4 ms·

I commute by bike, my commute is easily one of the most enjoyable parts of my day, around 30 minutes each way, in all weather. Every day is like being a kid aga

by bfrog 11y ago

I commute by bike, my commute is easily one of the most enjoyable parts of my day, around 30 minutes each way, in all weather. Every day is like being a kid again, its exciting when it rains or snows or the wind blows or the sun is out. I don't think commutes are the problem, its the typical mode of transport humans choose is the problem.

cwp 11y ago
Yeah, the mode matters, but really 30 minutes is an easy commute regardless of the mode. If you were to spend, say, 90 minutes going each way, that would take its toll too. (Though there would also be benefits to getting that much exercise.)
- mayneack 11y ago
  My personal experience is that mode definitely counts even if time extremes might override it. My bike commute is the same time as my car commute (Los Angeles). I for one vastly prefer the reliably 20 min biking to the 15-25 minutes of driving and dealing with traffic. Similarly I used to opt for a longer public transit commute than a car because of the active engagement that I needed with traffic in the car.
- arm 11y ago
  I don’t know about that. I think the motivations you have for starting to commute by bike in the first place make a big difference. In my case, I had been using public transit (buses) as transportation for more than ten years, and frankly, I was completely fed up with it. For my current commute, the buses would never come on time (either 10+ minutes late, or just a bit too early). Then, when I’d finally catch my first bus, it would always reach the last stop just late enough for me to see the second bus (that I’d have to transfer on to) reach the stop I’d have to get to and leave. That’s not even mentioning all the other annoyances, like: • (sometimes) waiting more than an hour for a bus to arrive • the commute regularly taking 1.5 hours each way because the buses would regularly come too late or too early (on the very rare occasions when I’d catch both buses instantly, the commute would become a blissful 45 minutes; I truly treasured those days…) • etc. Finally, I got completely fed up of it and was desperately searching for some other way to get to my destination. After doing some research, I realized that I lived right next to a huge bike trail that could take me almost half the way, so I ended up getting a bike. Frankly, it was the best decision I’ve made in a long time. My commute is now 2 hours each way, but unlike the situation with the buses (where I was just waiting half the time), with the bike, I’m actually doing something (riding it), so the time passes by so fast, I always find it unbelievable when I realize that, somehow, two hours have just elapsed without me even noticing it.
  - freshyill 11y ago
    Can I just vent for a second about how an early bus is so much worse than a late bus… and they have complete control over it too. A late bus will eventually show up. An early bus, well, you have no idea it was even early.
    - kuschku 11y ago
      > An early bus, well, you have no idea it was even early. Well, you can look at the display [1] showing the ETA for the next 10 busses at the station, and notice your bus isn’t on it. Otherwise the app from your MTA should show that info, too. ________________ [1] http://www.kvg-kiel.de/bilder/service/DFI-Beispiel.jpg http://www.kvg-kiel.de/bilder/service/DFI-Beispiel.jpg
      - freshyill 11y ago
        I actually know that bus stop! I studied for a time in Kiel, and the buses were very reliable. I'm now in the DC suburbs. There are several different transit agencies that operate here, and some are better than others. Some do have signs like the ones in Kiel, but for the buses I take, this is what I get to deal with for signs: http://i.imgur.com/Zd2TNVG.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Zd2TNVG.jpg I have enter the stop number on rideonrealtime.com, and then search. If I try searching for it today, I get an error, because the 14 bus doesn't run on Sunday (but they don't say that). Believe it or not, their desktop website is actually a little better than the mobile version. Even in the fancy new transit hub that recently opened, the electronic signs only show the published departure times. At off hours, this is fine because they are generally accurate. During peak traffic times, however, they're completely inaccurate and you need to go to their terrible website to look up the actual time the next bus will arrive.
        kuschku 11y ago
        That’s interesting. KVG actually nowadays has a neat REST API for all their data, btw: http://www.kvg-kiel.de/internetservice/services/passageInfo/stopPassages/stop?stop=23&mode=departure http://www.kvg-kiel.de/internetservice/services/passageInfo/... Compared to what you describe, this is pretty awesome. (Btw, I’m studying CompSci in Kiel right now – I’m interested, what did you study, and when?)
- eru 11y ago
  I'd probably kill someone after 30 minutes stuck in a car in stop-and-go motion.
BuckRogers 11y ago
Until some idiot looking at a phone runs into you. Be safe out there, I've noticed a marked dip in driver quality between the past 10 years and prior. Though I think in part it's because I moved from the northern US to the south and I'm fairly certain driver education and lower quality of people in general plays a role. It's bad enough that I gave up riding my motorcycle entirely, death wish.
