What is a LONG distance commute?

[lordofthemark]

The topic of long distance commutes came up at HDCC the other day, and its on another thread here. Which got me thinking, how long is a long bike commute?

The guy at work who inspired me to begin commuting did about 20 miles each way from outside the beltway Silver Spring to Navy Yard. The commute that I have now done 2 and a half times, round trip, is 10 miles each way. I mean I understand that from the POV of transportation planning the sweet spot for expanding bike mode share is trips under 5 miles, and better under 3 miles. But I would think among the relatively hard core folks here 10 miles each way isn’t impressive.

I hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew. I don’t know how long it will be before I feel comfortable doing this commute every day, but doing it once a week feels fine (a big gain over where I was two years ago) and I look forward to increasing that to 2x per week.

Topic

[Subby]

I think of it in terms of time rather than miles. Anything over an hour seems long to me. Not bad. Just long.

[DismalScientist]

Well… During freezing saddles, I tend to get lost.:rolleyes:

[Bilsko]

Five days, five ways

[ronwalf]

At 43 miles round-trip, my commute is too long. It’s not that I don’t do it (I’m trying for 2-3 trips a week), but that’s 3 hours of the day not doing anything ‘productive,’ instead of the hour a day that is spent on the days I drive. Family, work, church, and community could all use that time. On the other hand, I’m lucky in that half my job is to think. I managed to work out a problem that’d been vexing me for a week while biking in this morning, so that hour and a half was time well spent.

Last year, my commute was 12 miles round-trip. At 45 minutes a day, it was just as fast as driving and much cheaper (~$300/yr for parking), and so I never felt guilty about biking into work (and did so almost every day).

[jabberwocky]

I’d say anything over 45-60 minutes each way is a pretty long commute. If I had to ride more than 60 minutes for a basic commute I’d probably do it a lot less, just because thats a big chunk of the day to do consistently and I also don’t always feel like spending that long on the bike.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Subby 94388 wrote:

I think of it in terms of time rather than miles. Anything over an hour seems long to me. Not bad. Just long.

This. Around here, an hour could mean 8 miles or 18 depending on where you’re riding, so I think time is the biggest factor for me.

[dkel]

At 15 miles round trip, my commute isn’t long enough on some days, and it’s just right on others, depending on how I feel and how busy I am. If I had to pick one of my kids up from school for some emergency, that kid would have to wait almost an hour for me to get home and get the car; if I drove from work it would take no more than 20 minutes. That’s the only downside I can think of, and I don’t think it’s much of a downside. Riding the W&OD to work means it’s really easy to extend the commute when I want to.

[Dickie]

My original commute was 24 miles round trip which would take about 1-1/2 hours out of my day…. pretty reasonable. Now I’m adding miles and pretty much commuting 32 miles, 7 days a week. As with Subby and TwoWheelsDC, the miles are fine but the time spent is becoming a problem. I think if you’re commuting/riding more than 2 hours every day, that’s a long commute.

[Supermau]

My commute is just under 30 miles round trip. It’s a bit long to me but I’ve been doing it for a few months now and I enjoy the ride. It’s the only chance I get to really ride long. I only do this once a week, since that’s the nature of my employment. I don’t know if I’d be up to that ride every day. I’d either be totally wiped out every day or up for Ride Divide next year!

[dkel]

I had a couple of weeks of 25-28 mile round trip commutes over the summer, with half of each trip on gravel. It was really fun, but it also beat the crap out of me–because of the gravel, not the miles. So quality can matter as much as quantity.

[Greenbelt]

I have 17 miles each way, which is about 1 hour 15 min. It’s a little too long, probably. I’ve been riding the fast bike more, and not doing long rides on the weekend, to keep the legs fresh(er). Started taking the occasional day off last winter on bad weather days, which helped a lot.

14 miles or so at 1 hour or slightly less would be perfect.

[Supermau]

I should have mentioned my average morning commute takes me about 1 hour 15 minutes – 14.5 miles. I usually take a couple short pits tops along the way to slam my iron man powerade (beet juice). Going home takes longer since I’m not on a schedule and I take it easier.

[Geoff]

My commute is normally 24 miles round trip, but sometimes I’ll take a longer route home. The normal trip takes just under an hour each way, which I figure is productive because I’d still have to spend the time exercising if I drove to work. When the weather is good, the time and distance are just about right. When the weather is bad, I wouldn’t mind something shorter. I know, I have no rule 9 cred!

[vern]

My roundtrip commute is 42.8 miles. With the Metro extension out to Reston, the commute to work via mass transit actually takes longer than it did before, so now in terms of time the commute by Metro is exactly as long as the commute by bike, door-to-door. I was riding my bike almost everyday anyway, but now have even more of an incentive to ride. And, as I continue to get stronger I expect my bike commute to become faster than the Metro commute.

[dplasters]

I’m officially the forum pansy at 25 minutes and 6.4 miles…. stupid red lights.

But really I think anything over 30 minutes is annoyingly long. My decision to bike somewhere and back is basically can I get there in 30 minutes or less safely?

[Author]

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