How useful is a bicycle as a form of transportation to you?

[Huckleberry]

In the "Nobel winning physicist takes on Global Warming' thread there were a few posts about bicycle use that I found interesting.

I realized that I could use a bicycle rather than an automobile for about 90% of all my travel needs. Living in Portland, the public transportation system is satisfactory and the environment is bicycle friendly. I don't have more than a few miles to travel to work, and there is a supermarket where I could get anything I needed about half a mile to a mile in either direction. I don't have any children to ferry around the city.

I could do perfectly well with a bicycle for almost all of my transportation needs and yet I haven't done this. If I sold my car I could save a lot of money. No buying fuel for it, no registration, insurance, or maintenance. That adds up to A LOT of money I could be saving. I've been thinking about getting a bicycle just for some exercise and enjoyment and it never occurred to me how practical it can be for me personally.

How practical would a bicycle be as a mode of transportation for you?

 

[blackcat]

Useless. I can just walk wherever I want to go, unless it's to the movies or shopping for clothes.

If you only have a few miles to work you should just walk. Less dangerous that way.

 

[siddharth]

Exteremly useful.

A bicycle is my primary mode of transport (other than walking short distances). It's cheap and healthy.

 

[Chi Meson]

I used to live in Portland (PDX I'm assuming you mean), and we (my wife and I) only used the car for trips to Mt Hood or the coast. I lived in Northwest by Forest Park; we biked everywhere. I hear Mineapolis is another bike-friendly city, but I have a hard time imagining it's better than Portland.

Now I live in Connecticut, and although the country backroads are great for road biking, and there are plenty of forest trails for "mountain" biking, commuting is almost out of the question for most people. Even if a road is "pretty good" for biking, there will be a section where there is no shoulder at all, on a blind corner, at the top of bottom of a hill.

It wouldn't be so bad, but our quaint New England villages are turning into tourist knick knackeries, forcing us to drive to get little things like milk.

 

[oedipa maas]

I've never owned a car. Cycling in the winter gets a little interesting at times (Mum calls the folks who cycle in the snow "temporary Canadians"). If I wasn't forced to bike to work and to do errands I would just sit in front of the computer getting fatter and fatter.

Sadly, I think I've used up my personal carbon surplus on international flights...

 

[humanino]

I have never owned a car myself either. Cycling is so much funnier than driving anyway

 

[Kurdt]

I'm fond of anything on two wheels. I cycle a lot to stay fit including short trips to town, and I motorbike to anywhere else.

 

[Andre]

Commuting from my residence to the job was a distance of 15 km, just under ten miles. There were three practical choices for transport. The car, the bus/train and the bike. the car took about 40 minutes, mainly spent in the traffic jams and finding parking spots. The bus-train took about 40 minutes mainly waiting for the transport to arrive. The bike took about 40 minutes. 30 minutes every once and a while with the wind in the back.

Excuses not to take the bike:

you insist on having air conditioning
you lost the instructions to use
the wind is always head on

 

[Four]

I wish everyone would use bikes to get everywhere then the roads would be a lot safer for people on bikes; then I would go bike riding everywhere I go.

 

[Cyrus]

Pretty much useless. I cycle a lot for fun. But if I wanted to go to school or work id have to leave at 5 am to get there by 8 and be drenched in sweat. The terrain here is a lot of hills. Also, people don't respect bikers (or motorbikes) when they drive. Finally, its very humid around here. On hot days you can pass out and die (we have heat warnings where the metro becomes free). If its not too hot, it becomes too cold. Not a place Id want to bike for serious transportation.

 

[Moonbear]

A bike would be useless for me. While nothing is very far from anything else around here, it's all on mountain roads with no shoulders. When zenmaster came out here to visit me, he finally understood. He's an avid cyclist and kept bugging me that I should get into biking and with such a short distance to work, should bike to work, and I kept telling him that there is NO WAY I could bike on the roads here, and even if someone had strong enough legs to manage it, they'd get killed by a car coming around S-curves unable to see them, and no shoulder to get out of the way (there are deep ditches in some places, and in others, just steep drop-offs down the sides of mountains, or guard rails in the way...there's truly no place to go...I'm not even comfortable walking here, and I LOVE walking, because you can't get out of the way of cars and can't see far enough around curves to know someone is there). I actually saw two guys attempting to bike up the hill in front of my house about a week or two ago. They looked reasonably in shape, but boy were they struggling! I think I could have walked faster than they were managing to pedal, and the one guy couldn't even keep his bike straight.

