People who just don't get it.

[Sandra6]

Perhaps it depends where you live and work.

In York, lots of people cycle. Yes, we have our fair share of motons, but I don't think most people are surprised by everyday cycling. Maybe they find it harder to understand when it's raining or worse. Most of the supermarkets, for example, have copious bike racks, as does the city centre.

But then, almost everyone I know and work with, cycles anyway.

This is why the two places on our list of places we are considering moving to for no real reason, are York and Amsterdam.

 

[Arch]

This is why the two places on our list of places we are considering moving to for no real reason, are York and Amsterdam.

York is great. Not perfect, of course, but being a city there's plenty to do, but being a tiny city, you can be out in the countryside in minutes on a bike . Just don't move to anywhere riverside, unless you like wearing waders...

 

[Lee_M]

Ditto for where I stayed. There was no pavement, just road, but for me it seemed idiotic to drive a car for half a mile when I could walk it in the same time.

I was once stopped to be given a telling off in Atlanta for walking to the local mall from my office - across the road!

Once the cop heard my English accent though he just relaxed and went "Ah, you're English, now I get it! Take care and have a good say sir!" and left me to get on with it

 

[Sandra6]

York is great. Not perfect, of course, but being a city there's plenty to do, but being a tiny city, you can be out in the countryside in minutes on a bike . Just don't move to anywhere riverside, unless you like wearing waders...

I love York. My husband was based at RAF linton-on-ouse when we first met so we spent a lot of time in York, and then we lived near Tadcaster for a couple of years and my son was born at York hospital.
To be honest, it would feel like coming home if we did move.

 

[SquareDaff]

I love York.

Most people do - but the climate is a little too "moist" for my liking

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I get the same, Sandra, even from colleagues that cycle, never mind the motorized ones!
On Saturday we had snow: "you didn't cycle, did you, crazy woman?"
Well, why not, got the right gear, the roads were well clear, it's only 5 miles to work.
What's the problem?
Mind, I got the same comments when I used to walk half way to work: about 2 miles.
People's expressions when they find out that I actually have a driving license, but choose not to run a car

 

[Davidc]

Sorry Sandra but you'll always get some of that.

I'm raising money for a charity through the medium of a bike ride at present. Many people when told it's 54 miles and involves crossing 2 ranges of hills are visibly shocked. I've even been asked where we stay overnight!

At one time I commuted by bike 3 days a week just 3 miles each way and still got comments about it being a long way to go on a bike, and why didn't I use the bus!

 

[theclaud]

What is so hard to understand about a person choosing to use a bicycle for transport?
Why do people struggle so much with this concept?
Do you have people like that around you, I can't be the only one attracting nay-sayers, what do you do with them?!
Yesterday I had to go to work for a meeting at 5, so I went in on my bike. First person at the door says "have you come on your bike?" Erm no, this is an elephant.
Atleast another two also commented on the fact I was on my bike. Considering I turn up every day on it I didn't think they'd be that surprised.
Even Mr6 keeps telling me it's too cold/too late/too "not what we do" for me to cycle places -and he was the one who got me on a bike in the first place!
Do you think it'll ever be seen as "normal" ?

Simply remember that they are the fools, and that you have made the best possible choice. This will enable you to maintain a suitably contemptuous tone and to treat their driving habit with the appropriate mixture of incredulity and disgust. When disdaining lifts from colleagues, try to invest " I'll ride home, thanks" with a tone which suggests "Are you out of what passes for your mind? Why would I want to follow you to some dingy car-park, brush the remains of your Ginsters' pasty from the passenger seat, and tour round some idiotic one-way system listening to Simon Mayo? Any anyway, you look like you're not fit to be in charge of a hot cup of tea, let alone a tonne of moving metal." Laugh unrestrainedly when they complain about parking tickets or the price of fuel, and shrug, yawn or snort your way through their excuses about being "stuck in traffic".

 

[StuAff]

There are people at work, some of them young enough to be my kid, who get the lift rather than walk down one floor, let alone up, and at least one who never eats any fruit or vegetables. If those fine people are in anyway 'normal', I'm proud to be weird. Given the choice between waiting for the bus home (if I finish on the dot of 9.30 that's twenty or so minutes, and it's only one an hour that time so early finish means more waiting), or jumping on the bike and getting home as fast or faster than I would on the bus, it really is a no-brainer. Just like some of my colleagues. And should (as is likely) I end up with a twenty mile commute in the near future, the bike will still be quicker door-to-door than the train....

 

[ComedyPilot]

I took 3 colleagues on a mini tour last year to the Theakstons Brewery in Masham - they loved it.

 

[Sandra6]

On a recent journey from work to the pub the cyclists arrived before the car drivers.
Case closed!

 

[coffeejo]

I'm the same about runners. Someone in my cycling group was describing a trip he did before he got married to somewhere in Europe where they either ran by the river or canoed along it, camping each night. He said he mainly ran. I asked if he'd sustained a head injury before the trip.

 

[SquareDaff]

On a recent journey from work to the pub the cyclists arrived before the car drivers.
Case closed!

Bet you were trying to beat them?