MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
i started a new job in dyce yesterday and took the car so i could establish the facilitys availible for cycling in and to carry a load of books and folders in
it took 45 mins to travel 2.5 miles in the car sat stationary most of the time. took an hour to get home the same 2.5 miles again stationary trafic.
I could have walked quicker. - there is a train station and lots of bus stops within 10 mins walk of the industrial estates
What makes people sit in a tin box in this traffic every day ?
Im back on the bike today - and we have good cycling facilities - yet only one cyclist(well 2 now).
It's your own special tin box though, with your own music and....smells.
can understand if you lived 30 miles away or something and those 30 miles dont go near a station...... but to sit for an hour to move 3 miles cant be productive to your free time !
10 mins to train or bus in the rain. 5 mins wait. 10 to 15 min journey ( whatever ), 10 - 15 mins home.
pretty easy to add it up to 45 mins that could otherwise be spent in your own box, listening to your own tunes, in control of your own heating. and you're dry at either end.
no good listening to me though. i ride 20mins rather than drive 7. 🙂
I don't know, but I really hate having to drive into work. I need to pick my son up from school tonight so had to drive in. The traffic was okay this morning but I still hated it. Last nights ride home across the moor in the dark was fantastic - I saw a fox and a stoat ran across my path. The drive home tonight will be awful.
But I don't expect many people to ride 20 miles each way to work every day.
i miss cycling to work, but 54 mile round trip over the top of dartmoor and back every day appeals even less.
Flexibility. To be able to set of exactly when you want to and go other places on your way back. Also if you want to transport stuff for things you are doing before or after work that you might not be able to get in a bus/train/on a bike.
Not an advocate of heavy car use, I can just understand it sometimes. Matt commutes to Dyce, probably not far from your new work, and does it as a car share with 4 other blokes from this area. If he wants to stop off for a ride on the way home, rather than come home, collect his bike and kit and then drive back down to Bennachie, he has to take his own car.
1. it's warm and there is radio 1.
2. Aberdeen traffic is a horrible at the best of times but if it's p1ssing it down then a nice warm car has to be better than a soggy and windy bike ride.
3. if you work in the oil business then it's important that you maintain the demand that keeps you in a job.
4. People lack imagination.
trains and buses aren't handy for everybody, a lot of people probably live a fair distance away from work, people don't like cycling, they've got kids to drop off or pick up on the way to/from work, they've got tools or other loads to carry..... it goes on.
I'd hate to have to join them though.
dunno judging by the ammount of abandoned cars on roads around here parkings a bit slim and results in a walk..... i know when i went to uni finding a space that was A not charging and B not taken and C not a mile away drove me to ride the 17 miles as much as possible !
yeah i understand some people need to but i reckon that if only those people were using their cars then the roads would probably only half as full as they are now...
[i]1...and there is radio 1.[/i]
you say that as if it's a good thing 😉
[i]2.if it's p1ssing it down then a nice warm car has to be better than a soggy and windy bike ride.[/i]
never, ever, ever. Once you're out on the bike, no matter what the weather, it's ALWAYS nicer than being in a car. 🙂
i agree andy P - look we can agree on something 😉
anyway tonight as i ride past all the stationary cars ill be thinking
HAHA *in a nelson munce voice*
Masochism? It has to be. Its the only thing I can attribute it too as I wizz past the stationary traffic, waiting for one of the bastards to open their door on me
4.5 miles each way for me, i have driven the commute once, have also taken the money instead of a company vehicle as i don,t wish to drive at all.
If the bikes happen to be out of action for any reason i walk.
never, ever, ever. Once you're out on the bike, no matter what the weather, it's ALWAYS nicer than being in a car.
Sorry, just not true unless you're a complete bike bigot. I actually quite enjoy riding in the rain/horrible conditions in a perverse way but there are definitely times when I've been commuting on my bike, in horrible weather, in the dark and with drivers acting like tw@s when I'd have definitely preferred to be in a car.
also read an article from a university that said air quality in cars was more poluted than that of a cyclist due to air intakes on a car being at exhaust level and the fumes not being able to diffuse into surrounding air as much. Maybe not so much of an issue if you have a good modern car with filtered air - i dont
I HATE having to share my personal space with other people. Despite living in London, which has pretty good public transport links, I very, very rarely use them.
