Why did you start cycle commuting?

[400bhp]

1. The cycle to work scheme was the catalyst. Chatting to another work colleague we egged each other on to do it. I used to be a keen cyclist 15-20 years ago and got out of the habit.

2. Gym was getting boring.

3. Young child meant I didn't want to spend 3 x 2 hrs a week in the gym. cycle to work would go some way to make up for the lost gym work out.

4. Tram commute can be a pain and isn't good VFM.

5. Commute by car is a grind. 15-20 min walk from car park to office.

6. Picking new routes to/from work (love reading maps).

I now cycle to work 3 times a week. The other two days I pick up my daughter from nursery and as yet haven't found a good way of commuting those two days by bike and still picking up my daughter. I have refound my passion for weekend cycling too. Long may it continue.

I really missed the commutes through December. Still managed 5 days worth plus a 60 mile run last week, so 160 miles in December wasn't too bad.

 

[Browser]

Same as many other posters really. Started cycling to primary school, carried on all through seconday school, started work at 16 and the idea of a moped was forbidden by my mother (probably not a bad thing!) so I cycled the 8.5 miles there & back, experiencing my first and only unseating-by-motor-vehicle on my first ever brand new bike (bloody typical).
Changed jobs within the year, further away (12 miles) but still couldn't drive so cycled there until I got my driving license and ther it all stopped, apart from the occasional leisure ride. I had done all of my early commuting on a putative MTB (Emmelle Cortina) which was heavy, failry well-geared but much slower than a road bike wouldv'e been, but I was still tempted with the odd off-road foray, plus I thought road bikers were for TDF-wannabees and were too fragile, I now know different.
Started commuting again from our old house, to save money and get me a bit fitter, but 5.5 miles each way was a bit too short I've now discovered. Moved house, used car a lot, cycled some but got really serious about 2 years ago when I realised that nearly 17 stone wasn't good, even at 6ft 5in tall. Used my old Falcon Explorer to commute, dieted, lost about 1.5 stone fairly quickly, and over the last 12 or so months have built up my collection of cycle clothing and re-adjusted my distance viewpoint, no longer thinking that 40-od miles is for nutters

I just got fed up of commuting by South East trains. I also really enjoy being on my bike (a throw back to not being allowed one as a child)

If you don't mind me asking martin, why were you forbidden a bicycle as a child?

 

[Gareth]

When the company that I worked for relocated from Grantham to Bury St Edmunds, we bought a house within 3 miles of the factory, and although I had a company car I decided to commute by Bicycle, give up the company car, take an upwards adjustment to my salary, and use the pool cars for my business trips. The commute to work wasn't too bad: A roads, the Slip road on the A14, dive through the hedge before fully joining the A14, and then about 1 mile along a WW2 concrete road to the factory. The commute home was completely different because of access to the east bound lanes of the A14, so I took the back roads through Saxham and Westerly during the winter months, and in the better weather I used the cross country Bridal way and public Footpath (which ended across the road from our house). This route was approx parallel to the A14, and took me across open arable and Vegetable fields and along the Northern edge of Warren wood, so it was not unusual for me to see 3 species of Deer, Hares, Foxes, Badgers, the occasional Polecat, Green & Greater spotted woodpeckers, Sparrowhawks, etc. even though it was a mile longer than the route to work, by and large I was always destressed before arriving home in the evenings.

 

[HelenD123]

My main motivation was to reduce my carbon footprint but I also wanted to get some exercise and fresh air. The cycle commuting has opened up a whole new world and I'm now the fittest I've ever been and have ridden thousands of miles in the last year.

 

[gbb]

Commuted for the last 30 years ...with odd breaks, but always come back to the bike.
Started because it was cheaper than running a car, particually when i had a young family and a 'moderate' wage, so nees must.
I only wished i had the distances to commute...i used to ride 15 miles a day, now i only live 2.5 miles from work so often find myself extending a 5 mile daily ride to a total of 10 or 20 miles...just for fun.

Fitness / weight was never an issue for me, skinny bugger, but it grips me to use the car in the winter...low mileage, higher fuel consumption and on frosty mornings, i can be half way to work on the bike while i'd still be clearing the windscreen on the car.
The cars a no brainer for me.

