The jinx

[GuyContinental]

@acl 28152 wrote:

I would like to start commuting by bike because I recognize the utter ridiculousness of getting off work, riding 20-30 miles for fun and exercise, then getting in my car and driving 25 miles home. In theory, getting off work, riding 30 miles for fun and exercise, and ending up at home rather than back at the office would save me the time, money, and aggravation of the 25 mile drive. I might yet do it someday, at least on occasion.
.

So what’s the hold up?

My “why did I start commuting” thing was basically what you just said- I wanted exercise and had no time (two little kids) and a nasty 30 mile commute. I was waking up at the crack of dawn, driving 30 miles (45 minutes) and swimming for 90 minutes, working, then driving home in soul-sucking traffic for 75 minutes. 210 minutes a day (plus $23 a day in gas, tolls and pool access). I realized that the ride (25 miles- it’s shorter than the drive), including dressing/undressing was less than 170 minutes RT. I was happier, sleeping later and actually spending more time with my kids and saving oodles of money (which I spend on bike gear of course)… that makes it hard NOT to do. I have no shower, no facilities, and absolutely no biking culture in my workplace but it all works out somehow…

It took awhile to do it- several months of 1-way trips- and I don’t do it everyday (I try to do it 3x a week) but I’m fitter than I’ve ever been in my life, sleeping well and get to see bunnies, owls, foxes, deer, groundhogs and whatnot on the way to work…

[Dickie]

@ShawnoftheDread 28151 wrote:

I think of this guy:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1530[/ATTACH]

I was thinking more like Dickie Greenleaf![ATTACH=CONFIG]1533[/ATTACH]

[mstone]

@GuyContinental 28183 wrote:

So what’s the hold up?

My “why did I start commuting” thing was basically what you just said- I wanted exercise and had no time (two little kids) and a nasty 30 mile commute. I was waking up at the crack of dawn, driving 30 miles (45 minutes) and swimming for 90 minutes, working, then driving home in soul-sucking traffic for 75 minutes. 210 minutes a day (plus $23 a day in gas, tolls and pool access). I realized that the ride (25 miles- it’s shorter than the drive), including dressing/undressing was less than 170 minutes RT.

The time thing is very site-specific. It takes me roughly 2x as long to bike, because the car route is mostly highway at hours where I can hit 60MPH; for someone with more congested traffic the bike can be more compelling. My bike route is also longer than the car trip, because of the choke points that force bikes onto non-direct routes.

[GuyContinental]

@mstone 28189 wrote:

The time thing is very site-specific. It takes me roughly 2x as long to bike, because the car route is mostly highway at hours where I can hit 60MPH; for someone with more congested traffic the bike can be more compelling. My bike route is also longer than the car trip, because of the choke points that force bikes onto non-direct routes.

Oh, don’t get me wrong- if I take the work-out out of the equation the riding is definitely more time intensive. Everyone’s math is different- if my ride was much longer it would be tough. Lately I’ve been adding a net 5 miles each way with 7 miles of slower pace singletrack- the ride time has jumped to almost 260 minutes getting me home 30-45 minutes later than I would like. I can get away with it as a summer treat but that extra few miles in the afternoon would not jive with the work/home life needs. 5 miles shorter (20 each way) would be just about right for getting enough exercise and not pushing the envelope on work or home.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@mstone 28189 wrote:

The time thing is very site-specific. It takes me roughly 2x as long to bike, because the car route is mostly highway at hours where I can hit 60MPH; for someone with more congested traffic the bike can be more compelling. My bike route is also longer than the car trip, because of the choke points that force bikes onto non-direct routes.

Ditto for me…I usually ride 3x a week, and it’s a 11-15 mile ride, depending on my route. From feet-on-bedroom-floor to butt-in-chair-at-work takes me maybe 1:45 if I bike, and about 1:15 if I drive…but that’s just the morning. If I drive, it takes about 30 minutes to get home, but biking takes about an hour and I usually have to shower again. Also, I have to take the dog out when I get home, which is much more of a hassle if I’ve just ridden 12 miles…So the time/convenience equation for me definitely leans in favor of the car (which is reasonably fuel efficient and there are no tolls…and I reverse commute), requiring a good deal more motivation to wake up that extra 30-45 minutes earlier to ride. So I get why some people have a harder time getting into the bike commuting groove.

[Amalitza]

@GuyContinental 28183 wrote:

So what’s the hold up?

I’m not actually suicidal. There are several other reasons I could (and started to) rattle off, but they are all things that are annoying but I can solve, live with, or somewhat work around- basically things to whine about, but not things that would actually stop me if I had a safe biking route. A large section of the route I drive is flat-out not safe for biking. I have taken a few detours checking out the (quite limited) alternates. I haven’t definitively ruled them out, but I’m not sold on them either. They’re pretty frickin’ narrow two-lane roads with no shoulders; some stretches have pretty good sightlines, but others are more curvy and hilly. This isn’t solvable (at least not by me– hey state of Maryland and Prince George’s county, I’m looking at you), unless I’ve so far missed some alternative routes, which I don’t think I have. I need to either suck it up and do it, or decide it doesn’t meet my criteria for safe and give up on the idea. What I am trying to do is take sections of them by car every now and then to check out the level of traffic during the times of day I’d have to be riding them, as I think that amount and speed of traffic is an important variable in determining where to place them on the continuum of “not great but acceptable” to “nearly as suicidal as the route I drive”.