Bike is first choice for shortish journeys (especially in rush hour) - its fast and cheap, then car (once a week or so), but then I'd rather walk in the pissing rain than use the bus, train or tube. Generally if I've got to drive, then I'll try and schedule it to avoid rush hour.
[i]never, ever, ever. Once you're out on the bike, no matter what the weather, it's ALWAYS nicer than being in a car.[/i]
Maybe not nicer than being in a car, but always nicer than being in [b]traffic[/b]
1. I have way too much to carry
2. I can practice my Spanish
3. I get paid for all my travelling time 🙂
I get paid for all my travelling time
now thats a real motive
Tend not to get wet or have to sit next to a tramp in my own car....
45 minutes probably isn't much different to anything else. 2.5 miles is an hours walk for most people. On a bike it's 8 minutes plus 5 minutes each and to change plus 5 minutes way to unlock/get the bike out the shed, so that's 25 minutes +. Unless you shower too. Then it's no quicker than a car. Buses obviously aren't any faster. Going to the train station, hanging around etc won't save much time.
So... 45 minutes isn't much slower than anything else. Plus it's comfy. You don't stink. You don't have to get near to stinking people.
The thought of being outside in the wind and rain on bike probably petrifies most people. The thought of being stuck in traffic when I could be on my bike or walking petrifies me.
Kev
trains and buses aren't handy for everybody, a lot of people probably live a fair distance away from work, people don't like cycling, they've got kids to drop off or pick up on the way to/from work, they've got tools or other loads to carry..... it goes on.
That's true for some people, but I suspect it isn't for [i]most[/i] people (apart from the "don't like cycling" bit).
Hate to say it but I think most people do it because they're lazy (in thought as well as physically) and have invested in a car-centric way of life.
Don't you cycle commuters get sick of bikes? You can't possibly want to ride for fun after riding in traffic in all weathers can you?
I know after commuting on a motorbike for 6 months I couldn't face riding for fun for 3 years.
Don't you cycle commuters get sick of bikes? You can't possibly want to ride for fun after riding in traffic in all weathers can you?
No, never. The memory of a grim ride home is always quickly diminished; the memory of a great ride anywhere stays with you forever.
AndyP
radio 1 gets me out of the car.
Aberdeen wind and rain gets really nastie and can last for days. If you car has heated seats then you can get a winter adiction.
[i]Don't you cycle commuters get sick of bikes? You can't possibly want to ride for fun after riding in traffic in all weathers can you?[/i]
I certainly can 🙂
Sometimes I've bottled it when I look out of the window at 05:20 and see evil weather, and got the train instead. Before I'm even at the station (20 min walk) I'm regretting not having ridden instead. Every single time. That's before the wet/cold station ,overcrowded train which might or might not turn up...etc. I've NEVER regretted getting up and doing the ride.
And it just makes you fitter which makes riding for fun even more fun 🙂
I live somewhere that isn't over crowded so it doesn't take 45 mins to do 2.5 miles, had to travel to Newcastle yesterday to do some interviews took me 40 mins to do 35 miles and I caught the busy traffic on the western by pass.
The grim rides toughen you up so you can make the best of the great rides.
The daily commute gets most of the aggression out of my system too, which is a *good* thing.
[i]Don't you cycle commuters get sick of bikes? You can't possibly want to ride for fun after riding in traffic in all weathers can you?[/i]
nope. my ride to work only takes 10mins on a bike, could take up to half hour in a car. I can also ride home for lunch which I wouldn't be able to do had I driven in. Then there's the option of multiple routes to and from work depending on how long I want to ride for and what sort of riding I want to do, and sometimes I run to work 😆
K
Don't you shower before you get in the car then? Get up, get dressed, ride in, shower at work. Quicker than by car and more fun.Unless you shower too. Then it's no quicker than a car.
Don't you cycle commuters get sick of bikes?
Nope and I'd guess (sweeping generalisation) we are generally fitter so can ride further/harder/faster when we do go out to do the fun stuff 🙂
[i]To those dead souls inching along the freeways in their metal coffins, we show them that the human spirit is still alive.[/i]
I can also ride home for lunch which I wouldn't be able to do had I driven in.
