tomana

almost 3 years, 15 miles round trip 5 days a week. Been busing a lot (was given a month bus pass, twice) but back to no bus now

ThermionicScott 

I first tried riding a bike to work about 5 years ago... only did it sporadically until about two years ago when I found the Commuting forum. Now I ride whenever I can, but always leave the option to drive or carpool with the gf to keep it in the "because I want to" category.

ragnar.jensen 

About 40 years of commuting. No accidents involving other vehicles or people, I'm more into critters
I've crashed into deer a couple of times and a moose once, luckily with no damage done to any of the parties involved.
A dachshund tried to eat my rear tire at 20 mph. That didn't end well for it...

CommuteCommando

Sporadically from '99-'06
Semi-regularly from '06 -09
Regularly from '09-'13
Almost every day this year.

vanttila

Been commuting since kindergarten, for the past 12 years. Never been hit, never hit anyone. Can't remember when the pavement would've hugged me, either. Haven't had many close calls either, but I've seen my brother (who I've usually been riding with) been bumped once or twice and had many more close calls. Guess I have a 6th sense or something.

buzzman

43 years of commuting by bike.

I started riding to high school in 1969 but actually commuted to my first job (at the A&P) in 1970. I have ridden to pretty much every other job I've had since.

My one accident was being doored from the left hand side when a car stopped in the left lane (left turn only lane) suddenly swung its passenger door open and it just nicked me but I was traveling fast since I was in the middle lane going straight and had the green light. The blow from the door sent me careening across the right lane, where I hit the curb went over the handlebars and landed on a fire hydrant. An ambulance came and I went to the hospital but the only real injury was a big bruise on my thigh where the door nailed me.

The car took off and the person who opened the door was a hitchhiker, who had gotten spooked by the driver and wanted to get away as fast as possible.

My only other crashes in all that time have, thankfully, been very minor. Probably the only other bad one was hitting a really deep pothole as I was cutting through a dark alleyway at night at a pretty good speed. I collapsed my wheel and got scraped up pretty badly. Oh yeah, and a few falls on the ice until finally wising up and getting studded snow tires- a suggestion of my brother-in-law's that I thought was silly until I read about them on BF's. I gave them a try and they've made my winter commuting so much better.

devianb

8 years
0 accidents
1 squirrel ran into my spokes

bent-not-broken

10 years, started when I was 46. It's never too late to start.

JPinWI

I too started when I was 46...that was 3 years ago and I have continued...started riding to a carpool 10 miles round trip then worked up to all the way to work 34 miles round trip...5 days a week till it gets icy then I take a little Winter break. 13,966 miles since I decided to start keeping track on Sept. 3rd, 2010. Ride ON!

jrickards

From about 2000 to 2008, commuting by bike was occasional but in the last 3-4 years, I have been commuting more and more each year. I don't actually keep track of commuting days/commuting mileage but this year has been the best, likely in the order of 3 days/wk (June was a bad month, I only put in about 200km and given that my route is somewhere between 20 and 32km/day, that amounts to about 8-10 days of the 22 work days in the month). This year, I also started earlier than any other year, the first week of April with consistent bike-commuting, I did put in about 5 days of bike-commuting during Jan and Feb.

I don't think I will ever reach a consistent 5days/wk (May-October), my family sometimes will need me to take the car for one reason or another and also, going to the dentist or doctor can't be done by bike on work days, they are too far away to (1) be allowed by mgmnt for the extra time and (2) I'd be really sweaty when I got there (and need a shower when I returned, therefore adding more time for the trip).

spivonious

Commuted: 13 months
Struck by vehicles: 0 times
Struck by pavement: 1 time (wet leaves)
Close calls: 2 times

simpleton.

I'm on 2.5 years commuting year round in Michigan... We're moving further away from work so the kids can go to better schools so I'm gong to have to go back to driving a car which sucks.

