macteacher

So how do you enjoy cycling in the suburbs or the country? Is your job holding you back from moving into the city where shops are pedestrian/cycling friendly and everything is closer together? Or do you enjoy the wide open spaces of the suburbs?

Feel free to chime in city folks.

As for me, I live in the suburbs and my job holds me here. Otherwise i'd like to live in the city or in a community where shops were close by rather than being separated by an expanse of parking lots.

macteacher

OOoops.... I meant to post this thread in the COMMUTING forum...oh well... whats done is done...

anyhow, chime in folks...how do you car free/light folks do it..where do you live?

I try to be car light, but it is difficult. Just today I cycled to the local plaza to buy supplies. When I got home I realized i forgot batteries...i didn't have the energy to cycle all the way back, so i drove.

Machka 

Definitely country ... way, way out in the country. This is where Rowan's job is, and this is the type of area in which we like to live.

But we're also not car-free anymore because when you live way, way out in the country, you need a vehicle.

Cyclaholic

I live in the outer suburbs of Sydney. Very car-centric but I've 'discovered' a series of MUPs that interlink with quiet roads and they pretty much go everywhere I ever need to go. If I ride on busy roads it's because I want to not because I have to.

What I find interesting and disappointing is that every non-cyclist that asks me if I'm worried about being hit by cars knows about these MUPs. They all assume that they would ride the exact same routes they drive.

wahoonc

I put other...for a variety of reasons. I live on 40 acres but it damned sure isn't country anymore. and isn't really what I would consider suburbs. My job keeps me on the road 250+ days a year, so I sort of live where I land. Currently it is in a good place. I am in a college town where everything including my jobsite is in cycling range.

Where I live is no longer cyclist friendly. It was 20 years ago when I moved their. But as they have built lollypop subdivisions and not upgraded the narrow two lane roads it has become harder and less pleasurable to ride.

Aaron

TurdFerguson2

I live in the inner-city of a city of 150,000 people. I can ride pretty much anywhere in town within 0.5 hr. We do have one car because, with an infant it makes me feel a lot better in case of emergency, especially in the winter.

I used to live in the suburbs of Calgary, Alberta, which is about 1 million people. It would take me about an hour to ride downtown and then possibly a lot longer to get where I was going after that. I didn't live far from a light rail stop though, so I could take it downtown with my bike, but it would also take about an hour, but a lot less effort. Driving downtown would take about 1/2 hour provided you didn't get in a traffic jam.

chephy

City. It probably was considered a suburb as late as the 50's, but it definitely is close to the city core; some might even say part of outer downtown, if you define downtown very broadly. Here - or the country - is where I'd prefer to live, regardless of whether I had a car or not. It certainly makes the car-free lifestyle quite easy and enjoyable. I wouldn't want to live in the 'burbs because I just find them way too depressing. If I got a job way out there, I'd commute to it somehow... but I wouldn't want to move. In fact, my boyfriend works on the fringes of the city, where the real true suburbia begins. He bikes or takes public transit, and really enjoys his "counterflow" commute.

Foofy

I guess you could technically call where I live a suburb. My apartment is located near a series of apartment complexes, and we're right on the edge of the city and country. I'm calling it a suburb because of the road design out here: inconvenient and very much built with the assumption that everyone out here will and/or should own a car. Aside from school, a couple fast food joints, and a gas station/convenience store, I'm at least three miles from everything. Nearest grocery store is 3 or 4 miles away.

What really sucks is that right now the big road leading down to the school and other things is closed for road repair. Anyone in a car has to take a long-ass detour.

Funny thing, inbetween me and the nearest grocery store is the old downtown historic area of Ypsilanti. Beautiful area; I often spend hours just pedaling slowly around the streets and parks there while listening to music or audio books. People are always out there during the day walking their dogs and enjoying the outdoors, even during the winter sometimes!

I wish I lived in a small apartment in that area, and there was a grocery store there too. Would make getting food less of a hassle, and I wouldn't need to use the bike.

macteacher

Chephy,

When you say it would have been a suburb 50 years ago, are you talking about Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch? I used to live in New Toronto and still love that place. Now im in the burbs and work in the burbs..it sucks...but i can't beat a 7km commute.

terraskye

We'd live in the Country if we could but being carfree it isn't feasible for us with hubby's work. So we live just on the edges of the city core. We get all the noises of downtown traffic/sirens and such but our street is lovely and tree lined and we're walking/biking distances to a lot of great places so I can't complain to much.

angelo

Live in the city. Commute to office park outside the city but in metro area(16mile). Try to perform as many errands as possible on bike.