 

[leyton condor]

I first started commuting when I was studying in 1987. I was fed up of paying some extortionate amount of money for a 2 zone travelcard, being crammed in a tube train for 20 mins and having to walk 10 mins either end and during this walk seeing loads of happy people cycling past.
I invested £110 pounds from what I can remember was about a £700ish a term grant (ahh they were the days) on what was with hindsight a complete pile of poo called an "Abbey Trojan" mountain bike.
That bike carried me to and from college for 2 1/2 years and I commuted to work on it for a year afterwards before every conseivable wearing part was completely worn out.
A couple of bike upgrades later and 23 years on I am still commuting 16 miles per day. For me it is the most pleasurable way of getting in to work and getting around London in general.

 

[e-rider]

never had a car to start with, so it was cycle or bus - easy choice really!

 

[Dan B]

I started cycling to work because I needed to take a laptop with me and it's not much fun rollerskating with a rucksack.

These days I work from home mostly anyway, though

 

[mr_cellophane]

I had to work at the weekend with a 7:00 start. Neither the C2C nor the underground were running so I cycled to Romford and caught the train from there. After work I started to cycle home, some days I could only manage to get as far as Barking and others I got all the way home. When my office moved to Canary Wharf, I started to cycle to work in the week.

It used to take me about 1:15 instead of 45 minutes by public transport. The last part was either DLR or Jubilee Line and I got to work with a bad back and fairly miserable. When I cycled in I arrived much fresher even when the weather was bad.
And (apart from the odd flat) cycling in always took the same amount of time, public transport could take up to 3 hours on a bad day.

 

[potsy]

Started April 09 purely to get a bit of exercise and lose some weight.

I work shifts so had a very easy car journey in, took about 15 minutes and never got stuck in any traffic jams.
Riding in takes 40-45 mins, fortunately we have an indoor cycle rack area otherwise I don't think I would have bothered.
Am now fitter if not much lighter due to a very healthy appetite

Only illness or bad weather (snow/ice/heavy rain) stop me riding in nowadays.

 

[DrSquirrel]

Short Answer: Because I wanted to.

Long Answer:

I cycled when I was younger, mainly around where I lived mostly XC. Got a bit boring as I only ever went around the local area and off-road was limited. I used to cycle on footpaths without much problem, only ever had one person say something - and at that point I was on a track where the tractors ruined it so bad they had to fill in the holes with bricks - so like I am damaging the landscape eh? Anyway - it got boring and along came a lorry that hit me whilst I was a passenger in a car... no more cycling or running (at 16-17). After a few years my back was recovering but I was finding it hard to get back on the bike which led me not to bother much and made it harder.

I did from time to time make the 1-ish mile trip to work on the bike in good weather, never really had anywhere to put the bike though and it felt like a hassle. I had enough money, it was only 1 mile and I was young - if I never drove to work I would never get to drive. And 10 miles a week wasn't going to break the bank (petrol was cheaper as well) and living sub rurally it would be hard not to have the car so insurance/ved/mot's were already being paid for. I did walk too, but this was harsh on the back.


Then a few years ago I moved, 10 miles away. I drove at first, it felt a bit sucky at first but never took that long and could be pretty enjoyable - could still afford it too without trouble. What I did though was get the bike out and explore the new bridleways which turned out to be rubbish as they were knee deep in grass and only really suitable for horses. Footpaths being my age (22) was slightly less unacceptable in my own mind too, although I did try a few but had many more negative responses - even though I stop to give way to anyone walking always. Roamed a bit more on the back roads, almost no traffic (was never worried about it but its a plus) and kept just going further - dropped some slicks on the bike and decided that the amount of time I was spending would be worth getting a road bike.

I first tried to look for a second hand bike for next to nothing but had no luck with that, but at that time a new neighbour moved in who was a bike mechanic at my LBS... I didn't know it existed! There is another one but I never really liked it in there so never considered this. I went along to the new one and was pretty impressed, had my eye on a few bikes, looked online and decided just to bite the bullet and spent £700 on a new bike - obviously most people thought I was mental.