Why can't you go home for lunch if you drive in?
Don't you cycle commuters get sick of bikes? You can't possibly want to ride for fun after riding in traffic in all weathers can you?
I find it quite the opposite. If I haven't been commuting much, I don't fancy other rides as much, as I feel really slow and unfit. Commuting makes all the other riding way more fun than if you're just a once or twice a week rider.
Joe
I get the train into Dyce everyday from Aberdeen. It takes me 10 mins to the station, ~7 mins from Aberdeen to Dyce and ~10 mins from the station to the office. I could drive if I wanted but I find walking and listening to some tunes is a far nicer way to start the day than getting stressed in a car. Same for the homeward trip, arrive home chilled out rather than raging..
People get used to it and just accept that their journey takes an hour. I bet most don't even know how far it is, they just imagine that the only way to do it is by car.
At my previous job I was forever getting looks of amazement when they found out I rode a whole 8 miles. It just didn't compute. For 8 miles you needed a car?!
My current job I do 18 miles each way on the bike and that's quite normal. 🙂
Ah you cant beat aberdeen at rush hour. Take it trail-rat that it was the road from altens estate into the town. Lovely stretch of jam packed tarmac.
1 in 3 car trips made in Darlington (pretty average town) are less than 3 miles in length, don't require heavy baggage and is made by someone who is healthy enough to ride a bike and owns a bike.
This was 3 or 4 years ago. There are now 79% more trips made by bike than there were then (almost 2% instead of 1%).
Sad.
Sad.
But people are grown-ups and can make their own decisions about whether they ride or drive on any given occasion.
But people are grown-ups and can make their own decisions about whether they ride or drive on any given occasion.
Quite.
But still sad.
jabba - no its trying to get to the dyce/inverurie roundabout and onto the road to the haudagain ! - your not the same chap that sits behind me with jabbathehut on his hardhat i hope....
I used to cycle to work 2 miles each way and loved it, even in bad weather. It was so much easier to get motivated to go out for a ride when you've just had to cycle home in the wet and cold.
I now spend an hour (30 miles) each way in the car which isn't healthy for my body or mind getting out of warm dry box to go cycling in the cold and wet is just not motivating.
But people are grown-ups and can make their own decisions about whether they ride or drive on any given occasion.
A similar thinking is why I'd legalise cannabis.
But still sad.
And councils should provide the infrastructure to allow people to freely make the choice, rather than feeling it's unsafe to make one choice.
Tr, tell me you are not working for Haliburton......
Big fat women pass me in their big fat four wheel drives taking their big fat kid to school. Then they drive to Starbucks and get a skinny latte, then drive to the gym and go on the exercise bike.
Discuss...
I might be.........but nope. Not me.
Did i read on here that you work for wetherford??
Im off to inspect one of their saudi rigs tomorrow.
But people are grown-ups and can make their own decisions about whether they ride or drive on any given occasion.
But given the impact on their health, their wallet, the environment(contentious issue) and alsorts of other things it [b]is[/b] sad.
(and i'd guess a hell of a lot of those sub 3mile journeys are sub 1mile easily walkable never mind bikeable)
3.2 miles form home to work
cycling:
+fitness
-wet
-sweaty
-dangerous
car:
-weight gain 🙁
+dry
+reasnoble teperature (depending on whether i remember to switch the heater on/off before i left)
+safer
+I dont spend the rest of the day dosed up on painkillers because my knees given up.
+can go to the gym after work to counteract part 1, in a nice place, thats not freezing cold and wet, where people arent trying to kill me, and is populated by a higher proportion of single women (if you'r in a steady relationship you get lazy, fact!)
Going to get a scooter at some point and save the engine from an early death.
[i]Big fat women pass me in their big fat four wheel drives taking their big fat kid to school. Then they drive to Starbucks and get a skinny latte, then drive to the gym and go on the exercise bike.
Discuss... [/i]
You like stalking fat women.
..
[i]Why can't you go home for lunch if you drive in?[/i]
erm... because it takes ages to get through the traffic in a car !
