A benchmark for commuting by bike?
downfader
Posts: 3,686
I have, for the past 3 or so years had this little guide in my head. Anything under 3 miles distance and its a ride or a walk, 3-10 miles and its a bike or the bus... but for over 10 its bus or scag a lift off a family member.
I was watching Panorama tonight about fuel costs and it just struck me how people undervalue the capabilities of their own bodies or are simply lazy. :? They made a big deal about the G Whizz car, cool little thing, if a little ugly - but I was surprised of no mention of how many people down here who have bought bikes! :shock:
Atleast two of the local shops I was in recently I overheard the guys on the phone discussing with customers about how they were sold out on this that and the other. One of them is definately doing good business and is well and truly blocked up in the repairs dept (usually in summer they are busy, but I've never seen them THIS busy).
So for local journeys do you fellas (and ladies - are there any ladies here? :?
) have you're own little thresholds for what the bike gets used for, and the car for others? Or am I just mental..?
I was watching Panorama tonight about fuel costs and it just struck me how people undervalue the capabilities of their own bodies or are simply lazy. :? They made a big deal about the G Whizz car, cool little thing, if a little ugly - but I was surprised of no mention of how many people down here who have bought bikes! :shock:
Atleast two of the local shops I was in recently I overheard the guys on the phone discussing with customers about how they were sold out on this that and the other. One of them is definately doing good business and is well and truly blocked up in the repairs dept (usually in summer they are busy, but I've never seen them THIS busy).
So for local journeys do you fellas (and ladies - are there any ladies here? :?
) have you're own little thresholds for what the bike gets used for, and the car for others? Or am I just mental..? 0
Comments
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More what I'm carrying - a surf is 12 miles away and I need the car to put the board in!
I've done shopping by bike but it's very hard to get the stuff we need (tried a big rucksack but it was downright dangerous!).
Most stuff is by bike these days though. Ride 10m every morning, and lots of stuff at weekends. Also consider anything less than 2 miles to be worth running to/from and consider a 6 mile run fair exercise (okay - quite knackering!).
But I do see your point - those G Wizzes have a 48 mile range - WTF?!! HOW useless! 0 -
Those G Whizz's are a menace - they creep up silently from behind and can give you a bit of a shock (no pun intended). They should be designed to sound like a real car...0
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...bike to work, bike to the town and shops, bike riding at the weekends... 8)
I agree with you downfader people do underestimate the use of their bodies, we should be using them, they are made for movement and travel. We will all turn into jelly blobs if we don't use them......all the way...'til the wheels fall off and burn...0 -
I once almost stepped out into the road in front of a Toyota Prius, it was running in Stealth mode, ie on the batteries.Scared the cr@p out of me.Gussio wrote:Those G Whizz's are a menace - they creep up silently from behind and can give you a bit of a shock (no pun intended). They should be designed to sound like a real car...0 -
In Bath a woman who was hit by a cyclist as she walked into the road without looking is demanding a ban on bikes because they are too quiet!Gussio wrote:Those G Whizz's are a menace - they creep up silently from behind and can give you a bit of a shock (no pun intended). They should be designed to sound like a real car...0 -
No body noted that the financial adviser lived in Richmond, a travel card would save him £7k a year plus, and god forbid he dust off his bike and he’d save even more. I agree a good argument for ditching the gas guzzlers but stupid to ignore the fact he could just use his legs.
I would also argue you look more of a tw@t in a bright yellow G-whizz than in lycra…0 -
alfablue wrote:
In Bath a woman who was hit by a cyclist as she walked into the road without looking is demanding a ban on bikes because they are too quiet!Gussio wrote:Those G Whizz's are a menace - they creep up silently from behind and can give you a bit of a shock (no pun intended). They should be designed to sound like a real car...
alfablue - great link. Enjoyed the comments posted against the article
e.g According to Charles Darwin Mrs Clark's genes will eventually die out and be replaced with genes that encourage looking both ways before crossing a road. As for only allowing vehicles you can hear ! Why not only allow vehicles you can see ?
Fred Dered, Hampshire0 -
I got rid of my car 18 months ago and have not yet felt the need to replace it. Commuting is done by bike (not that a car is an option working in central London anyway) as is shopping (loading up the panniers, I use the Globe which has a really heavy-duty rack for that). When I go further afield the bike goes on a train. Visiting my family or friends on the other side of London is easily done too. The only thing that has foxed me so far was a vet visit, so I relented and got a cab for that, being as the beast wouldn't have liked being strapped to the bike rack and rattled to death on London's crappy roads.
I save around £1000 a year by ditching the car and not paying for a travelcard, and it's much more fun to spend that on bike-related stuff.
There are many G-whizz things round here, I think they sound like milk floats whirring up behind you.0 -
Surf-Matt wrote:More what I'm carrying - a surf is 12 miles away and I need the car to put the board in!
Even you have options: bike trailers have been used for surfboards. Granted it'd take you an hour to get there and you'd need a VW bicycle
but it's been done
for example:
http://www.comfortchannel.com/prod.itml/icOid/74310 -
will3 wrote:Surf-Matt wrote:More what I'm carrying - a surf is 12 miles away and I need the car to put the board in!
