meldog

Another mailman here, with Canada Post.

My commute is 13 km on a combination of road and rail trail.

I pedal an old-school Merlin, rigid, fitted with slicks.

aley

I'm a mechanical engineer. I work for a biotech startup developing diagnostic equipment capable of detecting bloodborne bacterial infections at lower concentrations than can currently be found, and do it in an hour instead of a day or four. My job there is to design the actual machinery, so that the high-field NMR magnet and microcoil align properly with the preprocessing equipment and the microfluidics components and the power supplies aren't overheating the entire apparatus. It's a small company (25 or so employees), so I end up doing a lot of different things, though; this week I'm figuring out why moving our disposable manufacturing into laminar flow clean hoods is resulting in extremely low production yields, writing documentation, and trying to keep the electronic tech from cutting off his fingers in the milling machine.

My ride is 8 miles each way. I wear cycling shorts and a jersey, and change clothes when I get to work (jeans and a polo shirt are typical). We don't have shower facilities (the CEO wouldn't spring the $2600 our contractor quoted to add them to our new lab space), but with the New Mexico dryness I don't generally find it to be a big problem - I sit and cool off until the sweat is dry, then change out of my cycling clothes, wash my face, comb my hair, and I'm good to go. Or at least nobody's complained yet...

JiveTurkey

Volunteer/program coordinator and Mediator for a non-profit dispute resolution center.

jputnam

Writer turned communications manager for sales and marketing at an insurance company. Spend most of my time either writing, editing, or collaborating on ideas for future projects.

undisputed83

This was kind of a fun thread. The overwhelming majority of the commuters here are really well established in some highly technical fields. I guess biking really isn't a poor man's sport.

genec

How about that many bike commuters are hardly the down and out crusty low dregs of society that some motorists assume we are...

We are every bit as educated and professional as the guy driving the big new car, but perhaps smarter, as we realize the good we are doing for our bodies and the earth...

Of course the above statement is making quite a few rather biased assumptions... but what the heck, it's only Tuesday.

genec

Or a poor man's mode of transportation.

undisputed83

and all that...

pharasz

I've been in IT for 30 years. I was a COBOL programmer in the 80's. Became an IT manager in the 90's, then more of an IT project manager from 98 to 08. Now I am just a Business Analyst. For the first time in 20 years I'm not managing a staff, working only 40 hours a week, but I'm still making the same salary - which is awesome.

But I've only been bicycle commuting for three years.

stringbreaker

I was just curious about what you thought it meant. I work in a factory and don't consider myself one of the dregs of society, or a low life.

Elad63

Ever cyclist nightmare. I am a school bus driver.

paul2432

I have a feeling that bike commuters who post in on-line forums (which all of us are) are not necessarily representative of bike commuters at-large.

Paul

LAG-bolt

structural designer for a consulting engineering company

m_yates

I disagree. It seems like bike commuters have jobs of all types. It looks to me more like bike commuters represent a wide cross section of society. On this thread I saw: machinist, mailman, librarian, computer programmer, researcher, fitness instructor, professor, business analyst, bus driver, etc.

somerslam

Middle School Assistant Principal...

I am truly the dregs of society.

BassNotBass

One of my favorite quotes shouted at me by a car driver while I was commuting by bike was, "get a job... maybe then you could afford a car!"

Anyway, I mostly work as a Quality Assurance Analyst... basically I test the functionality of computer applications and systems.

AdamDZ

I see a lot of people on my commute riding dept store bikes - or really old bikes - in all weather, wearing worker's gloves instead of biking gloves, feet wrapped in plastic bags, without any fancy gear and I bet they don't post here because they probably don't own a computer and because they work hard 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for few bucks an hour. For them it's not sport. They ride to work because they have to, they probably can't afford subway fares and we don't hear from them much. I see them riding even when the weather is bad enough for me to bail out and take the mass transit.

Adam

MNBikeguy

My wife hs taught middle school for over 30 years. When she tells me of her workday, plus when I think of the [SARCASM] charming, thoughtful, considerate young man I was in the eighth grade [/SARCASM] my hat goes off to you. It takes a specially trained person.
I seriously think we would be better off using Middle School Assistant Principals as our middle east peace negotiators. You'd get much better results.

Ajacobs

I am a server...making a hair above minnimum wadge, my hubby does dell warrenty work. We each do have a car, not extravigant, but not an old beater. I decided to ride because I am not far away, I have a pretty straight forward route, and I want to feel good about myself. I have not been able to loose weight no matter what I did. Now I am getting a figure back and slowly loosing weight. Some people I see have to ride, some do it for fun, and some do it so we don't have to pay those high gas prices. I have encouraged everyone I know to ride to work if they can. If I had millions of dollars or just a dollar to my name I would enjoy riding, promoting good health and economics of riding.

Saintly Loser

+1. Those guys are the real hardcore commuters. They ride any old bike they can afford, every day, all year long, in the worst kind of weather, without specialized cycling clothing, carrying their tools, getting cold and wet. And they don't post here. There are plenty of people here in New York for whom the cost of a subway commute ($4.50 for a round trip, so $22.50 per week, assuming a five-day work week, or $31.50 if you work seven days) is a lot of money. Hey, it's a lot of money for me, especially since I got laid off.

Kind of makes me feel like a wimp, leaving my bike home when it rains and taking the subway.

Grim

You are every cyclist dream bus driver because you are a cyclist. Its the rest of the bus drivers that scare the crap out of us. LOL

AdamDZ

That makes me sad and mad at the same time. There is a heliport near my work where other type of "commuters" can be spotted. Those guys pay for one way daily commute what that minimum wage cyclist makes in a month. But I don't want to hijack the thread. I just don't like when people are judged by what they can or can't afford. No one is "better" because they have higher education and/or make more money or wear a suit to work. This is not in response to any particular post, just saying, we need to be more open minded when looking at issues and making generalizations as there are things that are not apparent to us, at least at first.

mconlonx

Bike mechanic. Lead technician.

elkootcho

Art Director in an advertising firm

Commodus

I work in a factory too.