limit is 55 miles/hour. the road is very very straight, no hills, no nothing. With the car I need 25 min. to get to work, with the bike it's a least 57-58 min. and in winter time I can take up to 1h30 for a one way trip. I just like to bike, I love my ride and I wouldn't want a ride with more «spice» or «action».

Null66

Great advise...

No way can I ride enough to meet Doctors orders...
But working on it!

spivonious

Mostly time spent. I really like biking, but that's a lot of time to give up in the mornings and evenings. If my commute was that long, I'd probably save my riding for the weekends. My wife definitely wouldn't be happy if I left the house at 6AM and didn't get home until 7PM.

5matt

Ok, I get your point. In my case I usually only ride one way each day, I would go out for a ride anyway so I kill two birds with one stone-my commute by bus is at least an hour, my ride is 1:45 so the additional time spent is minimal. Kids are grown so even on the days I ride both ways, wife is fine with the time spent.

fietsbob

Near death experience

Tundra_Man 

As a contractor who moves around from client to client, my commute changes every so often. For about 2.5 years I had a 9 mile each way commute that I really didn't like. It wasn't overly busy traffic-wise, but was pretty hilly. The one flat stretch was 2.5 miles along the bank of a diversion channel that was a wind tunnel even on calm days, and the way the wind normally shifted through the day I was almost guaranteed to fight it both directions. By the time I got home at night I was just whipped tired. There really weren't any better routes that would get me where I needed to go so I just had to suffer through it.

I track my mileage, and I can see that during that time span my mileage dropped off which meant I was much more inclined to drive.

Once I got relocated to a client in a different part of town, my commute only dropped by about a mile but it's flatter and I usually have a cross-wind versus having to fight it head on. As a result I've hardly been driving at all since the beginning of summer.

We're all different. Some can do 30 miles each way and enjoy every minute. Some get bored if the commute is too long (me.) Some people are fair weather riders. Some love riding in the rain and snow (me.) Some prefer attacking hills. Some enjoy flying down hills (me.) Some like the increased workout a strong headwind causes. Some prefer deciding when to ride hard and when not (me.) That doesn't make some better than others, it just means we're different.

So OP, don't feel bad if you have to modify what you do to keep the ride enjoyable. Don't worry about what you think others say you should do. There's nothing that says you have to ride X miles every day, or that you can't split up your commute among multiple methods including even (gasp) cars. If you can modify your bike commute so that at least part of it is enjoyable then you're more likely to keep it up. The alternative is riding the whole way and hating it and risking giving up altogether.

Ky_Rider

I have the same dilemma. 13 miles of boring highway or 15+ miles of hilly rural roads. I almost never take the same route twice in a week. I only take the highway when I'm in a rush or just plain tired. If I had to take the highway everyday I don't think I could do it.