'Intrepid Business Travelers Are Finding Another Way to the Airport: Bike'
 

I hope this catches on but I can already forsee the regular backlash that happens all the time.

Of all the airports that I know well, all the roads that lead to the terminals are like highways. They'll need a major retofit to safely accomodate bicycles.

Tucson and Santa Barbara airports aren't bad for bike access; they're just 10+ miles from where most people live and work.

Despite owning and riding bicycles (a lot), I can hardly imagine biking to the airport. Maybe I pack too much, or maybe I'm too concerned about spending a couple hours packed into a metal tube while still soaked with sweat, but it seems like a sub-optimal way to travel.

Yup. New Jersey sucks in that there are many places besides Newark Airport that is accessible only by highway. There is no bicycle or foot way. I always thought that was nuts.

I have to say this is quite a stupid article

What. From my door which is a 5 min walk to the train station ... I have:

• Within 60 min Southampton Airport (2M pax/yr)
• Within 80 min London Gatwick (40M pax/yr)
• Within 150 min London Heathrow (75M pax/yr)
• Within 150 min London City (4.5M pax/yr)
• Within 180 min London Luton (12M pax/year)
• Within 180 min London Stansted (22M pax/year)
• Within 180 min London Southend (1M pax/yr)

Why would I want to cycle to the airport with excellent rail transport that is comfortable, relatively inexpensive and user friendly.

I'm all for cycling, but the T and bus combo to Logan is quite good in my opinion. (Even better is the free transport downtown after arrival! It's quite easy to fly London to Logan and get into NYC).

@acidfast7, you have many choices. Others don't.

And getting into NYC from any of the three major airports is a hassle, though from EWR is less so, oddly enough.

One thing I like about bike commuting is that my travel time is very predictable. This means I don't need to add a buffer of ten minutes or whatever, which saves me time. That's part of the appeal of getting out of cars and badly run public transit.

Definitely not the case in Phoenix, getting to Sky Harbor airport on bicycle would be tricky. By car it's about 5 miles from my house, on bicycle the only way I could think of is to ride completely around the airport to the far side and ride the "sky train" in. So 5 minutes drive (Uber or taxi is what I usually do) or at least an hour on the bicycle plus waiting for and riding that train. I've thought of riding my motorcycle to the airport but I wouldn't trust it parked out there for a day or more, and I'd be terrified to leave my bicycle at the airport even if I did figure out a way to get in.

I don't know, I feel that most people do have choices, which is why they built public transport. I'd wager that roughly 30M people (more than 50% of England) have similar access to London's five big airports and some other local variants. It's probably the same with Germany (I always need to use to Google flights when deciding to my into Munich, Stuttgart or Memmingen.)

Also, I found getting into Manhattan from JFK a piece of cake with the AirTrain and LIRR :D why on earth would I mess with anything else.

I've visited Europe a few times. Public transit is much better there than here, and I live where in NYC where it is better than most of the country.

But I agree that cycling to an airport is an unlikely thing for a huge number of airports, so I agree with your major premise. Just for fun, I asked The Goog about bike routes to EWR, LGA, and JFK. It gave me routes to EWR and LGA. The one to EWR was one that I know to be horrific, but there it is. The LGA one looks OK. It said that there is no bike route to JFK which I will take on face value. And the distance is pretty crazy, too, so it's just as well.

from downtown chicago, one could conceivably ride a bike to midway airport (MDW). it'd be about a 9 mile ride all the way down archer ave. (which has bike lanes) and MDW's terminal is street-side, right along cicero avenue. but the CTA's orange line goes right from downtown to the back of MDW's terminal building, so that would certainly be the path of least resistance to get out to MDW for someone trying to avoid a car.

ohare (ORD) is a much trickier animal because the giant terminal complex sits in the middle of the VAST 13 sq. mile airport, and the only public access i know of is either via the CTA's blue line or an 8 lane expressway. google seems to think that you can ride a bike on the shoulder of that expressway, but my intuition says that it's most likely illegal and most certainly dangerous. and from downtown chicago, a bike ride all the way out to ORD would be at least 90 minutes. just hop on the blue line if you don't want to deal with the linear parking lot known as the kennedy expressway.

