Poll: who rides and drives

greg66_tri_v2.0

No, this isn't some new car park design.

Since we're heavily into the "them and us" mentality this week, I thought I'd ask this: who here drives as well as rides a bike?

Just curious to see the demographic...

singlespeedexplosif

6 bikes, no car*

*not any more, anyway. Spent 8 years averaging 60,000 miles pa with work. Enough's enough...

Rich158

It's interesting, over the summer I was forced to drive in for 8 weeks or so, and it totally changed my perception of my commute, especially in or arround Greenwich town centre. I suddenly became aware of exactly how much information a driver has to take in, and just how difficult it is to anticipate what a cyclist will do in heavy traffic. And we do some blody stupid things at times. Cycling has certainly made me more aware of bikes when driving, and I'm now far more aware of what a cyclist has to contend with and how they'll react in certain situations

owenlars

4 Bikes two cars. The bikes do more mileage than both cars combined. By the way how do you register a vote in the forum?

DonDaddyD

I ride and drive.

I've ridden a hell of a lot longer than I have driven.

I ride a bike mostly everyday to commute in the week and for fun on weekends.

I use my car once a week, if that these days. Sometimes I just take it out for fun. Oh and to get my comics once a month in Croydon, as that often invovles additional shopping.

Learning to drive instantly made me a safer and therefore better cyclist.

cjcp

I've gone for option 3. In terms of "use", I ride my bikes more regularly, and I'm pretty sure I've ridden further than I've driven.

iain_j

I don't own a car, but I drive someone else's occasionally (legally!), more journeys by bike though.

In terms of distance, I don't know which I do more by - I suspect car. I only use the car when I go hill walking, every 2 weeks or so. A return trip to, say, the remote parts of the Lake District will be about 250 miles. In that 2 weeks I will have done 10 round trips to work by bike, 7 miles a day...


...so yes, more journeys by bike, more distance by car.

Agent57

I have 4 bicycles, a car and a motorcycle.

I use my bicycles more, but use the car if it's not practical to go by bike.

cee

DonDaddyD wrote:

Learning to drive instantly made me a safer and therefore better cyclist.

thats because you had to start paying road tax

fairweatherbiker

1983-1995 Motorcycles only
1995-2008 Cars only
2008-2009 Mainly bicycle - car just sits on the drive gently rusting till I have to Taxi the kids around.

Eau Rouge

I do both, in terms of absolute distance the car wins, mainly due to travelling to various tournaments in the summer, but I only use it once or twice during the week while the bike is used for regular commuting.
I'm very "Top Gear" in my driving. I drive quickly, I like good cars, but very much see driving as a skill you can get better at, not just a handy way to go to the shops.

Matt.K

Seeing as my wife technically owns our car then I only own a bike.

i commute to work by bike during the week but then use the car more on a weekend as it's normally the two of us going somewhere, or I'm going somewhere quite a distance away.

patchy

2 bikes, no car, but i use Streetcar fairly regularly...

greg66_tri_v2.0

Two bikes, two cars. I missed off the fifth option - equal use. I'm close to equal use, I suspect, with maybe the bikes edging it. Much like iain_j the bikes gets regular use in the week, whereas the car gets long journeys.

And like Eau Rouge, I don't hang about in the car. Same can be said for the bikes though.

FWIW, I'm firmly of the view that doing both improves perspective for both. I'd quite like to try an artic in London to get a sense of what that's like. Pretty bloody tricky, I reckon. Not much chance though, as no HGV licence, and letting me do it in traffic would be a bit like letting me play guns with live rounds...

Clever Pun

Rich158 wrote:

It's interesting, over the summer I was forced to drive in for 8 weeks or so, and it totally changed my perception of my commute, especially in or arround Greenwich town centre. I suddenly became aware of exactly how much information a driver has to take in, and just how difficult it is to anticipate what a cyclist will do in heavy traffic. And we do some blody stupid things at times. Cycling has certainly made me more aware of bikes when driving, and I'm now far more aware of what a cyclist has to contend with and how they'll react in certain situations

+1

except I was cycling

4 bikes 1 car

biondino

4 bikes (2 of which I actually ride - one is mouldering in a shed I can't open, and the other is on indefinite loan to a friend) and 1 car.

