My Commute

Guest

???
hi, as part of my MSc in product design at the university of teesside, uk, i am currently involved in developing a product that will encourage more people to cycle to work, i know you guys already do but would like to hear your opinions on the matter.  is safe cycle storage at work a problem?, is the sweat factor a big issue?, is road safety and journey distance a deterrant?

any feedback would be greatly recieved.

Guest

I cannot believe that I haven't posted on this thread

My commute is only 4.5 miles so distance isn't a problem, but in reply to some of brett's questions,

cycle storage is a problem but it's something I've worked out with the manager, I used to leave my bike in the changing room but everytime I went to go home, the bike had been tampered with as a JOKE, gears messed up, brakes tightened etc. So now I get changed and take the bike to my workplace and if anybody goes near it I just bark. ;D

The sweat factor isn't a problem because I've have the already mentioned changing rooms to freshen up in and as the guys in work point out ,"everyday I over shoot the runway" which means that I cycle passed work for a mile to cool off before I go in.

As for safety all I can talk about is my route and that's pretty safe so again it's not a problem.

My thoughts on commuting in general are that if somebody wants to commute then none of the above will be a deterrant, but most people just cannot simply be bothered.

ewep

Hi Brett,

Yep, my biggest problem is sweating  >.  I work in an environment where some of the other people are at work at 06:15 in the mornings, so standing at the basin, washing, etc. wouldn't go down that well with some people.  The rest of the stuff is OK, but if you can find a solutions for this GREAT!  

__________________
Biking or NOTHING!

Animal

I ride to work too. Never measured it, maybe 12, 13 miles each way.<br /><br />You definitely see the same drivers if you leave early in the morning. I leave between 6:30 and 6:50 so I get some recognition and respect.<br /><br />I go to the gym in the mornings, so I have a shower, change and then ride very slowly a few hundred yards to work. I still leave at 5pm, and at that time it's a nightmare of fear and hostility. I have had more angry encounters with drivers than I care to remember. Why can't people see that more bikes = less crowded roads??????<br /><br />Last August a car drove across a cross roads where I was on the major road and drove straight into me and knocked me spinning through the air. I broke my kneecap.

Lazarus-g

Animal I start or finish work at 3pm depending on what shift I work, so I miss the heavy traffic, but today because of a appointment I left for work at 5pm and I couldn't believe my eyes.<br /><br />It was total chaos, not that it surprised me , but the fact that people sit through that everyday, and I use the word sit because they weren't driving anywhere, astounds me.<br /><br />How's the knee any recurring problems ? and what happened to the driver was he taken to court ?

__________________
&quot;Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of mankind.&quot; - H.G. Wells

Animal

Well, the police were just going to slap his wrist.<br /><br />I wrote to them, telling them that I had sustained a broken kneecap and that his driving was blatantly careless. They wrote back saying that they had changed their minds because of my injury, and charged him with Careless Driving.<br /><br />That's pretty shitty I think. Regardless of whether I had broken any bones, his driving was still careless.<br /><br />Anyway, the fecker has the audacity to waste taxpayer's money and court time pleading not guitly!!!! He came out of a side road on the OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD TO ME, crossed the entire road and hit me square on the side.<br /><br />The centre of his front bumper hit my right shin. How was that careful driving?<br /><br />I have legal cover with the British Cycling Federation, and the lawyers chased the insurance company and I got 60% of the cost of a new bike, and travel and physio expenses.<br /><br />I am waiting for a final medical verdict before we decide on an injury compensation claim.<br /><br />I know that without the BCF's lawyers I would have got ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Insurance companies will just brush off a cyclist who attempts to claim from them. If you don't have legal help, you won't get anything out of them. They have NO ethics.<br /><br />The Careless Driving case goes to court on the 30th. I am a witness, and there are 3 other witnesses who were driving down the road behind me. It must have looked spectacular because I really flew and spun!<br /><br />I was lucky. My patella was not separated, and it didn't need wiring. I am riding well again, but I have pain when I step up and down on my right leg. I think I'll have to live with it for the rest of my life.<br /><br />This chap: http://www.hullthursdayrc.co.uk/newsandresults/latestnews/damianupdate2.htm wasn't so lucky. Check those X rays... brrrr! Horrible!<br /><br />His attackers just drove off. He has had no compensation at all. We have the Uninsured Motorists Bureau (I think that's what it's called) here which is run by the insurance companies to pay out when the perpetrator does not have insurance. They don't want to know. I think he will be in pain for life.

Lazarus-g

Animal It's something I've been thinking about for a while but after reading your post I think I'll see about some insurance.