- ptaipale 11y ago
  Interesting that you get downvoted for this comment. I cannot see why. Getting run over by a careless driver (and yes, looking at phone is a specific problem) definitely is a risk, at least in some places. Where I live, I have dedicated bike/pedestrian paths so it's only a few intersections where I need to watch out. (a bit over 10 km, 25 min in the summer and 25-40 in the winter, plus the time it takes to shower and change clothes at both ends).
  - DanBC 11y ago
    I'm just guessing but > lower quality of people in general is likely to get some downvotes.
    - ptaipale 11y ago
      Quite, I didn't read properly. That's not a very reasonable statement.
- mhurron 11y ago
  > I moved from the northern US to the south and I'm fairly certain driver education and lower quality of people in general plays a role. Ya I hear you, I moved south and the low education and low quality of character definitely got to me. Of course I moved south from Canada into the US, so all of you Americans are garbage to me.
- matwood 11y ago
  lower quality of people in general plays a role. And people wonder why large swaths of the country are angry at the entitled sounding northeast with comments like the above. I grew up in the south and oddly enough the south I grew up in is now mostly people from the northeast. So either all the low quality people from the northeast moved to the south or you are letting prejudices get the better of you.
xorcist 11y ago
Same here (but 40-45 minutes). I actually find myself looking forward to the commute almost every day. Should have done this long ago. It helps being able to change clothes at the office though.
frik 11y ago
What kind of clothes do you use for rainy and cold/snowy weather conditions? Do you use different equipment (spikes) if it snows or there ice on the road?
- analog31 11y ago
  I have a similar commute -- 30 minutes each way, in south central Wisconsin. I'm equipped specifically for my commute: For warm weather I ride a venerable old touring-style bike, and carry rain gear in a bag. For winter, I have an old mountain bike with studded tires. There's a lot of athletic clothing available for winter riding, but I just wear a ski jacket and snow pants. If it gets real cold, like below -10F, then I wear a ski helmet and goggles. I'm lucky that I don't sweat a lot. During the summer, I just start from home earlier than usual, and ride slower, so I don't have to take a shower when I arrive. Some kind of layer system can be helpful, because there are months where the temperature changes by 30 degrees from morning to afternoon. Granted it takes some space to have more than one bike, but I have a garage. On the other hand, some folks just keep a second pair of wheels with the studded tires. When buying a bike for commuting, it's good to make sure that there's enough clearance for fenders and wider tires if desired.
- jabl 11y ago
  I just have a "normal"(?) all-weather biking jacket (gore-tex or some similar material). For pants, I'm not into spandex tights (which seems all the rage these days), so I just have a pair of "out-doorsy" pants of some similar material as the jacket. If it's cold, I just put more layers underneath. For the undermost layer, it's worth to use these "technical" underwear, as you'll freeze like heck once you start sweating if you use cotton underwear. I find that I manage with surprisingly little clothes even if it's cold, the main thing is to be covered up so that the cold outside air doesn't enter from sleeves etc. Aside from that, the most critical for me is shoes and gloves, I easily start freezing my toes even though I'm otherwise Ok. And if it's colder than, say, around -15C, some kind of face mask and glasses are good, otherwise your face freezes. As for equipment, I have winter tires for my bike. I haven't bothered to acquire another pair of wheels, I just change the tires in the autumn and spring. My winter tires aren't any wider than my summer tires, so it gets a bit tedious if there's loose snow on the path. Most of the time it's fine, though. I don't have a separate "winter bike", I use the same bike both summer and winter (a cyclocross/touring kind of thing with drop handlebars etc.).
wycx 11y ago
What is the total time of your commute i.e. house to starting work at your desk? I found that when I had a 30 min cycle commute, the total time was more like 50 mins when I included shower time.
- jabl 11y ago
  Something like that for me, yes. 30 min cycling + 20 mins for showering, changing clothes. OTOH I save time from having to go somewhere and exercise, showering etc. after work just to stay in basic shape.
  - branchless 11y ago
    Exactly. I love commuting by bike. It's free exercise time that I would not otherwise find. When I've had a bad day, when I cycle home I can feel myself leaving it all behind. When I get home all the trivialities of work are gone. Taking the metro home is fine also but not as liberating.
- laxatives 11y ago
  Definitely contributes to the overall time, but its not like you wouldn't have showered otherwise. Its not hard to shuffle your normal shower schedule around so that its not just a completely superfluous shower.