Albuquerque has a 'back' way in (Girard) with a separate bike lane and bike racks. I live a mile away so I walk.

Brompton, ride to the airport, fold, Check it . If You can't get a carry on deal ..

on the other end , unfold it , and ride into the city..

seen on the YT a DIY trailer to tow your gear ..

Not commuting anywhere myself . but I got one of the limited production run

Of Carry Freedom's City bike trailers .. a folding bike trailer for a folding bike..





....

I bought my Bike Friday in '94 with the idea that I could conveniently take it with me on business trips. It allowed me to explore new cities much better than would be possible by rental car. I usually took other means of transportation to/from the airport, but did bicycle to airports in Oakland, San Francisco, London, Toronto, Las Vegas, and Detroit. Easy to carry my luggage using the Bike Friday trailer. Put a big carry-on bag with my other luggage inside the suitcase/trailer. Then upon arrival at the airport fold up the bike & trailer and put them in the suitcase to be checked while I board the plane with the carry-on bag.

I'd like to check a folder on a flight sometime, to have a bike to get around with at my destination. Don't have a folder to try it out yet, although my dad has one that I might be able to borrow.

I've ridden with friends on Harbor Dr in San Diego right past the airport, that was fine. But negotiating the ramps to get into the terminals might be a little dicey. Besides, I live like 30mi from the airport, so it would be hard to carry any reasonable amount of luggage.

Backpack. 20L is enough for a week of travel!

Depends.

As in, maybe, if you are not packing a change of underwear for each day, but plan to purchase locally: Depends

Nah. I usually get 7 pairs for (under)pants, two pairs of trousers, 10 pairs of socks, 3 shirts and and an extra blazer into by 20 L pack. Plus a book, passport, phone, charger, rMBP, headphones. And I usually ride the bike to the station and lock it up and take the train to the airport. If needed, I wear my fancypants new rain jacket on top.

Now that you mention it, I'm not sure how many liters my backpack is. For a 2-3 day business trip I am always able to easily pack everything into a standard carryon.

A backpack that fits under the seat. A standard carry-on should be around 7-14 days with gifts for the hosts/gifts for us back.

I live in a small city and one could easily ride into the airport. The main road approaching it has good bike lanes and the road into the terminal is short and low speed. And there's a bike rack at one end of the terminal. I don't know that anyone actually does this though. I expect the bike rack is largely used by employees.

Getting to LGA isn't actually that bad. The NYC Century takes you on a route that goes around LGA, and there is easy access to Terminal A. Terminal C/D where Delta is wouldn't be too bad, I've seen airport employees walk in from the outside, crossing the same bridge the century uses to get over the highway. Terminal B is a mess right now due to the construction. For JFK, it is easy to get into the long term parking and then take the airtrain from there.

Would I do it myself? Nah.

Yeah LGA by bike could be better than by car, but the trouble is, I usually have more baggage than my bike carries. And my wife, whom I usually travel with, would not be willing to do it by bike. Getting to and from LGA by car is a nightmare. And the bus isn't much better, as we've done that.

How are they dealing with bicycle security. I've ridden to the train station a few times, and they highly recommend that a person NOT park a bike at the train station overnight.

The Eugene airport should be accessible, but is a bit of distance out of town. I'm also out of town, but it would be a 25 to 30 mile ride for me.

The St. Louis airport is getting built up around. I got tired of taxis, so I could walk to the St. Louis airport in an hour or so when I was there. Unfortunately the sidewalks were miserable around it.

A lot depends on the airport and destination. When I flew into the Kansas City airport, my destination was Overland Park, and it was a significant drive from the north side of the city to the south. I could imagine cycling would be tough.