mikeybikes

Got tired of waiting for the bus.

maximumrob

Once we had our first kid, going to the gym was pretty much ruined. Once we had our second kid, exercise was nearly impossible especially since the job had become so demanding. Add in the price of gas, and riding a bike to work seemed LOGICAL all around.

Plus, it's a good way for a rabid conservative green weenie to get my enviro hat on ("conservative" and "green weenie" are not mutually exclusive!).

Igo

There was a ghetto between my place and my job. One day it burned to the ground. All of it. One year later there was a 55 feet wide green belt all the way from my place to the job less the last 300 yards. I was SO proud of my city. The city trail system started expanding leaps and bounds. I did research to see 'what's up?' and found a 1996 commitment for a city wide (Henderson/LasVegas, Nevada) multi use trail system with parks, schools, water fountains and even misters, librarys, bus stops with buses outfitted with bike carriers and the list goes on. I thought 'genious' I was hugely intrigued but only for how the city was cleaning up. Then one day a thought hit me. 'You're a hiker and backpacker, look into this' and 48 hours later I owned the Giant. Haven't looked back.
It's 82 degrees this morning but bone dry. It will be 110 degrees when I get off this evening but its 7 miles gentle uphill to work and a coast all the way home. The trail is groomed. No cars or traffic. I get to put my bike in my office. I start the commute home nice and cool and hydrated. It rains 3 days a year here. It could not have a more perfect set of circumstances. My car is 3 years old and has 40,000 miles on it. I have a 4 month old touring motorcycle....and I ride a bicycle to work everyday. I couldn't be happier.

idc

1. Parking in the city ($11/day) was no longer reimbursed by my company. Gas $ also, although the drive is < 10 miles each way. Often I'll drive 5 miles and park for free, and then ride the rest of the way.
2. Hate taking metro ($6/day) + parking ($4.50/day) + gas (3 mile drive). Some days I'll ride to the metro though.
3. Have 2 kids including a 4 month old, not much chance to ride/exercise otherwise. I cancelled my gym membership.
4. Found decent routes that aren't too dangerous and variations to keep it interesting.
5. Love seeing other cyclists/joggers on the way.

smasha

i hadn't ridden regularly since i was a kid. in my early 20s i did some "recreational commuting" to and from campus.

i haven't had a car since i left the states, and after a year of riding the buses i started to wonder about my health and how to improve it. i knew i was too busy to do "exercise" so i started thinking about turning my commute into exercise (multitasking at its finest!). then i started getting some lumbar pain, booked an appointment with the chiropractor, and he pretty much said "well duh" what should i expect if i don't do any exercise. i'd been looking at bikes for a few weeks but my (then) wife still thought that getting a bike was the most ridiculous thing ever. she was VERY averse to the idea. then the bus drivers went on strike, and i made my move

it took a while to get everything sorted (good panniers, good rainwear, good blinkies, good tires, etc), but now i'm on my second commuter bike and since i stopped buying monthly bus passes my wallet is ahead of the game (if i don't count my tt/tri bike).

she was pissed off when i spent the money on a bike, but within a year i got to say "i told you so" because the bike was more than paid for in terms of bus passes that i didn't buy, not to mention no more trips to the chiropractor and i was feeling great.

all the money that i never spent on a car is stashed away safely, and she now owns a van that she was so excited to get, but now it's a money hole that just makes her miserable. and she thinks she's more of a tree-hugger than me. weird how things turn out.

Marauder9

I was reading how all you guys have so much fun commuting to work and i thought "I would like some of that".

I can only manage 1 day a week due to other commitments but I always look forward to it.

Jim from Boston

I was mainly a cycle tourist (including a cross-country ride) and weekend cyclist. I got a job that was a perfect set-up to commute, and at that time we had no car since we lived in downtown Boston. It was a 14 mile reverse commute through residential neighborhoods, with the option of taking my bike on the nearby Commuter Rail, usually for the homeward trip. The workplace has indoor parking and shower facilities, and plenty of various services, e.g. dentist, post office, etc within walking distance.

I've been at it for about 25 years, and over the last several I have lengthed my commute to encompass a periodic 10 week training schedule for a Century. When asked why I don't move to the suburbs my answer is that I live a perfect distance to cycle.

giantcfr1

In Australia I started commuting for training, and when I moved to Japan and realized that I and my family don't need a car, so of course bicycles became a part of our life.

Surrealdeal

Fun, fitness, and it's the only way to get a reasonable amount of mileage in each week and still get to bed by 10PM each night.

I'm still doing it fair weather though, so this is the second straight day here in MN that I've driven in.

Bud Bent

I was riding on weekday evenings and weekends, and when I moved from 23 miles from work to 12 miles away, I decided to try replacing the weekday evening rides with riding to work. I had no idea how much I would love riding to work.

nfmisso

I am a cheap a____. Commuting by bicycle has allowed us to use less than eight gallons a month of fuel (wife is an author). When I drove it was 1.2 gallons per day. I started with riding ~3 miles each way and using light rail for the balance, gradually eliminated the light rail. Also I am getting much healthier.

starla

I wanted to lose weight and I loved to ride. I loved even more making my bike ride into something as functional as riding to work. So I stay in shape, save money, and have fun.

justadude

cycling is more fun and good for physical fitness

rumrunn6

showing off for a girl some call it "peacocking"

"use props and accessories in a way that mirrors who you are -- but amped up in order to stand out from the crowd."

https://dating.about.com/od/glossaryw...peacocking.htm

ItsJustMe

Mainly environmentalism. These days it's the only way that I can keep my blood pressure down without taking meds. I really don't like taking any kind of meds so I like this; I'd ride anyway but it gives me a great excuse.