There is some talk about putting in some bike paths on campus, and that would help out for students living on or very close to campus because there are some flatter roads with better shoulders right close to campus, but still won't help much for those who live more than a half mile from the borders of the campus (and those who live that close already walk).

Once on campus, you're assigned to only one parking lot, which minimizes people driving around unnecessarily, and we have a monorail type system (personal rapid transport or PRT) to get around from one campus to another. Right now, it's a bit slow and unreliable, but they've been working on updating it. So, on campus I either walk or take the PRT when something is further than walking distance. Even if I go out to lunch near campus, I'll walk. But getting from home to campus requires driving.

 

[Smurf]

If my cycle wasn't broken in three places, it would be excellent.

 

[Evo]

A bike would be useless for me. While nothing is very far from anything else around here, it's all on mountain roads with no shoulders. When zenmaster came out here to visit me, he finally understood. He's an avid cyclist and kept bugging me that I should get into biking and with such a short distance to work, should bike to work, and I kept telling him that there is NO WAY I could bike on the roads here, and even if someone had strong enough legs to manage it, they'd get killed by a car coming around S-curves unable to see them, and no shoulder to get out of the way (there are deep ditches in some places, and in others, just steep drop-offs down the sides of mountains, or guard rails in the way...there's truly no place to go...I'm not even comfortable walking here, and I LOVE walking, because you can't get out of the way of cars and can't see far enough around curves to know someone is there). I actually saw two guys attempting to bike up the hill in front of my house about a week or two ago. They looked reasonably in shape, but boy were they struggling! I think I could have walked faster than they were managing to pedal, and the one guy couldn't even keep his bike straight.

Same for me and I currently live 22 miles away from my office. I would need to cart my laptop, purse and a briefcase, a small suitcase for my change of clothes and shoes (not going to bike in a suit), my office has no showers, and looking and smelling like a dead dog would be detrimental to my employment. Stopping on the way home to pick up dry cleaning and groceries would be out of the question, unless I could put a roof and doors around the bike, a place to hang my dry cleaning, an area to store my computer, clothing change and briefcase, with all that weight, I'd need to add a motor, oh wait, that would be a car.

 

[Surrealist]

Cycling is so much funnier than driving anyway

Especially when you're riding a unicyle or one of those miniature circus bikes.

 

[mattmns]

I use public transportation (bus), since I can't really afford a car. I could probably ride my bike to school, and have been considering doing it recently (it is only about 7 miles there and 7 back). However, I don't really have a good bike to ride, don't have the money, nor care to spend the money to get a nice bike, and I don't want to ride in the cold weather (lame excuse since I live in a pretty warm area).

 

[JasonRox]

For work and stuff it's good, but like anything else it's useless. I use my car to go to work if it's raining or it's going to rain.

Going to school I was taking the bus, but then I had so many early classes that the bus wasn't pratical. I need to wake up at 5am to make it for 8am. My school is really 25 minutes away (highway), but the bus system from city to city just sucks. So, I drove instead, which allowed me to wake up at 7:15am instead of 5am! I rather pay money to wake up at a more reasonable time. I would actually pay the school an extra $200 to make sure I don't get any classes earlier than 9am!

But this September, the bus system is suppose to be much much better. Unfortunately, the early morning bus will still suck. I hope I don't have any because if I don't Sept. 15, 2007, might be the last day that I ever will drive a car for atleast 9 months until I move. I plan on moving on the other side of the country and I want to keep my car. Car runs great and cheap on gas. If I sell it, I'd only get maybe $1000, but it would cost atleast $5000 to get another car that runs great like mine. The reason I'd only get $1000 is because the cosmetic paint is just horrible, it's a 1996, and it's a Dodge. Running great for now, but once it goes down the hole, it's gone for good.

