Extreme commuters wanted for a National Paper

[sheddy]

Copied from the CTC newsletter - If you commute by bike over three hours a day and earn over £50k in a stressful job CTC publicity want to hear from you. A Sunday newspaper journalist would like to interview "extreme commuters" and is very keen to speak to you if you routinely travel long distances by or with your bike (maybe combined with a train). You’ll need to be free for interview over the phone on Monday. Email: publicity@ctc.org.uk

 

[ChrisKH]

Interesting. I haven't read that part of the CTC mag yet. Not sure I would qualify as my trip is 1-1.5 hours including train each way and only a small part is by bike. But it's easily over four hours a day if I ride part or all of the trip home which is more often as the warm weather comes.

 

[beanzontoast]

Copied from the CTC newsletter - If you commute by bike over three hours a day and earn over £50k in a stressful job CTC publicity want to hear from you. A Sunday newspaper journalist would like to interview "extreme commuters" and is very keen to speak to you if you routinely travel long distances by or with your bike (maybe combined with a train). You’ll need to be free for interview over the phone on Monday. Email: publicity@ctc.org.uk

I'd find it more interesting if they interviewed a group of low earning, long distance commuters with stressful jobs (are they saying only high earners have stress at work?) on how they did it, rather than someone earning a lot who, by implication, doesn't have to cycle commute.

 

[nethalus]

I'd find it more interesting if they interviewed a group of low earning, long distance commuters with stressful jobs (are they saying only high earners have stress at work?) on how they did it, rather than someone earning a lot who, by implication, doesn't have to cycle commute.

Aye that's something that bugs me. When ever they do these surveys or reports on people who work they seem to assume that everyone is a 9 to 5 office worker on higer pay. They seem to ignore shift workers and forget that there are probably more people on the shop or factory floors that in the offices. In my job I probably only spend about 10 minutes or so in an office, if you can call it that! The only time I spend longer is if I'm in for a friendly chat with the manager!

 

[Eat MY Dust]

Hmm I think they may be struggling to find many commuters who do three hours. I've got a 26 mile round trip and that takes between an hour and a half and two hours (on a very bad day). Three hours would be up to 50 miles a day!!

 

[Tynan]

hence 'extreme'

 

[GruB]

My round trip is 46 miles but I do it in under 3 hours and I don't earn £50k but my job is stressful.

 

[Eat MY Dust]

My round trip is 46 miles but I do it in under 3 hours and I don't earn £50k but my job is stressful.

Do you do this every day?

 

[GruB]

Do you do this every day?

Monday to Friday - yes. I do a fun club type ride on Sunday of 50 or so
My mileage so far this year is 3,191 miles.

 

[GruB]

46 miles in 3 hours (even split as 2x23 miles in 1.5 hours) is impressive for somebody like me who does 30 miles a day in 2 hours and 20 mins. 1 hr 5 mins to get into work and 1hr 15 to get home.

What annoys me about this request ( and this is aimed at the journalist) is the innate assumption that people who don't earn 40k a year and cycle all that time are poor chavvies, having to cycle because they have no other choice.

For me, cycling from Surbiton to Farringdon is not only quicker then public transport but cheaper (I save £1,800 pa on a season ticket) and less stressful and I am now a proud size 32" waist at the age of 34 and at the height of 5'8". And I can eat and drink what I like AND travel fatster then the cars as well. It's nought to do with money (though it helps).

It annoys me too that I don't qualify because I don't earn enough.
I average around 15-16 mph in the winter / dark months and 17-19 in the lighter / warmer months. Like you, it keeps me fit and means I don't need to watch the calorie intake quite as strictly as I would if I didn't ride.

 

[4F]

Monday to Friday - yes. I do a fun club type ride on Sunday of 50 or so
My mileage so far this year is 3,191 miles.

Thats not extreme, thats barking mad

 

[domtyler]

How will they be verifying the salary?

 

[Eat MY Dust]

It's another ploy to rob rich people. So you finish work at 6pm and it takes you at least 90 minutes to cycle home. They'll be round your house about 6:30. They want people earning over 50k so that there's a good chance you've got some goodies at home!!!

 

[ChrisKH]

It would be unusual to find the two (ie high earner with high mileage) since by and large the more the job earns the more hours it consumes and the more it eats into your mileage. That's not to say that lesser paid jobs aren't stressful or time consuming.

I have to say I have often wondered how some people put the mileage in, given a busy 21st century lifestyle. A sweeping generalisation though it is, high mileage cyclists aren't known for having demanding careers since it would clash with their passion. Also cycling, in this country, has predominantly working class roots so the link to lower rates of pay is not exactly rocket science. A higher paid, high mileage, cyclist would therefore be out of the ordinary. Readers will probably be more interested in this angle. Especially in the DM where they would want to distance cycling from the proletariat.

 

[John the Monkey]

Further to the "What Annoys Me about this" subthread, I think it's the presentation of cycle commuting as some funny eccentricity (again) rather than something that anyone could do.

Whilst I appreciate that newspapers have no remit to promote cycling, presenting a balanced view of it (more about people doing three to five miles each way on modestly priced bikes) would make far more impact on congestion etc than pieces like this...