These days there are equal parts staying in shape, keeping my weight down, my health up, destressing and just having fun. Environmentalism is probably half of the equation though, with all the others making up the other half.

Basically what it comes down to is that there's nothing bad about it, why wouldn't I do it?

nelson249

I started doing it to lose weight and for fitness. I kept doing it frankly to be a rebel and to be thought of as a little crazy by my coworkers. Besides I loath paying my employer for the privilege of parking at work.

EKW in DC

A couple years ago, I finally replaced the Trek hybrid that had been stolen a couple years prior. I got a big box store hybrid. My intention was just to do some fun rides around town on weekends. One of my first rides I decided to ride to downtown DC b/c I could. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and was a lot of fun. When I realized I was w/in a few blocks of my office, the idea was planted.

Fast forward two years. I've commuted nearly 6,000 miles, have graduated to a Surly LHT I built up myself and is now equipped with a nice Brooks saddle.

Commuting's been a gateway to other cycling, I've ridden longer distances than I ever thought I would, and first overnight camping trip slated for a few weeks from now. Also got me thinking more than ever about urban planning and infrastructure and inspired me to pursue a masters degree. I start a masters in urban planning program this fall.

All thanks to a seemingly trivial, yet fateful bike purchase at Target 2 winters ago.

caloso

Too cheap to pay for parking, too lazy to walk, too antisocial to take the bus.

Booger1

No car to wash,insure,change oil,gas,wiper fluid,trans fluid,tune,tires,register,smog,grease,door dings,window washing,wiper blades,can't lock my keys inside,if the chain/belt breaks it doesn't cost $2000+,no worries about parking,no tow trucks,I now love the sound of the street sweeper,less pollution,you have to try hard to get tickets,on and on......

Best part of commuting...It's good for you and Fun! How many things can you say that about.

Now if I could just get a speeding ticket on my bicycle....frame and matting is all ready.....

jeffpoulin

Initially, it was just a fun way to get to work. Gave me something to look forward to. I didn't do it full time, just whenever I felt like it. Then I moved and changed jobs and my new city's traffic is simply a nightmare. Takes an hour to drive 5 miles. I started bike commuting full time, year round and haven't looked back.

mleach82

2 years ago i commuted for a few months with a co-worker. Since then he was in a car accident and hasnt commuted since and i got lazy.

Once gas started going back up i decided to start up again and have been so since April.

I would say the savings in gas and the need for exercise are what motivated me to start commuting again.

bluefoxicy

I'd been thinking about getting a bike to get to work for over a year. I have no great environmental convictions, and it sure as hell doesn't save on gas (not as much as it costs). Not a fitness nut either.

The long and short of it is ... well, there is no short of it. It's going to be a long time before I die, and I needed something to do to pass the time.

caloso

Ever done a Myers-Briggs analysis? You may be a INTJ.

bluefoxicy

The funny thing is the environutters are completely and totally wrong, and yet there is a real problem buried in there.

The CO2 output from cars is nothing. Trees suck that stuff up; there is no greenhouse gas effect, or at least nothing significant, from that output. Al Gore was claiming that cigarette smoking caused global warming a while back; it was funny at the time, but when you consider the process of making cigarettes... okay, so there's output. Still, it's nutty, and the consumption would shift elsewhere if we freed up the money by eliminating cigarettes.

But when you think about it, you start to realize the world would get really hot if we found a bunch of little bricks that weighed, say, 900-1200 pounds; heated them up between 800 and 1800 degrees; and then spaced them out so that thousands of them were distributed around any city at any one time maintaining this temperature.

An engine is a 1000-ish pound block of aluminum. Exhaust gas can reach 600, 800 degrees; and Inconel is resistant to 1810F at least because high-end turbocharged engines can hit 1800 degree exhaust. The radiator radiates heat, too; not to mention the oil pan and the whole engine block. Diesels run extremely hot, too; get passed by a big rig truck, fire engine, or ambulance in the fall or spring and it's like walking by a roaring fireplace. Small diesels are still hotter than gasoline, just not as big.

That's a lot of hot mass.

Why do you think it's so hot here? When I'm overheating, I'm somewhere up of 100F; when my car overheats, the radiator is measuring up of 200F, but the block itself is somewhere up of 600F and the exhaust system is over 800F in normal operation. Exhaust gas can leave the tail pipe at 200F; it can be up of 300F-500F coming off the catalytic converter; it's even hotter entering the cat. That's pretty hot!

Besides the heat, I take issue with air quality. "Pollution" is a valid term for "crap I don't want to inhale," and that's mostly carbon particulate and whatever creates that dragging, drying feeling in my throat. I don't smoke, why would I inhale car exhaust gases?

I don't think anyone's going to save the world by reducing CO2 emissions, even if bicycling becomes the 95% method of transportation across the globe. But the sheer volume of heat in the air and the whole beijing effect (nasty smog) ... ridding my city of that would be awesome.

scroca

I don't remember why. I do know that once I started I wished I could do it more but I had kids that had to be places -- different places at the same time -- so I couldn't ride every day. Once they could drive I became a bicycle-only commuter.