by bfrog 11y ago

cwp 11y ago

Yeah, the mode matters, but really 30 minutes is an easy commute regardless of the mode. If you were to spend, say, 90 minutes going each way, that would take its toll too. (Though there would also be benefits to getting that much exercise.)

mayneack 11y ago
My personal experience is that mode definitely counts even if time extremes might override it. My bike commute is the same time as my car commute (Los Angeles). I for one vastly prefer the reliably 20 min biking to the 15-25 minutes of driving and dealing with traffic. Similarly I used to opt for a longer public transit commute than a car because of the active engagement that I needed with traffic in the car.
arm 11y ago
I don’t know about that. I think the motivations you have for starting to commute by bike in the first place make a big difference. In my case, I had been using public transit (buses) as transportation for more than ten years, and frankly, I was completely fed up with it. For my current commute, the buses would never come on time (either 10+ minutes late, or just a bit too early). Then, when I’d finally catch my first bus, it would always reach the last stop just late enough for me to see the second bus (that I’d have to transfer on to) reach the stop I’d have to get to and leave. That’s not even mentioning all the other annoyances, like: • (sometimes) waiting more than an hour for a bus to arrive • the commute regularly taking 1.5 hours each way because the buses would regularly come too late or too early (on the very rare occasions when I’d catch both buses instantly, the commute would become a blissful 45 minutes; I truly treasured those days…) • etc. Finally, I got completely fed up of it and was desperately searching for some other way to get to my destination. After doing some research, I realized that I lived right next to a huge bike trail that could take me almost half the way, so I ended up getting a bike. Frankly, it was the best decision I’ve made in a long time. My commute is now 2 hours each way, but unlike the situation with the buses (where I was just waiting half the time), with the bike, I’m actually doing something (riding it), so the time passes by so fast, I always find it unbelievable when I realize that, somehow, two hours have just elapsed without me even noticing it.
- freshyill 11y ago
  Can I just vent for a second about how an early bus is so much worse than a late bus… and they have complete control over it too. A late bus will eventually show up. An early bus, well, you have no idea it was even early.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    > An early bus, well, you have no idea it was even early. Well, you can look at the display [1] showing the ETA for the next 10 busses at the station, and notice your bus isn’t on it. Otherwise the app from your MTA should show that info, too. ________________ [1] http://www.kvg-kiel.de/bilder/service/DFI-Beispiel.jpg http://www.kvg-kiel.de/bilder/service/DFI-Beispiel.jpg
    - freshyill 11y ago
      I actually know that bus stop! I studied for a time in Kiel, and the buses were very reliable. I'm now in the DC suburbs. There are several different transit agencies that operate here, and some are better than others. Some do have signs like the ones in Kiel, but for the buses I take, this is what I get to deal with for signs: http://i.imgur.com/Zd2TNVG.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Zd2TNVG.jpg I have enter the stop number on rideonrealtime.com, and then search. If I try searching for it today, I get an error, because the 14 bus doesn't run on Sunday (but they don't say that). Believe it or not, their desktop website is actually a little better than the mobile version. Even in the fancy new transit hub that recently opened, the electronic signs only show the published departure times. At off hours, this is fine because they are generally accurate. During peak traffic times, however, they're completely inaccurate and you need to go to their terrible website to look up the actual time the next bus will arrive.
      - kuschku 11y ago
        That’s interesting. KVG actually nowadays has a neat REST API for all their data, btw: http://www.kvg-kiel.de/internetservice/services/passageInfo/stopPassages/stop?stop=23&mode=departure http://www.kvg-kiel.de/internetservice/services/passageInfo/... Compared to what you describe, this is pretty awesome. (Btw, I’m studying CompSci in Kiel right now – I’m interested, what did you study, and when?)
eru 11y ago
I'd probably kill someone after 30 minutes stuck in a car in stop-and-go motion.

