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…

1…and there is radio 1.
you say that as if it's a good thing 😉

2.if it's p1ssing it down then a nice warm car has to be better than a soggy and windy bike ride.
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 **** 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.

never, ever, ever. Once you're out on the bike, no matter what the weather, it's ALWAYS nicer than being in a car.

Maybe not nicer than being in a car, but always nicer than being in traffic

1. I have way too much to carry
2. I can practice my Spanish
3. I get paid for all my travelling time 🙂

[/quote] I get paid for all my travelling time [/quote]

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 most 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.

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 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.

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?

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

Unless you shower too. Then it's no quicker than a car.

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.

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 🙂

To those dead souls inching along the freeways in their metal coffins, we show them that the human spirit is still alive.

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.