[Amalitza]

@GuyContinental 28192 wrote:

Oh, don’t get me wrong- if I take the work-out out of the equation the riding is definitely more time intensive.

Yeah, from a time perspective, it would only make sense for me if you counted it as commute time plus workout time– but that’s exactly what it would be, so it *would* make sense that way.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Dickie 28186 wrote:

I was thinking more like Dickie Greenleaf![ATTACH=CONFIG]1533[/ATTACH]

How I like to think of myself:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1535[/ATTACH]

Closer to the truth
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1534[/ATTACH]

[rcannon100]

Time: My commute is 7 miles from N Arlington to SW DC – it’s one stop light or mostly bike path. Good for either.

By car, I average probably 35 minutes. Yip. 35 minutes. Morning commute just crawls and getting across the rio would be faster if I swan.

By bike: 40 minutes. And yes, that’s just biking. That does not include set up and shower afterwards .

By bus + subway: 1 hour and 5 minutes. (I am glad it is there but boy does it suck)

But exercise is a priority to me. So it very much is transportation time + work out time. Back when I was younger, I would drive several times a week to ultimate frisbee and play for 1.5 hours. Now I am too old to keep falling on the ground.

So the comparison for me is CAR + SOME RECREATION or CYCLE (transportation + recreation).

For me, with that math, I am saving time.

Oh, and I still have to walk the dogs when I get home (damn dogs )

[GuyContinental]

@acl 28197 wrote:

I’m not actually suicidal.

‘Nuff said- I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t do my commute, particularly in the winter and darkness, if I had to do any long stretch of it on surface streets and most definitely not on PG county surface streets. We are a “bike-friendly” area as compared to lots of cities but I think that you have to be in a hyper “bike aware” city like Portland, San Fran or Seattle (maybe Minneapolis?) to pull off a multi-hour, all season street commute without getting dead.

This reminds me that I’m very very lucky that I can stay on trails for 95% of the trip.

[Terpfan]

I guess I should count myself as lucky as my commute by bike really only adds 10 minutes more on a day versus taking a car, maybe 15 if traffic is super super light. Whereas, it’s equal to the bus and faster than the Metro rail. And that’s factoring in the evening shower while not adding in the saved exercise time. It’s all around win.

[Amalitza]

What started me thinking about it is that whoever maintains the Indian Head Rail Trail (where I ride after work) put up a sign at around mile 9 that points to a little side trail and says Bennsville park ½ mile; Woodrow Wilson Bridge 16 miles.

What?! I could ride to the WW bridge?! Did someone build a new bike trail? I could ride my bike all the way home?!?! So I followed the side path to the park, circled around the park looking for a trail, an on-road bike path, a wide-ish road with a share the road sign. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nearly as I can figure, they mean take normal county roads to the bridge. They were just teasing me. But it planted the idea, and now I keep trying to figure out how to do it. Without dying and all.

[GuyContinental]

@acl 28211 wrote:

What started me thinking about it is that whoever maintains the Indian Head Rail Trail (where I ride after work) put up a sign at around mile 9 that points to a little side trail and says Bennsville park ½ mile; Woodrow Wilson Bridge 16 miles.

What?! I could ride to the WW bridge?! Did someone build a new bike trail? I could ride my bike all the way home?!?! So I followed the side path to the park, circled around the park looking for a trail, an on-road bike path, a wide-ish road with a share the road sign. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nearly as I can figure, they mean take normal county roads to the bridge. They were just teasing me. But it planted the idea, and now I keep trying to figure out how to do it. Without dying and all.

I’ve got it! Take the rail trail all the way to the river where you’ll have a kevlar racing kayak stored in the bushes, cruise up the Potomac to National Harbor where you’ll have a second bike locked up then simply cross the bridge and go where you need to go. Shouldn’t take more than 3 hours each way and you’d have buff shoulders and legs! And no crazy PG county roads…

And they say that this isn’t a bike friendly city… pshaw

[rcannon100]

And interesting article from Seattle on why bike commuting worked in an office where coffee grounds composting did not.

I think the predominant reason bicycle commuting succeeded in our office was because it started from the bottom up. A couple of us liked riding to work. Others saw that it was okay, and decided to give it a try. The firm administration caught on, provided us with space to store our clothes and change, and a wall rack to hang our bikes.

This has me thinking a lot. I really dont think another swag-surfing event is going to result in the N+1 person becoming a bike commuter. One of the most common things I hear is, “Oh, I started bike commuting because Joe down the hallway came in every morning in his bike gear, we got talking, and I decided to try it…”

[5555624]

@rcannon100 28396 wrote:

This has me thinking a lot. I really dont think another swag-surfing event is going to result in the N+1 person becoming a bike commuter. One of the most common things I hear is, “Oh, I started bike commuting because Joe down the hallway came in every morning in his bike gear, we got talking, and I decided to try it…”

This. I think our increase is a combination of this and some younger people working for us. With one exception, I think all the other bike commuters are under 30, at least under 35. They’re active and once they realize they can do it — my bike is in my cubicle, so I get route questions — they give it a try. In the last two years, it’s no longer uncommon to see a bike in someone’s cubicle or underneath the stairs on the first floor. There’s even a bike rack outside — “appropriated” a couple of months ago — which usually has at least one or two bikes in it.

They’re all still pretty much “fair weather” commuters, though. I sometimes wonder if that’s easier to do because none of them have committed to riding full time. If they have an excuse — an errand, appointment, etc. — they’re quick to drive, rather than figure out the logistics of riding.

[Author]

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