BuckRogers 11y ago

Until some idiot looking at a phone runs into you. Be safe out there, I've noticed a marked dip in driver quality between the past 10 years and prior. Though I think in part it's because I moved from the northern US to the south and I'm fairly certain driver education and lower quality of people in general plays a role. It's bad enough that I gave up riding my motorcycle entirely, death wish.

ptaipale 11y ago
Interesting that you get downvoted for this comment. I cannot see why. Getting run over by a careless driver (and yes, looking at phone is a specific problem) definitely is a risk, at least in some places. Where I live, I have dedicated bike/pedestrian paths so it's only a few intersections where I need to watch out. (a bit over 10 km, 25 min in the summer and 25-40 in the winter, plus the time it takes to shower and change clothes at both ends).
- DanBC 11y ago
  I'm just guessing but > lower quality of people in general is likely to get some downvotes.
  - ptaipale 11y ago
    Quite, I didn't read properly. That's not a very reasonable statement.
mhurron 11y ago
> I moved from the northern US to the south and I'm fairly certain driver education and lower quality of people in general plays a role. Ya I hear you, I moved south and the low education and low quality of character definitely got to me. Of course I moved south from Canada into the US, so all of you Americans are garbage to me.
matwood 11y ago
lower quality of people in general plays a role. And people wonder why large swaths of the country are angry at the entitled sounding northeast with comments like the above. I grew up in the south and oddly enough the south I grew up in is now mostly people from the northeast. So either all the low quality people from the northeast moved to the south or you are letting prejudices get the better of you.

xorcist 11y ago

Same here (but 40-45 minutes). I actually find myself looking forward to the commute almost every day. Should have done this long ago. It helps being able to change clothes at the office though.

frik 11y ago

What kind of clothes do you use for rainy and cold/snowy weather conditions? Do you use different equipment (spikes) if it snows or there ice on the road?

analog31 11y ago
I have a similar commute -- 30 minutes each way, in south central Wisconsin. I'm equipped specifically for my commute: For warm weather I ride a venerable old touring-style bike, and carry rain gear in a bag. For winter, I have an old mountain bike with studded tires. There's a lot of athletic clothing available for winter riding, but I just wear a ski jacket and snow pants. If it gets real cold, like below -10F, then I wear a ski helmet and goggles. I'm lucky that I don't sweat a lot. During the summer, I just start from home earlier than usual, and ride slower, so I don't have to take a shower when I arrive. Some kind of layer system can be helpful, because there are months where the temperature changes by 30 degrees from morning to afternoon. Granted it takes some space to have more than one bike, but I have a garage. On the other hand, some folks just keep a second pair of wheels with the studded tires. When buying a bike for commuting, it's good to make sure that there's enough clearance for fenders and wider tires if desired.
jabl 11y ago
I just have a "normal"(?) all-weather biking jacket (gore-tex or some similar material). For pants, I'm not into spandex tights (which seems all the rage these days), so I just have a pair of "out-doorsy" pants of some similar material as the jacket. If it's cold, I just put more layers underneath. For the undermost layer, it's worth to use these "technical" underwear, as you'll freeze like heck once you start sweating if you use cotton underwear. I find that I manage with surprisingly little clothes even if it's cold, the main thing is to be covered up so that the cold outside air doesn't enter from sleeves etc. Aside from that, the most critical for me is shoes and gloves, I easily start freezing my toes even though I'm otherwise Ok. And if it's colder than, say, around -15C, some kind of face mask and glasses are good, otherwise your face freezes. As for equipment, I have winter tires for my bike. I haven't bothered to acquire another pair of wheels, I just change the tires in the autumn and spring. My winter tires aren't any wider than my summer tires, so it gets a bit tedious if there's loose snow on the path. Most of the time it's fine, though. I don't have a separate "winter bike", I use the same bike both summer and winter (a cyclocross/touring kind of thing with drop handlebars etc.).

wycx 11y ago

What is the total time of your commute i.e. house to starting work at your desk? I found that when I had a 30 min cycle commute, the total time was more like 50 mins when I included shower time.

jabl 11y ago
Something like that for me, yes. 30 min cycling + 20 mins for showering, changing clothes. OTOH I save time from having to go somewhere and exercise, showering etc. after work just to stay in basic shape.
- branchless 11y ago
  Exactly. I love commuting by bike. It's free exercise time that I would not otherwise find. When I've had a bad day, when I cycle home I can feel myself leaving it all behind. When I get home all the trivialities of work are gone. Taking the metro home is fine also but not as liberating.
laxatives 11y ago
Definitely contributes to the overall time, but its not like you wouldn't have showered otherwise. Its not hard to shuffle your normal shower schedule around so that its not just a completely superfluous shower.