Even you have options: bike trailers have been used for surfboards. Granted it'd take you an hour to get there and you'd need a VW bicycle but it's been done
for example:
http://www.comfortchannel.com/prod.itml/icOid/7431
That's pretty cool. I want one and I don't even own a surfboard...Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.
(John F Kennedy)
Hairy Roadie (new scoring) FCN 1/20 -
Totalnewbie wrote:The only thing that has foxed me so far was a vet visit, so I relented and got a cab for that, being as the beast wouldn't have liked being strapped to the bike rack and rattled to death on London's crappy roads.
My Vet has a solution. He has two big dogs, which go in a cage type trailer thing on the back of his bike. He cycles a fair distance too..Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.
H.G. Wells.0 -
downfader wrote:... it just struck me how people undervalue the capabilities of their own bodies or are simply lazy. :? ...
So for local journeys do you fellas (and ladies - are there any ladies here? :? ) have you're own little thresholds for what the bike gets used for, and the car for others? Or am I just mental..?
On the first one yep that's so true nowadays, society is simply becoming ever-more lazy. On the second, no you aren't mental. As i don't own a car my choices are bike or train(*), or a bit of both so it depends on how quickly i want to get to my destination really. And weather, yes i admit it, is a factor sometimes.
*There are buses too but i can't remember the last time i went on one0 -
Gussio wrote:alfablue wrote:
In Bath a woman who was hit by a cyclist as she walked into the road without looking is demanding a ban on bikes because they are too quiet!Gussio wrote:Those G Whizz's are a menace - they creep up silently from behind and can give you a bit of a shock (no pun intended). They should be designed to sound like a real car...
alfablue - great link. Enjoyed the comments posted against the article
e.g According to Charles Darwin Mrs Clark's genes will eventually die out and be replaced with genes that encourage looking both ways before crossing a road. As for only allowing vehicles you can hear ! Why not only allow vehicles you can see ?
Fred Dered, Hampshire
Yeah, that was a good comment! Mine was the first one (Richard). Bath Cycling Campaign emailed all of the members to alert us! 0 -
will3 wrote:Surf-Matt wrote:More what I'm carrying - a surf is 12 miles away and I need the car to put the board in!
Even you have options: bike trailers have been used for surfboards. Granted it'd take you an hour to get there and you'd need a VW bicycle but it's been done
for example:
http://www.comfortchannel.com/prod.itml/icOid/7431
I actually designed and made one for an A level design project that worked pretty well. It's certainly an option but not sure where I'd leave my clothes on arrival - cycling in a wetsuit could be a bit sweaty!0 -
Gussio wrote:alfablue wrote:
In Bath a woman who was hit by a cyclist as she walked into the road without looking is demanding a ban on bikes because they are too quiet!Gussio wrote:Those G Whizz's are a menace - they creep up silently from behind and can give you a bit of a shock (no pun intended). They should be designed to sound like a real car...
alfablue - great link. Enjoyed the comments posted against the article
e.g According to Charles Darwin Mrs Clark's genes will eventually die out and be replaced with genes that encourage looking both ways before crossing a road. As for only allowing vehicles you can hear ! Why not only allow vehicles you can see ?
Fred Dered, Hampshire
That actually cracked me up!!
Karl J, on our local busses I have to admit to only travelling at certain times. They just seem to either fill up like sardines, or fill up with scumbags who wnt a fight around here sometimes. And i cant stand kids
Funny story about busses: I waited a few years back for a bus one morning to go into work. The bus was sooo late, and it was peeing down and blowing a gale. This woman at the same stop moaned for about 20 minutes non stop about "bleeping late busses,. always bleeping late"
Finally a bus appears, packed to the rafters, we both get on. The bus goes two stops and she gets off. A total travel of 1/4 mile. She could have just walked it in 5 minutes (and she had no obvious disability) 0 -
Gussio wrote:Those G Whizz's are a menace - they creep up silently from behind and can give you a bit of a shock (no pun intended). They should be designed to sound like a real car...
They should be forced to have cards in the spokes of their wheels that make a rat-at-at-at-at-at sound as they move along. Cool and retro. And the bonus is that anyone aged over about 30 would smile every time they heard them, thinking about the bikes they had when they were kids. And grown-up couriers today, obviously.
(What's that? G-Whizzes don't have spokes? You mean those flimsy little things have car wheels? Still, you get the gist.)Never be tempted to race against a Barclays Cycle Hire bike. If you do, there are only two outcomes. Of these, by far the better is that you now have the scalp of a Boris Bike.0 -
The Hundredth Idiot wrote:Gussio wrote:Those G Whizz's are a menace - they creep up silently from behind and can give you a bit of a shock (no pun intended). They should be designed to sound like a real car...
They should be forced to have cards in the spokes of their wheels that make a rat-at-at-at-at-at sound as they move along. Cool and retro. And the bonus is that anyone aged over about 30 would smile every time they heard them, thinking about the bikes they had when they were kids. And grown-up couriers today, obviously.
(What's that? G-Whizzes don't have spokes? You mean those flimsy little things have car wheels? Still, you get the gist.)
Or spokeydokes! 0
