Good point. There are safer ways of getting healthful exercise than riding on city roads. I don't feel particularly safe on city roads either, but I still ride them all the time.

We drive most times mainly because we ride all kinds of terrain. We get a variety or rides. Funny though, I've heard of other riders that say they will never drive to a ride but then they later get bored with riding so they quit for months at a time. I dunno!

I drive to rides about half the time. My favorite riding area is across a bridge I will not ride over although I do see others riding that bridge. I also frequently drive to the start of club rides. If club rides are more than, say 40, miles, I pass.

I have gone to one group ride when I was with 6 other people and felt safe in rural country roads. But on my own and in city roads, I just don't trust myself or the motorist behind me. As the main bread winner of the family and also having a young child I feel I should protect myself till such a time that others are not dependent on me.

I spent over a decade without owning a motor vehicle, so just about everywhere I went everyday was by bike. The places where I lived were chosen ostensibly with this in mind. I was fortunate with one location in that I had a choice of great riding in four or five different directions, and my daily commute was as interesting and as long as I wanted to make it.

But some severe changes of circumstance meant four years ago that we had to acquire a vehicle. Our residence then was over two miles into some backwoods, off the grid and over some fairly rough and slippery paddock tracks and gravel road. This wasn't good for road bikes... and motivation. So we ended up travelling more and more using our van.

We moved into a town. We ride in the good months pretty well everyday just from our front gate, but at weekends we will hop in the van and go where we want to explore the state where we live. Included in that have been some randonnee events. But we've had a lot of fun doing hub-and-spoke tours.

We're planning a move again fairly soon back to my home city, and I am hoping we can arrange the location of our residence so I can get back to cycle-commuting again and have some nice weekend ride options from the front door.

Cycling amenity, which includes feeling safe, can be dramatically different between riders depending on experience and tolerance.

Some people are happy in a riding environment that would scare the pants off others. Often that comes down to experience, knowledge and bike handling ability.

It's not necessarily a sleight on anyone if they feel uncomfortable in certain situations, although they may indeed be contending with greater risk -- such as a heavily used MUP compared with an adjacent, lightly trafficked parallel road.

I throw my Mountain bike In my puck up truck and take a 15 minute drive to the Single tracks.. I throw my Tour Easy In the truck,, hanging out the back, hey,, Its a long bike. and I take it to the mup's 25 minutes away... If I ride from my home its at 5 AM before the cagers get out. If I go far I'm on busy roads and breathing fumes is not my thing..

Sure. When I drop off one of the cars at the repair shop, I carry my bike along and ride to home or work afterward. Hard to imagine how someone can own a car without also owning a bike.

When I am at our Iowa place there is a little town about 35 miles south that has a great Mennonite grocery store. The ride there is quite hilly and it is a big deal to go both directions. So, I will bike there and my husband will pick me up. And we do our bulk grocery shopping. The real cheating is that I generally do the trip when there is a tailwind.

I generally drive to club rides and MetroParks bike program rides since most starting points are more than ten miles from home. Rides from home are generally for running errands or just riding the trails here in town.

I do a lot of my riding from home. I live near one of the major local road riding areas (by design) and I sometimes commute the 12 miles or so to town. But other rides start too far away, so I drive. Most MTB rides require a drive and sometimes I drive my wife to work and ride my bike home.

always. I live in an area where the roads are horribly maintained making the trip to start a pleasant smooth road ride much less enjoyable. I also have to contend with several loose dogs between my house and the point(s) where I like to start my rides. So, I use the car for every ride but it is only about three miles to the beginning whether I go east, south or just around town.

I don't own a car but live in a large metropolitan area so I can leverage public transit and ferries to give myself over 2000 square miles of daytrip and overnight possibilities in the Pacific Northwest.

I leave from my house and drive to rides to access routes and terrain that interests me. For example, we have three major mountains, Mount Tam, Mount Diablo and Mount Hamilton. All are too far from my house to cycle to, climb and cycle home.

The only rides I've driven to were the organized rides I did in April and May of this year. All other rides I start from home.

Generally no, however if I am going somewhere that I know will have good bike facilities and where I will have time to get a ride in, I might throw a bike in the van.... I think driving to ride is common amongst off-road riders who live in urban environments, where they need to drive to get to a place they can ride.

A few ways to change up a route, go backwards.....

Daily rides are all done from our home. We live out in a rural/agricultural area with lots of roads to ride without any worries from motorist. The motorist in our area are considerate, as are the farmers in combines and on tractors, we are very lucky in this aspect. I have 2 major thoroughfares, that have 55 mph speed limits to ride, I use caution and common sense, I have yet to be buzzed, yelled at or have something thrown at me. When we lived in town and, I commuted to college and work on my bicycle, I had many encounters with irate motorist, largely angry teenagers that were trying to impress their riders in the cars or trucks.

We do drive to organized events we do as they are fairly far from our home, not much that can be done about that.

Bill

That would be fun??

Every 'real' ride involves driving. The only rides around my 0.6x mile neighborhood loop are either a brief equipment/adjustment checkout or once around with my daughter if/when she asks. Getting out of the neighborhood involves riding the edge of a busy 5 lane (4+turn lane) highway with nasty shoulders - Mud, nails, glass, gravel, wire... you name it. It's the only major east-west artery for miles. Plus, even though I live in a moderately smallish area, I'd still rather ride in the country. I've ridden in town, but I get tired of the rough streets, traffic and start/stop riding. So, it's a 15-mile drive each way, minimum. Like Uncle Walter said, that's just "the way it is".

I need to find some new routes, though.

I drive to ride all the time. More recently I've discovered new routes from home that I didn't know about. Whatever is necessary to keep the variety and fun in it, I'm all for it.

Its about the ride quality. Safety, conditioning, time schedule. All this determines where I start the ride and finish.

Safety has already been commented. Conditioning to me means making a ride with a distance that fits the riders conditioning. That means trying to eliminate the junk miles and to concentrate on the quality miles. Certain miles on certain routes just aren't worth riding as much. Most of us have a life outside of riding and the time schedule dictates how much time a rider may spend on this activity.

So driving to a start is both acceptable and necessary.