I do about the same number of miles on bike as in the car but, for example, I went 5 weeks without driving until this weekend, whereas I ride my bike at least 12 times a week.

benno68

I share a car with my better half - it's in her name tho and she pays the tax and insurance :P

I've just declared my car SORN and will be scrapping it soon, I only used it to take stuff down the tip and take the dogs here and there.

I've got one useable bike, one 80's Peugeot in the shed waiting to be converted to a single speed and one cheapo mountain bike rusting away in the garden.

UndercoverElephant

Two cars, one and a bit bikes (nasty, nasty BSO). I tend to cycle 3 or 4 times a week, depending on the weather. So I probably use the bikes more.

Aidy

I only really own a car to cart bikes about

If I didn't ride, I doubt I'd own a car.

janm399

Two road bikes and a car. Car enjoys (I don't, but that's to be expected) outings to the relatives & shopping trips on Sundays, bikes take me to work and on weekend rides--the world is just right.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Aidy wrote:

I only really own a car to cart bikes about

If I didn't ride, I doubt I'd own a car.

If I didn't have kids, I suspect I'd enjoy driving more.

Dad's Cabs. FFS. Although Mum's Cabs gets an even worse deal.

And Jaysus, the uneaten bits of crap I have to pull out of the back seats! :shock:

Never get that problem on a bike, though I do have to undertake the role of family wrench to the 66 fleet of bikes. :roll:

Ian.B

singlespeedexplosif wrote:

Spent 8 years averaging 60,000 miles pa with work. Enough's enough...

:shock: Did that leave any time left over to fit the work in?! (assuming driving itself wasn't your job)

lost_in_thought

4+ bikes and 2 cars. The + is because one of them is an old MTB that I barely touch, and one is a shopper-bike that has 2 perished tyres from lack of use, so 4 bikes I use regularly.

I went for the 4th option, had it been earlier in the year I'd have perhaps gone for option 3, because I only used the car twice a week, but at the moment it's definitely more car. Arguably, in fact, I always did more mileage in the car although the bike was used more regularly.

OldSkoolKona

Have bike and car and normally in the 'cycle more' category, but spent the last 5 months in the 'drive more' category. It was away from London, and was interesting how people drove there (much faster because they were on country roads) and how many boy racers there were. Cyclists were mostly of the footpath variety. I also walk quite a bit, particularly in central London, so I can claim that camp as well.

Bad eggs in all categories, though definite bias (IMHO) in the media against cycling at the moment - shock jock newspaper selling techniques and populist politics all in play.

sampras38

2 cars, 2 bikes and I commute by car and ride the bikes for fitness/pleasure.

richk

I own a car & bike(s) - which I use more depends on how you're counting. I have a higher journey count by bike (commuting) but higher mileage (& probably higher useage time) by car (longer journeys).

MonkeyMonster

I wonder am I one of the very few on here with just 1 bike. No cars, can't drive - never learned.

Coriander

MonkeyMonster wrote:

I wonder am I one of the very few on here with just 1 bike. No cars, can't drive - never learned.

No, I have only one bike and no car.

But I think we're in the minority. :shock:

TommyEss

I only own bikes, but I have a driving licence and hire a car when I need one. I live in a town centre though, so there aren't many journeys I can't make by bus, bike or train to be honest.

In fact, the majority of my car hires have been to get to cycling events (sportives etc)

Christophe3967

Over the past three years we have reduced the number of cars in our household by 66% and increased the number of bikes by 133%.

I used to forget where I'd parked my cars, occasionally cycling past one unexpectedly and thinking 'ah, there it is' ...v annoying if you've left something important in that car. Car club now - at least I know where those flippin cars are :oops:

Zulu dawn

I drive when my shift is tooo early, to long or the weather is way over the top. Otherwise it's my Tri Cross all guarded up for the hour across Cheshire and into Manchester. This does equate to 2/3 rds of my commutes and on a good month saves me £100 in fuel etc.

I have had a 17 yr non cycling gap from being an avid roadie to now a slowly thining commuter. Lots to learn over the years but the old skills are still there just a little slower !

My last roadie had down tube shifters so indexed shifters in the brake levers is like going from an Apollo to the Millenium Falcon.