__________________
&quot;Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of mankind.&quot; - H.G. Wells

rek

Hi all! My first post (I think.. can't remember!)<br /><br />I think I'm a bit lucky with my commute (25km each way) ... there is an excellent shared-path facility that runs alongside the nearest freeway into the city. Even better is that it seems that everyone forgets about it on the weekdays, and it's almost completely bare! (The weekends are a slightly different matter, though.) Path traffic is few and far between (and what there is, is almost universally friendly), and it's easily possible to cruise at a reasonable pace through most of the flats with excellent visibility as to what's ahead.<br /><br />It takes just over an hour to ride in, and 1:10 to ride home (home is more elevated than work). Once I get used to pedalling properly (I only recently got clipless pedals) I'm sure I can shave a few more minutes off <br /><br />For me there's about 500m of back-road riding from home to get to the freeway path entrance, and about 22km of this sort of path. The remaining 2.5km is through the inner city streets of Melbourne, however over a few weeks of cycling and intense study of Melways etc. I've managed to plot a route that is just about 'perfect' (only about 500m of it are busy streets, everything else is dead quiet side streets.)<br /><br />Interestingly enough, the only accident I've had was with another cyclist who was riding with brain out of gear, who went through a blind corner on the wrong side of the track! &amp;gt; He didn't stop, or even realise what happened, the fool.<br /><br />I swerved to avoid him, but soon after my bar-end snagged the railing of a bridge and put my wheel into it. One endo, a rather heavily bent wheel and dodgy front derailleur later, I managed to &amp;quot;limp-home&amp;quot; at low speed (thank God for disc brakes! ) and drive in instead. Luckily I only had a minor graze on my palm and a knee. Needless to say, nowadays I always wear gloves, and am particularly careful around blind corners <br /><br />There are heaps of showering facilities at work; I drive in one or two times a week to keep work stocked with fresh clothes &amp;amp; towels. My office is big enough to comfortably store my bike, so security is not an issue. <br /><br />I ride a MTB with slicks -- I like it that way as in an emergency, it'll let me hop kerbs, ride off onto grass fields adjoining the track (in the rare case of an inattentive path user), and better deals with dodgy situations (like trees falling onto the track, leaving only bumpy singletrack as a detour) has far better brakes, and so on.<br /><br />I don't own a race bike (yet!) but when I do get one, I don't think I'd commute on it.

__________________
Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra

Animal

Heh! You will...<br /><br />When you discover that you make it to work in 45 minutes for half the effor, and that the road bike will still go up and down kerbs and off the road...<br /><br />I was an MTB man. Not any more! My Cannondale Super V 1000 hangs neglected in my garage!

rek

Argh no! Stop it! I've been giving the cut-price Trek 1400 at my LBS a good look over every time I've been there for the past month or so! :-* It's my frame size too. Why do they taunt me so ...<br /><br />Or maybe the special deals on Peugeot Professionel-framed bikes at the other bike store nearby ..<br /><br />If only I had some spare money about! I do prefer riding on tarmac than singletrack BTW. I guess it's only a matter of time

__________________
Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra

Rhodent

Hmm, I don't know what roads you have but the Johannesburg ones occasionally warrant a full MTB. Put some slicks on the MTB and one has something which isn't massively slower than the racer, while allowing you to hit potholes (sorry, shouldn't talk about that, he sounds like a nice guy) without needing to true your wheels each time. Occasionally one doesn't have a choice with traffic around you, I'm reasonably nifty on my racer now (can take kerbs and potholes) and its still much quicker reacting on a MTB, one just has to look at the relative positions. So saying, I'm not exactly a trials rider and guys like animal seem to be a little beyond us, I just find I need the extra time the MTB gives me, maybe in a few years I'll have the bike skills to feel as comfortable on my racer (and confident of not destroying the poor little thing).

__________________
What do you mean there's no granny gear? How do you go up hills? Ahh, I see, you don't have hills.

acid

I commute occasionally, it's 8km each way so it's nice and easy. The route into work is mostly downhill, the first section is through a park with single track. There are a couple of hobo's that may want to expropriate my bike so I do that section at terminal velocity.... scares the daylights out of the haadedaaas.<br /><br />Then its into traffic, I cross a small bridge on the pedestrian portion, cross a main road and then it's back roads all the way to work. A quick shower and I'm ready for the day... The looks you get from the sedentary office workers when you come strolling through the office with the bike, all sweaty, muddy and grimy is worth it ;D<br /><br />The only hassles I have is the Highveld thunderstorms in summer and forgetting my underpants at home and having to go &amp;quot;Commando&amp;quot; all day at the office.... (Sing along now........swing loww...... ;D )<br /><br />The route home is all uphill (Steeeep uphill!) but worth it. I love beating the guys in their expensive cars up hills. You can see the envy in their eyes as you zip past them...

__________________
Try not....... do or do not, there is no try....

Lazarus-g

Normally I commute to and from work at times when the traffic volume is pretty low, but today I had to come home at peak traffic time and it was a blast.<br /><br />I think I spent the whole time with a big grin on my face as I went from one traffic jam to another, there I was cycling happily past the cars with their drivers blankly watching and waiting for the car in front to move and I was loving every minute of it.<br /><br />At my normal time I rarely see anybody on a bike, but today because I was two hours later I saw quite a few and I'm leaving and open message to everyone of them I saw today<br /><br />&amp;quot;Your all IDIOTS&amp;quot; (to put it politely) not one of them had lights on their bikes, here in the UK at Five pm it's now dark, and not one of them took any effort to get themselves noticed.<br />Everyone of them had dark clothes on (black in most cases), so whilst I'd like to praise them for getting on their bikes, going about it in a suicidal manner is not the way.<br /><br />Laz

__________________
&quot;Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of mankind.&quot; - H.G. Wells

rek

Laz,<br /><br />I've heard of some people putting the flashing red lights on the FRONT of their bike! <br /><br />I firmly believe that some people just don't think anything through...<br /><br />Most of the commuter cyclists I've seen are pretty good with lights (well at least the rear lights; a good number of them don't put their front light on half the time).. the most annoying thing I see is people pedalling at a 30rpm cadence <br />

__________________
Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra