Quick survey for my curiosity if you commute by car, how would you classify yourself if you currently drive to work? I realise the sample might be biased (allegedly this is a bike website), but options as follows:
1) Will always drive no matter what, every working day
2) Would drive 4 days a week, would walk/bike/transit 1 day a week if safer/better
3) Would drive 3 days a week, would walk/bike/transit 2 day a week if safer/better
4) Would drive 2 days a week, would walk/bike/transit 3 day a week if safer/better
5) Would drive 1 days a week, would walk/bike/transit 4 day a week if safer/better
6) Would give up the car, would walk/bike/transit 5 day a week if safer/better

If you already only drive a few days a week feel free to select that option. Safer might be fully protected routes between home and work, better transit, might be faster, more reliable, more frequent, etc.

Pick one number as your answer, i’m curious how many people are diehard car drivers and how many are willing to switch even for part of the week.

Would it not have made more sense to post your poll on a forum that has a poll option when starting a thread?

Nah! Wanted to see what you guys thought! Answer the question!

Was a 1), now a 6)

Scrapped the car about 5 years ago. Probably use the wife’s car less than 5 times a year to get to work, and cycle or run the rest.

No choice but to drive to my current place of work.

I wouldn’t survive the week if I rode in and back. 24 miles each way with approx 3000 ft of climbing one way. That would be before and after a 12 hour shift. No public transport unless I want to ride 3 buses each way taking 3 hours.

1…35 miles approx ( location changes) each way x 4 times weekly to get from deepest darkest Northumberland to the bright city lights of Tyneside ..
Public transport is simply not an option ..I couldn’t get there in time ..neither using my bike for even part of the journey ..

No alternative but to always use my car, too far to cycle and publuc transport none existent!

Don’t get too caught up in the current practicality. Imagine there was a bus or a bike path, would you rather use them or do you like driving that much?

1. I’d like to ride into work and back every day but the car is needed for the job as is all the crap in the boot and back seat. The required response time out of hours wouldn’t let me cycle in and we have nowhere safe to store a bike and nowhere to change or clean up after.

The complete opposite of when I worked at the council but that was a terrible job that made me want to kill people.

@rs…I like driving and fortunately for me live in a part of the country where congestion isn’t too much of an issue until you reach the outskirts of the city ..this also means that I can travel at speeds many of the goody two shoes on the forum would deem inappropriate ..but traffic is light ..and I prefer to look at it as having a bit of enjoyment ..
Shoot me now !

My excuses, I could ride to work, it’s even a nice ride 9 miles 7 of that on the canal.
The trouble is 12 hr shifts 11 of which I’m on my feet.
Takes half an hour to work by car cycling would make it a 14hr day.
At the moment if driving on nights I have time for dinner with wife before leaving for work and breakfast the next morning. If cycling I wouldn’t see her
I do sometimes ride on a Saturday night if weather is nice and lights not needed.
Most of my other riding is from the front door. Only managed 5000 diesel driven miles per year for last 4 years

7) van using self employed manual worker ,mostly drive to ride decent trails .

1) Only about six miles but I don’t enjoy riding on roads and I cycle for pleasure.

I’m currently working 180 miles from home, so as much as I’d like to walk it isn’t really practical.
I also have a weekend car which I drive for fun.

I wfh, but in every past situation I have mostly chosen to live somewhere to make 6 happen. Driving into Manchester, central London etc, was never the quickest way there.

6 always, but I live 5m from work

Another very active shift worker here, just up and completely wiped. Like daz it’s a relatively short cycle at 7.5 miles but means getting up earlier and rushing out.

Greens carpark tax is going to hit a lot of folk at my site, nearest bus stop is several miles away and no service when it is needed. Great in principle but utterly woeful in execution.

I cycle to work whenever I can, usually 2 or 3 times a week. If I had no other commitments I’d ride 5 days a week.

Not very, but timescales of a child mean i have to be home at 3:25pm from work, which means i have to be in the office at 6am. If i cycle to work, i’m then having to be leaving the house at 4:30 to get in on time and get back in time. It’s not terribly practical.
That should change in Sept as he goes to big school so will get a key.

Both me and my wife are essential car users for work so have to take them to do our jobs. If the council got lease/pool vehicles then I’d definitely cycle or get the bus most of the time and we’d get rid of one car.

My chauffeur takes me.

Similar to beefheart. 150 miles away from home. Drive to work Monday, drive home on Wednesday night. Public transport isn’t an option.
Thursday morning I’m in London so ride to the station, only 5 miles.

I love my car, but commute by bike. But I can’t see that as an option!

