For many cyclists -- and especially for those who hang around BF -- the term "commuting" describes a cyclist who uses a bicycle to get to work. As you read through the Commuting forum, you'll see that almost everyone engages in discussion in these terms...

But what about people who work at home but use their bicycle to get to the grocery store? What about cyclists who are out of a job? Or retired? If they travel to the library, a volunteering gig, a bar hop, a meal at a restaurant, isn't that also commuting?

Besides, I do get the sense that many who commute to work also commute to the grocery store.

So how do you define commuting?

Well, strictly speaking it means a trip that gets you back to where you began. That leaves it pretty much open unless you're running away from home.

I work from home and use the word "commuting" to include errands and any other trip away from home. It's no different then getting into the car at point A then eventually returning to point A later in the day.

Commuting is going to or returning from your place of work. The issues of securing cycling gear, bikes, lockers, showers, rush hour, and most probably reduced light much of the year are unique (though not exclusive) to commuting by bicycle. A similar theme would be cycling when primarily used for utility to get the cyclist from point a to point b as opposed to exercise, recreation or sport. Yes all reasons can be performed on the same bike though at different times. It may be just me, I don't consider bike messengers or pro-cyclists to be commuters as their place of work is in the saddle. They are simply professional cyclists.

Commuting generally refers to travel between home and work. Originally it referred to someone who lived in one community and worked a long distance away in another, often travelling by "commuter train". As in: "Honey, if we move to Connecticut will quit your job in New Jersey?" "No, I'll commute". As opposed to someone who lived and worked in the same community. Over time it has lost that meaning of travel from one city or suburb to another, and instead has come to refer to any means of travelling to work, whether it is a long or short distance. The definition probably evolved because so many people moved to suburbia and travelled long distances to work, that "commuting" simply became the norm. However it still usually isn't applied to people who walk to work, or who live really close to their job. You wouldn't likely call a one block drive to work a "commute". And if you work at home, and your trip to work is from the bedroom or kitchen to the den, you would only jokingly call that a commute.

This gets asked frequently. I think the actual definition is an oft-repeated trip. Grocery store counts. But... I only count work commute miles in the commuting mileage thread.

Dictionary.com says "to travel regularly over some distance, as from a suburb into a city and back: He commutes to work by train."

In this case, "commuting to work" is an example, not the hard definition. You can commute other places besides work.

IMO, commuting is any ride that ends in a place other than my home. Example: I commute to the grocery store, work, etc, but I take 35-mile rides on the weekend.

I guess I am getting old (still). I've always thought of commuting in its original form: regularly undertaken intercity travel. In that sense, those who live and work in the same city (and I've always counted cities that have no buffer between them as a single city) don't commute. I suppose my view is going to be unpopular here, since a lot of folks who consider themselves bike commuters are doing intracity travel. I'm not really rabid about it, it's just my opinion. It's probably different for folks who live in larger cities.
I have noticed both for myself and many carfree friends over the years that when we commute (intercity) by bike we don't carry nearly as much "famine protection" as when we are living and working in the same city. Those extra miles, usually under some time pressure, really make a difference for some of us.

I have always looked at it in the traveling to work context. I consider rides to the grocery store and back as a utility ride. Anything else is done with pleasure in mind, such as riding out to dinner or a pub or just riding.

Aaron

I like this definition. It doesn't leave out entire classes of people -- a big deal when 10% of the population doesn't have work to commute to.

Commuting is the travel back and forth between home and work.

Grocerying, bill paying, whatever odd trips are taken fall under the category of 'utility riding'.

Why does it matter? To answer the question though, I'd have to agree with DX-MAN.

It only matters if you are trying to include a bunch of people who can't bike to work (the retired, unemployed or work-at-home). Reason I asked is that there's a tremendous bulk of knowledge and a large community under this category.

We have a large gathering of people in my city for Bike To Work Week (which we are trying to rename as Bike Month). Several of the activities had no hard connection to work... in fact we had one event where cyclists organized a group grocery haul.

Nice to see a concept being more inclusive.

Ah, gotcha. My trips don't include work, I'm trying to find a job heh. Maybe we come up with a new name to encompass commuting and utility riding. What about "reisen", pronounced rysen, it's German for traveling, sounds way cooler though. Reisende = commuters + utilitiers.

This is why we also have a utility cycling forum.

I think "commuting" to work by bicycle has many of the same issues as "commuting" to any other place by bicycle, although the latter has more flexibility usually in terms of time.

So I think of any bicycle ride with a practical purpose destination as a commute - practical purpose being rather loosely defined. But riding just to ride is a different beast as one does not need to follow any kind of route.

This ^^

Agree. When the US Census is looking at mode share of bicycles, they only consider trips to work. Utility and riding to fun do not count and undercount the amount of cycling happening!