 

[humanino]

looking and smelling like a dead dog would be detrimental to my employment

So this is why nobody comes interrupt in my office since summer time

 

[NeoDevin]

I rollerblade to and from work and school until the snow comes.

 

[daveb]

The public transit system in Columbus is pretty useless, the heat and humidity during the summer can get oppressive (not to mention the sudden rainstroms that can pop up), and there aren't a lot of bike lanes along the route from my house to where I work, so unfortuantely a car is the only option.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Rollerblading / biking is my main form of transportation. I can bike most places faster than a bus can get me there including the wait time at the bus stop/ bus terminal etc. Plus, biking is fun ;-).

Of course if I had a car, things would be different.

 

[Ronnin]

Bikes would work here in Houston about 2 weeks out of the year when its not miserable outside. I worked hard to finally be able to afford a car that has something better than the 'ol 250 AC system. You just can't drive fast enough to get this thick humid air to feel cool.

 

[chroot]

Same for me and I currently live 22 miles away from my office.

Admittedly, 22 miles is a long way. You'd certainly have to combine cycling with a bus or train ride for part of the distance. If you're feeling adventurous, you could arrange things so you drive to work (with the bike in the car), ride the bike home, and then back in the morning, then drive the car for the next two trips, and so on, thus halving your mileage on the bike

There are all kinds of creative solutions you can develop to cut your bike mileage if you can drive your car to park-n-ride lots, etc.

I would need to cart my laptop, purse and a briefcase, a small suitcase for my change of clothes and shoes (not going to bike in a suit)

If you drove a few days a week, you'd just stock up your office with clean clothes. I bet you could also find a way around carting your laptop, purse, and briefcase, or at least minimizing your actual load on the days you use the bike. I use a medium-sized messenger bag (a very high quality, comfortable one), and I can put about ten pounds in it before it becomes annoying. (This is usually a laptop and some munchies.) If you really need to cart around more than ten pounds of stuff on every single trip (which is hard to believe), you could use a bike with a rack.

my office has no showers, and looking and smelling like a dead dog would be detrimental to my employment.

This is a genuine issue. There's no way you can ride 22 (or even 10) miles without becoming sweaty. I don't often use the showers at work either (it's too time-consuming) and have found some reasonably good substitutes. I usually wet some paper towels and wipe myself off in the large handicapped bathroom stall, then towel off with a clean, dry towel. You might be surprised how well this works.

Stopping on the way home to pick up dry cleaning and groceries would be out of the question,

You could arrange those errands for the days you drive. Certainly, I don't advise that anyone just try to begin riding to work every single day all at once -- that's a very, very difficult thing to do, physically and logistically. Instead, you could just start with one day a week, and work up if you choose. Even one day a week eliminates some 14-20% of your emissions, which is pretty much as good as buying a hybrid vehicle. (And you'll burn another couple of thousand calories a week, which means more chocolate cake!)

A 22-mile one-way commute is nothing to toy with. It can take a new cyclist months to reach the point where he/she can comfortably ride 25 miles. You'll need to learn bike handling and nutrition. You'll need to buy specialized cycling gear, and learn how to use it. On top of that, you'll need to learn to negotiate traffic, fix flat tires, and so on. The learning curve for using a bicycle for long-distance transportation is honestly about as large as the learning curve in learning to drive a car. If you decided to attempt biking one or two days a week, you should give yourself 3-6 months to become competent to do it. It would not be easy, but it is certainly possible. It just comes down to a judgement call -- is it worth it to you?

- Warren

 

[JasonRox]

I would just move closer to work.

I plan on moving to the west coast (Vancouver/Calgary/Edmonton) and wherever I get a job, I will look for the nearest possible place to my work. If there isn't anything remotely close, I'll just look for another job unless the job is just a ridiculously good opportunity or pays a hell of a lot.

 

[Mk]

Same for me and I currently live 22 miles away from my office.

