JeffB502

i bet if everybody rode a bike for the things they needed to do less than 5 miles from their house our problems would be solved...

wahoonc

Yep...but two things come to mind, first you have to get the house within 5 miles of something, anything worth riding to. And second you need to convince people that a bike or walking is better, the only way I can see that happening is to improve cycling infrastructure and do away with parking lots.

cyclezealot

Pretty much I do. and our cars thank us. We drove our cars the ways most Americans do; we'd have had to replace our car about five years ago. I have probably lessened the mileage on my VW by at least 25,000 miles, that beind a conservative estimate . Not having car payments is nice. And how much gas does a VW comsume on those 25,000 some miles.

Neil_B

Five miles from my house brings me to a pizza place, a donut shop, a rather bad sandwich shop, a couple of stores that I never would shop in (decorative accents, woman's clothing, etc), a used bookstore, a Baptist church, MY church, an Agway, and several farms and horse stables. Much of interest but little I need aside from the bookstore and church. There are disadvantages to living in the country. :-)

jonathan180iq

I'm close. My daily commute is 6.1 miles each way. Every week, I'm saving 1 gallon of gas+. (my gets 29-30 MPG, 97 VW golf) I commute 2-3 days per week. All other trips are done on motorcycle.

Based on my car's output, that's 52+ gallons per year saved (That's a little more than a barrel of oil a year). That's $156 not spent on gasoline and 1,560 pounds of CO2 that are not exhausted into the atmosphere.

I'm, in the road bike forumn anyway, I'm a recreational cyclist.

Explode those numbers by 5 million and you can start to see a difference.
Of course, the more someone rides, the better their numbers look.

bmclaughlin807

5 miles? Within 5 miles I've got just about every store you can imagine, 2 Transit Centers, a major mall, a mountain (Green Mountain Park... tons of trails and such, and I've never even been on it!), a major brewery, countless small shops, I don't know how many theaters, several porn shops, too many restaurants to count, at least 5 bookstores ..... I could go on and on...

There are advantages to living in the City.

Roody

Five miles =

• 20 minutes (or less) on a bike
• 80 minutes (or less) walking
• 20 minutes (or more) on the bus

fuish

20 minutes isn't what it is for everyone, I'm pretty new to the biking scene and I can do a little under 4 in 30 minutes... But yeah, I agree, it doesn't take that long to go on your bike, I don't know why more people don't.

Lamplight

Same here, but I live in a town of 90,000. Everything I need is within 5 or 6 miles probably. And it's like that for most people in this town, yet there are only a tiny, tiny handful of us who actually do it. Heck, people here drive to their mailboxes. Seriously.

wahoonc

5 miles in any direction from the center of my town will put you a couple of miles outside the city limits BTW town is about 10,000 and is roughly 12 square miles 3 x 4 by my best guess.

Aaron

enjoi

5 miles becomes a problem when you live in the center of a suburban circle where everything is 5 miles from you, and 5 miles from each other. So you end up doing 5 miles to point a, then 5 to point b and then 7ish back home (shortcuts/ more direct path). Which equals 17 miles. If 5 miles take 20 minutes, then 17 takes an hour and change. This is why suburban America will never take to biking like some of us would hope they would.

Newspaperguy

My work and almost everything in town are much closer than five miles/eight kilometres from where I live, so I tend to cycle to those places. But we don't have businesses such as clothing stores, a place for computer-related supplies, bike shops or most entertainment options in town. Those things are all quite a bit farther away.

We also have a lot of people here who will gladly drive 20 to 50 kilometres to save a few dollars on their grocery bills. And we have people who are sure I'm certifiably crazy for getting on the bike in winter and riding anywhere at all when there's snow on the ground.

maddyfish

<5 to downtown Cincinnati, several big hardware stores, several large grocery stores, several farmer's markets, 1 major hospital ( don't ask), restuarants of all types, 2 movies theaters, lots of nice retail places, a GREAT LBS ( Reser cycles in Newport, Ky.), and my doctor.
<1 mile to my job, my daughers' school, my dentist, several bars, pizza joints, a nice family restuarant, a couple quik-e-marts, and a couple nice parks.

Good drivers, good schools, nice roads, fair weather, good jobs= I live in a great place.

Smallwheels

I average about 10 miles per hour (MPH) using pedal power. On level ground without wind I comfortably pedal at 14-16 MPH. So traveling five miles takes me about 30 minutes. Since moving to Montana within the Rocky Mountains my speed has slowed a little, due to hills. My recumbent is slower uphill for the same effort. My other bike allows me to stand up for the hills which makes my uphill speed at least twice as fast as the recumbent.

I walk at a faster than normal pace compared to most people I see walking on sidewalks and in malls. It takes me 00:17:20 to go one mile on level ground. Walking 5 miles would take almost 90 minutes for me.

I have no idea about the buses time around here. I'll probably find out this winter when the snows start. By then my car should be sold.

cyclezealot

five miles. I see nothing wrong with taking it up to 15 miles. As long as it does not involve eggs.

wahoonc

I see this all the time with our store (Bridal ). People will spend a couple of weekends driving all over this end of the state to "check prices" then come into our store and want us to discount something $50-$75 to "price match" something they found 2 hours up the road Without realizing they probably have spent 3 times that trying to find a cheaper price.

The town our store is in has just about everything you could need, except a book store But I guess that is what Amazon.com is for


Aaron

maddyfish

As enthusiastic bike riders WE see nothing wrong with 15 miles. But for everyone 5 is more realistic.

The girl behind the counter at the kwik-e-mart was amazed that I rode my bike there last night, all 1.1 miles. If the everyday person used their bike for 5 mile or less trips, it would be an amazing improvement.

Neil_B

I remember once telling one of my non-cyclist friends that I had ridden 20 miles. "In a day?!" he replied.

scattered73

The buses in Houston, good luck, I think most run every 20-30 minutes so that's possibly how long you will wait just to see one.

bmclaughlin807

You should see the looks I get when I tell people about the brevets I rode last summer.

Longest weekend was 400 miles in < 48 hours.

Lamplight

I think many people may confuse biking mileage with walking mileage. Walking 10 miles will take you quite a while and, if you're not used to it, be exhausting. Biking 10 miles is like nothing if you do it often, and not terribly hard even if you're a newb. I doubt your average person realizes how efficient a bike can be.

cyclezealot

Don't think I do too many errands over 15 miles. One way. Depends what errands I have to do. And what I have to carry. / Have commuted to work tho - 26 miles.

Newspaperguy

There are a few of us in my town who will cycle for basic errands, but a lot don't seem to understand that mindset. For them, a bike is a toy or at best a piece of fitness equipment, like the rusty weights in the basement.

If cycling for errands during the warm months seems strange, think about the reaction I get when I'm cycling around in winter, in sub-freezing temperatures and with snow and ice on the roads. I think a few people figure I should be institutionalized for doing that. But I'm not the only one here who uses a bike year-round and our numbers are slowly growing.

wahoonc

Those are the ones that crack me up. I routinely ride the Rails to Trails between my town and the next, it is all of 6 miles one way, people just can't believe that someone can ride that far...and back

Aaron

Cosmoline

I'd change that to "everybody WHO WAS ABLE TO DO SO rode a bike.."