Real world average

[hungrydave]

I did my first commute of the year today, 13 miles bath to Bristol.

Im a few pounds heavier after Christmas but, even so, it felt slow and tougher than it should be.

I've also moved office which now means the final mile is through traffic in Bristol city centre.

My question is, what do you folk get as your average speed when commuting in the real world - e.g not what can you average over 5 miles of flat country lane, but door to door with traffic lights etc.

Mine was 12.6mph - 12.94 miles in just over an hour. A few small hills and the last 3 or 4 miles, from brislington, in traffic. I could blame the traffic but I don't think my legs had much more in them. It sounds pitifully slow and is bothering me!

And, yes, I agree with the sentiment of not worrying too much about speed and just enjoying it, but it's nice to have a benchmark from time to time.

 

[ianrauk]

This question pops up on here now and again.
For my whole of my 2011 commute (5834 miles) it was 15.09mph average over a 35mile round daily trip.

This is through SE London and encounter about 40+ sets of traffic lights.

 

[Archie_tect]

15.09mph average over a 35mile round daily trip. This is through SE London

You must stop getting piggy back tows from police cars Ian.

 

[ianrauk]

You must stop getting piggy back tows from police cars Ian.

Funnily enough... it does seem to happen on a far too regular basis

 

[smutchin]

My regular 18km route from Southwark to Bromley via Crystal Palace usually takes me about 45-50 minutes of riding time, varying depending on conditions and how fresh/tired I am. But that's through south London, and traffic lights usually add at least five minutes on top of that. I'm often slowed down by all the bloody cars and buses at various points, especially through Beckenham.

My colleague who lives in Bromley often rides his motorbike to work and can't do the journey any quicker overall.

d.

 

[DCLane]

Door-to-door it depends on the bike, but on the fastest Ridgeback I'm:

28-35 minutes into work (Dewsbury-Leeds) for a 10 mile run, more downhill - about 17-20 mph ave
35-45 minutes back home (Leeds-Dewsbury) same 10 miles, but more uphill - about 13-17 mph ave
Works out usually around a 17mph average for both ways - probably because there's two long stretches of straight road.

That's along main roads (dual-carriageway) most of the way, plus a total of 28 sets of lights. Yes, I've counted them!

I'm quicker than cars and often bikes going in, and marginally slower getting back home.

 

[gaz]

Comparing averages is pretty pointless in my opinion.
There are so many things that can influence your speed over your journey.
Including:

• traffic lights
• weather conditions
• traffic jams
• bicycle malfunctions
• potential hazards
• give way lines
• pedestrian crossings

I have over 100 traffic lights on my route to work, today I spent 9 mins stopped at traffic lights which was a totaled 13% of my journey time.

Not only that but comparing between two different people on two different bikes in two different locations is just not a real comparison.

Last year my average was 12.4mph. Most of it was on my commute and a lot of it was after I broke my clavicle and had 3 months off.

 

[daSmirnov]

My average commute door to door in Aldershot for 2011 was 14.39mph. Horsham I'm down to 12.57mph for the three months of 2011 I've been here. Mostly due to number of traffic lights, and bumpy-ass road surfaces.

I'm planning on getting it back up to 14mph this year, but by cheating and going substantially longer routes.

 

[Beebo]

Your speed seems about right.

my average this morning was 15.1 mph. On Thursday it was 13.4mph but it was very windy.

 

[Andrew_P]

last 3000 miles was 15 mph spot on, been as high 17.5mph and as low as 12.5mph pretty straight forward run with a few lumpy bits in the midlle, namely the north downs!

 

[Monkspeed]

I'm not commuting but I do laps on the roads around here and usually average about 20km/h so roughly 12mph.

 

[numbnuts]

Not commuting, but a hilly ride of 24 miles I averaged 12.12 miles
and yesterday 31 miles with an average of 11.97 also a hilly route
but I'm old and have emphysema well that's my excuse

 

[Theseus]

On average I say goodby to my wife and kids as about 7:10

After putting on jacket, getting bike out of shed, getting out the side road and riding 6-7 miles to work to have a shower and get changed while chatting to other cyclists, i am usually at my desk for 8ish.

Never been bothered to work out what those numbers mean other than I can get some productive stuff done before the office fills up after 9.

 

[BentMikey]

HungryDave, your speed seems good to me, especially at this time of year. My year round average last year was 15.7mph, but I have a 43 mile round trip commute, with 240 traffic lights, although I do tend to commute outside of rush hour for 6 out of 10 trips. I'm much slower than this at the moment too.

 

[cloggsy]

My 13.32 mile commute this morning (first one since Christmas.) took me 45min 22secs at an average of 17.62mph. This is a relatively flat route through rural North Yorkshire & one set of traffic lights

I found it easier than I was expecting, since my last commute before Christmas was on 1st Dec


Mile 01 - Average 17.09 mph
Mile 02 - Average 21.54 mph
Mile 03 - Average 15.52 mph
Mile 04 - Average 18.92 mph
Mile 05 - Average 15.87 mph
Mile 06 - Average 15.83 mph
Mile 07 - Average 17.05 mph
Mile 08 - Average 18.08 mph
Mile 09 - Average 21.41 mph
Mile 10 - Average 18.62 mph
Mile 11 - Average 17.65 mph
Mile 12 - Average 19.04 mph
Mile 13 - Average 16.00 mph