That was also my situation in Guam, but we had tropical weather. And you might say I lived on the tallest mountain on Earth.

The highest point is Mount Lamlam with an elevation of 1,334 feet. The Peak of a submerged mountain, Guam, rises 37,820 feet above the floor of the Marianas Trench, the greatest ocean depth in the world.

http://ns.gov.gu/geography.html

 

[scorpa]

Pretty darn useless for me now. I have a 40 mile commute to work everyday and its all highway...and of course no public transit. During the school year though when I am in the city I walk everyday, bikes are useless to me because they get stolen if you leave them. I do enjoy biking for recreation though, my city has very good bikes paths all around.

 

[turbo]

They are pretty darned useless around here, too. for ~6mo/yr the roads have snow, ice, and/or loose sand/gravel, and the road that I live on is paved, but barely wide enough to allow two trucks to meet and pass, with no shoulders and no break-down lane (no painted center-line, either as if that makes a difference to the jerks that want to claim their right-of-way out of the center of the pavement). Even in the best weather, this is a deadly road to ride bicycles on. It's 5 miles to the nearest village with a store that carries groceries, and the extreme hills and narrowness of this road (over 2 miles of the trip) forbid much in the way of bicycle consumerism. When you are looking at biking the edge of the pavement when two speeding dump trucks or pulp trucks are going to converge, your life seems very cheap.

I, too had a problem with theft at college. It seems there was a fraternity at Orono and another chapter in NH that were running trailer-loads of stolen bikes back and forth. I lost two cheap 10-speeds in 1970-1971 to thieves. I had a friend whose father was a dentist, and who bought him a $$$ Peugeot road bike to use around campus. He had multiple locks and cables and removed the wheels and locked them to the frame and racks and lugged his bike to his room every night. I opted to go bike-free and walked campus because I couldn't afford tuition, books, food, and bikes for thieves.

 

[Ki Man]

If my dad actually let me get out of the house by myslef, a bike would be my #1 means of transit.

 

[chroot]

I think we can excuse people who live on minimal, remote, rural roads that are covered with snow and ice six months out of the year.

I'm mostly interested in the opinions of people who live in a suburb six miles or less from their place of work (i.e. the majority of the US population).

- Warren

 

[scorpa]

I'm mostly interested in the opinions of people who live in a suburb six miles or less from their place of work (i.e. the majority of the US population).

- Warren

Well I guess if that was my case weather permitting I would bike or walk (assuming I could stay on bike paths for most of the way...I refuse to ride a bicycle on the road). I do do this when I am back in univeristy (walk) and always biked to my summer job in the city last year because it was fairly close.

 

[Moonbear]

I think we can excuse people who live on minimal, remote, rural roads that are covered with snow and ice six months out of the year.

Heck, during some times of the year, I can't even get to work by car. I took several snowdays off this winter as I watched the cars line up stuck in the snow on the hill in front of my house. I was starting to consider snowmobiles.

I'm mostly interested in the opinions of people who live in a suburb six miles or less from their place of work (i.e. the majority of the US population).

- Warren

When I lived within 2 miles of work for a while, I walked, unless I knew to expect pouring rain, then I'd drive. There was a bus stop right in front of my apartment, but the bus that ran near work was rather infrequent, so it wasn't a good option in bad weather either. By the time I walked to the bus station in the center of town, I might as well walk the rest of the way home. I've never liked biking, so would be more likely to combine walking and public transportation if I lived in a place with good public transportation. That's what I did in college and grad school. Between the campus bus system and the public transit system, I could take buses or walk pretty much everywhere I needed to get to. In college, I didn't even have a car on campus the first two years, and then in junior and senior year, I had it to get back and forth to doctor's appointments but left it parked in the lot most of the rest of the time (it was more convenient to walk and take buses than to drive around finding parking for the car anyway, and why pay for parking downtown when you can get a campus bus there for free?) In grad school, I couldn't always take public transit, and frequently parked my car on campus and then walked most everywhere from there because I needed to get back and forth to the farm sometimes several times a day and usually with supplies that I couldn't just carry (I wish I could have, because I'd have much preferred my car NOT stinking like goats from me getting in it and driving back from the farm).