At the time I only had a small thought about going to work a few times on it in good weather etc, and worked it out to be around 6 months solid riding to save that much in just petrol. At first I never did make it to work on the bike, but I did take it with me in the car and leave it at work - where I would go out and do 10+ during my lunch break 3-4 times a week.

After a while though, with the recession and such I was made redundant and had to look for work - this is what I think started me commuting ironically. I was confident I would find something else - so wasn't in a rush and spent my time "fannying about" (even spent 2 months abroad although that was already planned to be 4 weeks break from work). When I was back I had to go to the Job Centre to reclaim my taxes - I could still afford to drive but I decided to try and do everything cheaply so cycled there, the JC was right by my old work place so was the same as a commute. The brilliant thing about this was I could leave home 40 minutes before and always arrive there spot on - whereas in the car I would have to leave around 40 minutes before though as I wasn't sure about the traffic (15-30 mins mostly) and finding parking! They were also pretty good and let me park the bike between the 2 doors out of the way (although when my time changed the guard always had a major problem with it - another story).

Then 9 months later, less than the 10 months I calculated that my redundancy would technically cover (minus petrol costs etc) I got a job back at the same place - they made my boss redundant, expected him to come back as a contractor, he said no, I got his job. I negotiated with them, employed rather than contracted - they only wanted part time so got 15hrs over 3 days (2/5th my hours) for 500 quid short of my previous pay - jackpot! (hourly too so full time will be good, and manager position when things pick up, hopefully).

I was already used to making this trip on and off, so after a week of driving to settle in - I got on the bike. This official work commute was only last Feb. Last year I only made 4-6 trips in the car for various reasons from dropping off wifey or picking my sister up, running errands (which I always like to do all at once) and a few times because I was lazy or had no sleep. None of them rides off were due to



I don't think I am saving the world - and don't really believe in the Green movement, other than marketing and government taxation.

I do think that cars are not sustainable transport, even if we changed to electric cars 100% tomorrow, it wouldn't stop the traffic chaos in major cities. I used to drive a mile before... sure, but I didn't live in London or drive half a mile to get the shopping, or to the dentist - neither did I get stressed about people doing 40 in 60s etc, or speed cameras etc etc.


I see so much more whilst cycling - I even started walking more around the local footpaths and wifey would join me and enjoyed it. My goal now is to get her on the bike, baby squirrel is 6mos so we're busy with that - she is a bit scared of the road and cannot go that fast or far yet but in time (specially when I am towing baby squirrel in a trailer, that will slow me down ) - going to buy her a new bike to encourage her too and then I want to do some small touring trips.



I might one day hack some electric bike up for lazy days, shopping, the wife to use etc. I will still continue being able to afford the car (a high powered sports car) as a luxury even though the fuel prices are going up like crazy - I can drive it pretty efficient and I don't hang around either (my mpg trumps most others on the owners clubs sites, no idea why they must have the worst looked after engines in the world).

 

[HJ]

4. zip around around breathing fresh air instead of standing sardine like on a train breathing stinky BO at 6am.

And you think you smell of perfume??

 

[dellzeqq]

a lust for speed. My first commute was twelve miles from West Dulwich to Epsom in 1973. If I did it in 50 minutes I'd be doing well, but if I did it in 40 minutes I'd be doing very well. So each and every day I tried to break my record. Which meant crashing from time to time (plus ca change) but I did get to be pretty fit.

 

[subaqua]

And you think you smell of perfume??

when i went in by train , yes. not stinking of stale sweat going to work. when i arrive at current site I have a shower and then Anti persp/deodorant up so i don't stink.

some people just don't understand personal hygiene. I thankfully, do

 

[pshore]

It started out as fitness but you soon find all the other benefits. One of the biggest for me is a:

reliable journey time.


I could drive, but oh the stress of finding a parking space. Some folks at my work get there at 7am to make sure they get a space.

I do motorcycle half the time in summer but only as a break so I can cycle the long way in (50km) the other days.

I could take the bus but have waited for 40 mins for an 'every 10 minutes' bus too many times. Plus, when the traffic or weather causes problems they don't turn up.

So, when motorised transport doesn't work, the bike always does, so long as you can fix the odd p***ture.