It's not that I wouldn't commute 20 miles one way on beautiful country roads it's just that my wife might get pissed if I get 3 hours of alone time a day Maybe she'll let me do once a week.

dramiscram

3 years, or since I saw my fat self on my 35th birthday picture.

richardmasoner

30 years of commuting, give or take. I average about one car hit per decade. Always the driver's fault, naturally, though I may have been more aggressive than necessary once or twice.

Solo pavement hits are less common now that I'm older, because these things hurt more now than they used to. Maybe gravity has gotten stronger, or something.

Any kind of incident is exceptional. My rides to work are overwhelmingly enjoyable, stress-free and carefree.


Airplane Panda by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious, on Flickr

downwinded

13 months. Started at 54 yo.
3 close calls with vehicles (2 ran stop signs, 1 gunned it to beat a changing light and turned left while I was in the intersection)
1 close call with a deer that bolted across the road.

Lanovran

It's been about 1.5 years now for me, with zero collisions, crashes, unfortunate animals, etc. (I count myself fortunate). I did have two flat tires within a two-week span shortly after I began bike commuting, but I haven't had one since then. I still haven't gotten to the year-round, every-day bike commuting mode, but I can't honestly say that I have any good excuse not to. I'm workin' on it.

AusTexMurf

24+ years for me.
A couple of years of waning frequency, due to job situations/extraordinarily difficult bike commutes.
Very car light at many points in my life, even now, with a wife and 4 children.

TeleJohn

15 -----------------------------

rumrunn6

I put in 3 years, 1 year round

how many times struck by:
vehicles = 0
people = 0
critters = 0
mailboxes = 0
trash cans =0
potholes = a handful (worse at night so I got a great light)

GP

29 off and on.

Hit twice but not while commuting.

bkrownd

I commuted on the bike 1993-2009, and plan to start again this month.

I hit a car once in my wild years, passing on the right in an intersection.

Fizzaly

I've been commuting for almost five years now, I've been hit twice in the same intersection both right hooks I no longer ride any where near that area. I've hit one squirrel, and got chased down by a ravenous pack of raging geese, but other than that not much, my old commute to me down some roads that are pretty well known in my town to have pretty deep man hole covers (some times 4-5inches below road surface) so I've hit plenty of them and have broken load of spokes.

Bike Gremlin

Got hit 4 times so far. Nothing broken.

CptjohnC

I've been commuting regularly (but not every day) since 2010, and I've made contact with vehicles on 3 occasions, all within the past year (yes, I changed routes - why do you ask?).

1 was completely my fault - I was trying to squeeze past a stopped bus, and the space was too tight. No injury or harm to bus, bike or me.

2 was a taxi who right hooked me at very low speed. I was in the bike lane, approaching the intersection and clearly heading straight (okay, clearly to me, and given that 95% of the bike traffic at that intersection goes straight to follow the bike route, should have been to him, too). I was bounced into the curb, stayed on my feet. No real damage to bike or me, except raising my BP and ire.

3 was back in April: I made contact with a vehicle that pulled extremely suddenly into the parking 'lane' while moving very quickly down a hill. I was unable to swerve/stop/slow enough to avoid the contact. minor injury, though lingering residual effects (my pinky tendon was damaged, and I still can't bend my pinky completely).

I will freely admit that I am a bit too aggressive in the urban environs. I get annoyed at being blocked by other vehicles using my streets (and esp. my bike lanes).

rhm

12+ years at my current job, and various times before that. I've never owned a car, though I did drive my wife's car to work for a while. I really don't remember why I did that. Anyway, I now ride my bike every time I go to work. If I don't ride, I don't go to work. Haven't been hit by a moving vehicle yet. I hit my hand on an opening car door once (bloodied knuckle). I got hit by a goose once (no injury to me or the goose). I got a stick in my front wheel and went over the handlebars, causing some damage to the front fender; another time I got a stick in my front wheel and went down, tearing my pants and scraping my knee. I have swallowed a lot of bugs (better for me than for the bugs).