4
My commute by bike on road is pretty safe and when it’s dry I can do it almost all off road on some fun trails.
Having the energy and motivation to do it is the problem. My commute is only 12km each way but 300m of climbing on the way in and 225m on the way home. I like to ride for fun on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday nights, and I’m on my feet all day at work.
So generally I ride to work on Thurs, Friday and sometimes Mondays in the summer.

Although today it’s windy and raining so I’m going by car!

1 as my office doesn’t have shower/changing facilities I consider suitable.

8) public. Transport or.bike are the practical options and mix it up depending on how I feel. Driving would involve delays both ways and not enough parking at work. Would also cost more.

Hardly ever drive either my Type 2 or T5 these days only used for holidays and weekends away.

I cycle commute to a clients office in London 2 or 3 times a week avg 38 miles and 3 hrs per day which is as quick as bike to station, train and tube – driving would be miserable, expensive and selfish.

Just started working for a new client in Buckinghamshire – have driven the wife’s car so far as haven’t plucked up the courage to use the only shower which is located in a dry wet room in the visitors/disabled toilet behind the reception desk and looks never to have been used! That would be 50 miles and 4 hours per day once or twice a week where as the car is 40 mins. Would still prefer to cycle.

25 miles each way, no showers, try and ride to work as often as it’s practical.

In the summer when based in the office that’s 3x a week, at the moment it’s 0 because im working away from home.

If do it 5 days a week if I could but either need the car for work or driving to go mountainbiking in the evening a couple of times a week.

It’s not even that sweaty as it’s cool in the morning and takes about 1h50, and the m4 can take an hour on a good day. So it only really means missing breakfast which I can then have at my desk and 50min out of my evening in return for 4 hours biking! Seems like a god deal to me!

I drive to work because I am then out in meetings, schools and nurseries most days.
Public transport to some places is possible, but often much, much longer.
I manage to ride once a fortnight or so.
Yes I do choose car when I should ride some days.
I would love to go down to one car.

Not really any of the above.

Train whenever work and domestic diary allows.

Car if likely to be working in office beyond about 730 (empty roads means it’s only 40 minutes to drive home vs. an hour of train and walk but at rush hour 1h20 is not uncommon in the car).

I probably manage about 50/50 over a year excluding long distance trips away but it varies heavily week to week.

Don’t get too caught up in the current practicality. Imagine there was a bus or a bike path, would you rather use them or do you like driving that much?

I do like driving but it is also quicker and cheaper than using a bus. The bus has no benefits whatsoever to me. Unless the bus stops outside my door, drops me off at the front door of my workplace and doesn’t stop once in between then it may be viable. Otherwise it is adding an hour onto a 20 minute car drive.

I work from home now, car sits on the drive looking pretty.

It varies for me – I work from home when not due out for meetings. I was just commenting to my wife this morning that the car hasn’t moved off the drive in at least a week(which is nice). However the week prior I had to visit every city in Scotland for work on different days.

Next week is looking busy again though…

I’m a 1 through necessity and I hate it. I used to run commute in Sheffield which was perfect, I now have a 70 mile round trip in the highlands of Scotland.

It won’t be forever and living here far outweighs this only downside.

1 – it’s an 80 mile round trip.

I have previously driven some of the way & then cycled the last 13 miles or so, but currently the extra time that takes makes it unfeasible.

If I had a commute of up to 15 miles or so, I’d probably cycle most days assuming there was a safe route.

I don’t drive to work, I do drive to nursery and then to park and ride. In an ideal world I’d happily scrap the car as far as work is concerned and if a house move comes off soon then pretty much can.

Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out

I used to cycle to work most days, unless I needed the car to go to site.

But it stopped being pleasant and ended up just being a chore and making me angry so I stopped. Every now and then I have a spate of cycling in again but it doesn’t last long before stuff gets in the way or I’m shouting at drivers again. Traffic is also shit though, and i’m starting to think of cycling in again as I’m supposed to training for a triathlon…..

Public transport is actually fairly good in terms choice of buses/trains combs, but it takes too long and is full of people coughing all over you or talking really loudly about their ‘problems’ on their phones…..

I was at my last job five years, the office was 21km from home. In that time I drove to work maybe half a dozen times, the rest of the time was either bike or train. The times I did drive in it was because I had to carry something to/from work that I couldn’t physically carry myself. It was so rare that I had to inform the others in the office know so that they didn’t get upset about one of the limited parking places being used by an unknown car.

Current job varies from walking 50 metres from the house to a two hour car journey.

1). Work 35 miles away and no public transport option.

No brainer 6 for me

15 minute train journey plus 10 and 5 minute walk at either end, £95 per month metrocard versus 1+ hour drive (mainly stationary), c£8 per day parking plus petrol.

Not to mention freedom for spontaneous after work beers

We got a house specifically to be train commutable.