I could drive if I wanted but I find walking and listening to some tunes is a far nicer way to start the day than getting stressed in a car. Same for the homeward trip, arrive home chilled out rather than raging..
You may want to look at dealing with your anger issues there
just a thought
Maybe once a month I might drive in, its 5 miles and can take up to an hour and a half. However sometimes I need to take specific things in which don't travel well in a rucsac. Mostly I cycle in, it take less than 20 minutes, sometimes I get a bit wet - but not very often. I do once a month come in with a Bob-Yak bringing stuff for one of the local charidee shops and taking home groceries, and if I'm lucky I get caught up with some of the local bike shop boys on the way home and forced to go for a cheeky half with them which I definitely can't do in a car.
It can get a bit stimulating at times though with some of the "interesting driving".
some of the commutes that people do I simply cannot understand. In Edinburgh one of the main roads to the west is clogged solid with cars for several miles every rush our - I can overtake several hundred cars in the course of a couple of miles. It can take an hour and usually at least half an hour to drive this couple of miles.
My life will always be organised so as to avoid that - sitting in cars going almost no where for a couple of hours a day? Nothing is worth that to me and I cannot understand why anyone would do it.
Why do they drive to Dyce?
Easy. Overweight semi alcoholic oilfield trash ken fine that Stone Island jumpers are not very warm, and their beige Timberlands will be ruined in rain.
Fair point about the wind in NE scotland!
Jesus 5th elephant, If you need to shower after riding 3miles you should seriously look at your fitness level, or prehaps back off a little, it's not a TT. Even changing clothes is probably unnessecary, I'm sure you can do without spds, lined shorts and whatever technical fabric jacket is required this month by the STW fashionistas for the 8 minutes it'll take.
This shower argument can be closed by the fact that if you shower at work, you DON'T shower at home, no? Therefore the 'extra' shower time can't really be counted!
I hate sitting in the car in traffic, hence cycling to work. I know that (whatever the weather) it'll always take me X minutes to cycle, therefore can closely time my day. If I were to drive, I'd have to leave at least 30 min before in order to account for possible delays.
I find now that any time spent in the car drives me mad! Unless it's after 8 in the eve, or I'm driving from town to town (i.e leaving my hometown) then riding is ALWAYS quicker, door to door.
DrP
Jesus 5th elephant
I quite like that. Better than Mr.
🙂
Is cycling to get to work (or college/ uni/ whatever) such a new concept to you guys?
Some of us have been doing it since the mid 80s.
It is quite amusing seeing a whole new set of excuses as to why people have to drive 2 or maybe 3 miles.
Is cycling to get to work (or college/ uni/ whatever) such a new concept to you guys?
Nope - I've never cycled to work
This shower argument can be closed by the fact that if you shower at work, you DON'T shower at home, no
I don't usually shower in the morning - can't you smell?
When I cycle to work I have to get up about 1 hour earlier to start work at the same time. Even earlier to take a bus.
I agree with TJ - i organise my life so as to avoid a long commute. I know it's not possible for everyone though. Property prices is a lot of the problem - people can't afford to live near work, so buy homes in commuter belts and drive in each day. We live in Bracknell (one hell of a town!), my mrs drives into London every day. She can do it, i cant, i ride 2.5 miles into town centre. I've got a crazy co-worker though. He lives closer to work than me, but still drives in, and pays £6 a day in the multistorey car park. Nuts!and the sort of short car journey that clogs the roads for people really going somewhere.
I spent years going in and out of Dyce (Kirkhill side) with no real problems but I was lucky to have a job with flexi-time so I worked around the busy periods when I had the car and cycled in every now and again. It was also nice to be able to head up to Kirkhill after work, ride for 90 minutes then cycle home to the centre of Aberdeen.
Unfortunately a lot of people just don't understand the concept of cycling to work. For many the last time they will have cycled will have been the day before they passed their driving test.
yetiman just arranging my stuff/lockers so i can carry minimal kit and have a prework ride up kirkhill as we are just off the dyce carpark access road
tr - are you familiar with the trails on the other side of the road from Kirky? There's some okay stuff there for extending the ride time.
No doubt in an ideal world everyone reading this would Cycle to work,at least on the finer days.