If I still lived in NJ, I'd be very likely to take public transit. I usually head into NYC at least one day every time I'm visiting (to escape the relatives) and always take a bus or train (from my sister's, I take a bus because she's close to Atlantic City and there are buses running all hours of the day and night between there and NYC, and from my other relatives', I take the train, because around there, that runs later hours than the buses, so I don't miss my ride back if I stay late for dinner).

 

[hypatia]

Roads in Metro Detroit, were not ment for bikes. A biker on the road really freaks people out.

 

[Four]

What about us fat people that just sitting on a bike will break it down. There is no way I can bike; I have to take my car a few blocks. Wheels on bikes are just not durable and bend to easily. And the seat just bends backwards; well atleast no one will be able to steal my seat after I sit on it

 

[Huckleberry]

I'm looking at using a bicycle and public transportation for all of my transportation needs. I think it's feasible in my case and would benefit me in many ways. I live in Oregon and it rains here much of the time, but that doesn't concern me too much. There hasn't been much snow the two winters I've been here, so that's not much of a concern. It's not terribly cold in the wintertime. Only 3 things concern me about selling my automobile and just using a bike and public transportation to get around.

you lost the instructions to use

1. This is actually a concern of mine. I like the idea of using a bike for transportation, but I'm not sure how to ride one safely on the roads. I've asked a few people and they tell me it's the same rules as riding a car. I find this hard to believe. I don't see bikes on the highway. Sometimes there are bike lanes and other times there aren't. Is it ever legal to ride on the sidewalk? Are there some kind of biking laws or is it just etiquette?

2. Shopping for anything could be a pain. I usually stop at the supermarket on the way home from work and get what I need and just throw it in my car. This would not be possible on a bike. I'm also worried about keeping my bike safe while I'm in the store. I've never noticed if there are places to lock up a bike at most stores in the Portland area. I'm thinking I would probably have to use public transportation for shopping, and I'm not wild about that idea. I don't want to be sitting at a bus stop with half a dozen bags in the rain, waiting for my ride home. Also, I work nights so the bus shcedule doesn't fit nicely with my needs. These are probably my main concerns. Knowing myself, if I can't make this practical I'll never do it.

3. Getting to places out of town would be difficult. I don't go out of town very often, but there are times where I might want to visit a place that I can't reasonably ride a bike to. I'm not very familiar with the public transportation system here in Portland. I might want to go to Multnomah falls or MT. Hood or the Wilson River to go fishing and camping. I can only rely on friends so much for these things. They have their own busy lives and I wouldn't want to impose on them for a ride if they didn't want to go to these places. I've enjoyed the ease of travel that my car has provided for a long time now.

Any ideas for getting around some of these problems? At this point I'm playing with the idea of getting rid of my reliance on an automobile completely. I'd really like for it to be practical. Otherwise, I'll probably only use a bike for the rare occasion that I feel like going for a ride.

I looked at a few online sites for biking groups in the area and they all seem way too professional for my tastes. I didn't see any that were for beginners. A friend mentioned that the bike shops might have some recommendations for beginner bikers. Hopefully I'll get around to asking them this weekend. Anyone here have any ideas on this? Man, when I was younger I would go anywhere and everywhere on my bike. I don't understand why this seems like such a task now.

 

[daveb]

When i was attending school at UCLA, work, school and home formed a nice equilateral triangle of about 3 miles each side. My car rarely left its parking spot except to move from one side of the street to the other when the street sweepers came by.

 

[chroot]

1. This is actually a concern of mine. I like the idea of using a bike for transportation, but I'm not sure how to ride one safely on the roads. I've asked a few people and they tell me it's the same rules as riding a car. I find this hard to believe. I don't see bikes on the highway. Sometimes there are bike lanes and other times there aren't. Is it ever legal to ride on the sidewalk? Are there some kind of biking laws or is it just etiquette?