"Ride" in the country!

chephy

No, I'm talking much more central. Like North Toronto (Yonge and Eglinton). Perhaps I am wrong to say it was suburbia 50 years ago, but I've seen this sort of neighbourhood called an "older suburb" and "streetcar suburb". I know some hardcore downtowners who regard this as "sort of suburban" even now. Of course, for my parents, who live in Milton, this is unquestionably downtown. Depends on your perspective, I guess.

I know and like the area you're talking about too! Right by the lake, and definitely not a suburb, yet not hectic downtown. Has a very relaxed, quaint feel to it.

Yeah, that's not bad. Mine is 8 km right now, and it's not bad (just a tad too short, but I can always make it longer, if I feel like it )

rnorris

I live amid a large mass of suburbia and commute to my job in the city via bike and bus (46 miles RT). I vary the mixture, figuring that any day free of driving a personal vehicle is a good day. Ironically, the large residential growth in my area, while dramatically increasing the car traffic, has actually improved cycling conditions. The original narrow rural roads have been widened so they're much safer to ride on, bike lanes are much more common, and several MUPs have been added that are actually useful.

macteacher

Sorry to break it t you Chephy, you live in the heart of Downtown as far as im concerned. That is not suburbia..not even close....there are no winding roads and cul de sacs where you live....it's a perfect grid system....works really well. I like that area..very ritzy and full of excitement.

zephyr

I live in Orange County, CA which has about 3.5 million people, and nearly all of the cities in this area are suburban. The middle, southern and western parts of the county are easy to get around on bike, with good routes in most directions. In spite of lots of people and lots of cars, using a bike for transportation is a good option year round.

politicalgeek

I was in the city. Moved back with my parents to cut back on my work hours and finish college. Really miss the city.

It's kind of suburban/country depending on where you are. 5 miles either way and you hit some of the more developed and typical pockets of suburban sprawl. I have about 16 miles to ride through some gentle hills down to class on some rural roads. Looking forward to it-as soon as I can get the bike fixed up.

Robert Foster

It seems to me that a lot of Southern California Cities are like that. I grew up in Anaheim and we had a city center and a few houses behind the main streets but mostly people lived on the outskirts of town. I prefer small cities of 50k or so with a city center and houses surrounding them. But living in the Land of the shopping mall, Super Market and big box store there isn’t much beyond Boutique stores in a small downtown. So I don’t know how to answer the question. I don’t live in the classic eastern big city structure or something like San Francisco but I don’t live in the classic suburb either. I guess I have to answer “other”.

Allen

Farm country.

cerewa

I definitely live in the city. Here, it's very easy for me to find almost everything I need or want without going more than 5 miles from home. Aside from my job, which is over 3 miles away, I could live a pretty good life here without ever traveling more than a mile from home.

Roody

I live in the city, about two miles from the downtown business district. I live in an old farmhouse, with a half-acre lot including 11 trees. there's a large park and wooded area right behind my backyard. So it feels like the city in front of the house, but like the country out back. Pretty cool!

rajman

Having lived car-free in Calgary for a couple years I can testify that not all suburbs are created equal. Calgary's older suburbs are fairly nice for riding, a lot of the time better than downtown (too many multi-lane one way streets for my taste), with the notable exception of the new suburbs of Cgy - they definitely suck. Toronto's suburbs are generally crappy for riding IMHO, and downtown is great - the 'inner suburbs' are quite nice too (South Etobicoke is actually a really nice place to ride).

As for rural, farmland is generally nice for riding, wilderness I find a bit hairy for my tastes (those darn logging trucks!).

chephy

That's what my parents tell me.

I never said it was modern-day suburbia. I said that over half a century ago it might have been considered a streetcar suburb. Yeah, it's quite a nice area for biking!

sykerocker 

Montpelier, VA is definitely country - a slight wide spot in US33 about 25 miles from the center of Richmond. From my house to the center of Montpelier is 4 miles, add one if you want to go to the shopping district (two modest strip malls). Going into Richmond on the back roads is just as convenient as 33, you start hitting the western suburb (Short Pump, an absolute abomination of neon strip) at about the 15 mile point.

The city is nice, the hip club district is decent to visit occasionally, and all those 'quaint' denizens that make urban life so interesting are nice to run across . . . . . about once a month.

Those same qualities guarantee that there's no gun big enough to put to my head to ever get me to live there. I got over hip urban living when I left my 20's.