I have never worked anywhere (I work from home now) that had suitable changing/showering facilities, and it doesn't leave any flexibility...... unexpected late meeting, collect kids from friends, etc.
If your working environment encourages you riding in, then consider yourself fortunate.
uplink - MemberYou may want to look at dealing with your anger issues there
just a thought
I agree, this is why I do not drive.
I would love to be able to cycle in to the office but that would be 3 hours each way at best & have no desire to move house as it suits the rest of the family perfectly (and I like it to apart the journey to work)
Next best thing is a motorbike which saves me 1 hour a day which allows me to see my kids in the morning & evening which would otherwise be impossible.
I hate commuting by car now, but it took a while and its habit. After a while in the car you look out and think how horrible it looks. When you are actually out in it it is never that bad!
'can understand if you lived 30 miles away or something and those 30 miles dont go near a station...... but to sit for an hour to move 3 miles cant be productive to your free time !'
Is this a don't call Mat a lazy bastard clause Terry?
I go in for 7.15 and leave at 16.30 before the Aberdeen traffic gets bad anyway
Ooooh and what if your feeling run down, do people operate a 'not fit enough to ride not fit enough to work policy'. I sometimes feel that riding in crap weather will guarantee the onset of a cold (when already feeling run down)
TJ - Corstorphine by any chance? Took me an hour to get from Roseburn to the Gyle once. Once because I never did it again...
im lucky i live 5 miles from work we have showers and lockers
bad weather has never stopped me from cycling, there are these things base layers, waterproofs, sealskins too
its a 20-25min cycle vs a 40 min tube ride
i only ever tube it if im going to the pub later for a big one, which is quite rare
i save a grand a year get 45mins of exercise a day, dont pump out nasty toxic carcinogenic smog or sanity damaging noise pollution
i can listen to my ipod, in 5 years never been in an accident and know that regardless of what happens at work ill enjoy the commute
imho anyone who doesnt cycle a commute of less than 5 miles without a real reason is a lazy twunt
But I don't expect many people to ride 20 miles each way to work every day.
I do! Depending on the station I ride to it's between 6 and 30 miles+ each way and for the last six months or so I've done the 20 mile route each way, 4 or 5 days a week depending on whether I'm working from home at all.
Given the choice I'm sure when it's bucketing down I would be a lazy bugger and drive some of it but last year I sold my car so I don't have that option. In just over a year on my commute I've done over 5000+ miles, have lost a couple of stone and saved at least £2000 in petrol, running costs, parking and train tickets (I shortened the distance of my annual season ticket to make myself ride further) and not thinking about depreciation. And I get to spend some of this on shiny bike bits with a minimum of guilt as a result which is a bonus
Even at a middling pace I can still get door to door in about 4 minutes - but I'm a jammy git who lives and works on the same stretch of road. Not often you can do that though I appreciate.
I'll be buying a place sometime next year and am really hoping to get myself a decent bike commute as a result of the move would be good if I can convince the wife to keep cycling too as it keeps car running costs right down!
People are averse to cycling beacuse they think of it as more of a hassle than it actually is and because too many people buy cheap poorly spec'd bikes that suffer from faults on every ride.
Ooooh and what if your feeling run down, do people operate a 'not fit enough to ride not fit enough to work policy'. I sometimes feel that riding in crap weather will guarantee the onset of a cold (when already feeling run down)
I find by riding in I am healthier = less illness; sitting on the train with some random next to you blowing their nose whilst another sneezes over you - that is a recipe for getting ill.
I don't even have a full driving license (although in the middle of changing that) so don't have the option; even if I did, bugger all parking near work and no way of making the drive to my work pleasant; a bunch of crappy busy roads whichever way I try to work it.
Only advantage to driving in I can see is putting the bike in the back and going to some decent trails for a good ride before going home!!
Ooooh and what if your feeling run down, do people operate a 'not fit enough to ride not fit enough to work policy'. I sometimes feel that riding in crap weather will guarantee the onset of a cold (when already feeling run down)
Healthy people are ill less frequently than unhealthy people.
I now have a mental image of sniffly people, with runny eyes, dosed up on Day Nurse operating a tonne of metal at 60mph.