It is rarely legal to ride a bike on the sidewalk. Some cities allow it, but most don't. Even if it is legal, though, it's terribly, terribly dangerous. People do not expect vehicles to be going 15-20 mph on the sidewalk. When people pull out of driveways, they don't look up and down the sidewalk. You will almost certainly get into some kind of accident if you ride on the sidewalk, unless you're basically riding at a walking pace.

Bicycles generally have the same laws as any other vehicle, at least in regards to signalling, stop signs and lights, etc. The only additional rule (in most municipalities) is that bicycles must be ridden as far to the right as practical. Please note that this does not mean you must or should ride your bike in the gutter, or on the edge of the pavement, or anything else. Give yourself a good foot of pavement to the right. Bike lanes take precendence over shoulders, if the bike lanes are well-designed. (Sometimes they're terrible and I just don't use them.) If the road does not have a good shoulder, ride right out in the middle of the lane, right where a car would.

You will notice that people will pass you with much more care (and much more passing distance) when you ride in a relatively prominent position on the roadway, not barely on the edge of the pavement. You will also get more respect if your speed, lange changes, signals, and overall bike handling appear skillful. (This is perhaps the worst catch-22 in existence: motorists give little respect to people who appear to not know what they're doing, even though those people need respect the most.) I find that I can give many hand signals to motorists (pointing to the pavement when I want to change lanes, holding up a flat palm when I need them to wait for a second, etc.) and at least 50% of them respond to my directions immediately.

Never weave in and out of parked cars. Keep a steady, predictable line and speed, and let cars negotiate passing, without trying to "help" them by dodging in and out.

You will find that riding a bike in traffic is a terrifying experience at first, but gradually becomes pretty easy -- just like learning to drive a car on a freeway. It takes time, and practice.

2. Shopping for anything could be a pain. I usually stop at the supermarket on the way home from work and get what I need and just throw it in my car. This would not be possible on a bike.

Unless you get a rack, or panniers, or a messenger bag. You'd be surprised how much you can carry.

I'm also worried about keeping my bike safe while I'm in the store. I've never noticed if there are places to lock up a bike at most stores in the Portland area.

Most city codes require some form of bike parking in front of many businesses. Look around a bit. In the worst case, you can usually find columns or other features to lock a bike to. In some cases, stores will even allow you to leave the bike inside the building while you're shopping.

I can't really help you solve this problem directly, because I don't know exactly what the situation is where you shop.

Another mildly crazy idea is to simply rent a car for a day every couple of weeks and do all your shopping in a couple of large trips. Many cities have some kind of car-sharing system (ZipCar, etc.) where you can easily rent a car for a few hours to do your shopping.

3. Getting to places out of town would be difficult. I don't go out of town very often, but there are times where I might want to visit a place that I can't reasonably ride a bike to. I'm not very familiar with the public transportation system here in Portland. I might want to go to Multnomah falls or MT. Hood or the Wilson River to go fishing and camping. I can only rely on friends so much for these things. They have their own busy lives and I wouldn't want to impose on them for a ride if they didn't want to go to these places. I've enjoyed the ease of travel that my car has provided for a long time now.

You would rent a car for out-of-town trips, unless you know of some other convenient method, like train or bus. You can rent a car every single weekend for less out-of-pocket expense than owning one full-time. Get AAA or some other discount program to make rentals even cheaper.

I looked at a few online sites for biking groups in the area and they all seem way too professional for my tastes. I didn't see any that were for beginners. A friend mentioned that the bike shops might have some recommendations for beginner bikers. Hopefully I'll get around to asking them this weekend. Anyone here have any ideas on this?

You might want to go to bikeforums.com and ask people in your area what they do to get around. I bet you could find some local people who have solved all your problems for themselves, and can give you very good advice.

Man, when I was younger I would go anywhere and everywhere on my bike. I don't understand why this seems like such a task now.

It seems like a task for one simple reason: you have become a part of car culture, and now find it frightening to think of doing things any other way. People instinctively fear change. It's only scary for a while, though, I promise. It took me about a month to really become confident. After that, it quickly becomes liberating.

- Warren