Why do we do it?

MadammeMarie

Boomer2010 wrote:

Hi, I have a small presentation to give and thought I would talk about commuting to work by cycle and why I do it. There are the obvious reasons ie Cost, Fitness, Environment etc but I was wondering what other reasons there may be out there as to why we do it and what we get out of it. Your thoughts would be most appreciated. Cheers

We do it for one reason only: we love riding our bikes. End of story. No environmental and blah, blah, blah reason. We love it. Full stop. The environment and health benefits are a bonus, but not the reason we do it. Nobody in their right mind would cycle in freezing temperatures in the winter, or against strong headwinds just to save the planet.We do it because we f***Ing' love it! End of.

Robstar24

i cycle to work (as well as many many other places in free time) for a number of reasons.

1) time; even when coming in from hertfordshire I can leave at the same time on the bike as i would if i were on the train and get to work on time (granted if i take the train it involves a walk to the station etc... but driving that walk would hardly save any time). My commute is pretty much always the same time wise, with no delays because of broken trains etc...

2) enjoyment: i start off in small country lanes, go through a fair bit of unremarkable suburbia (but which has parks and so on), and finish going along the serpentine and down constitution hill to swing round buckingham palace), soooo much better than being on a hot train in a tunnel.

3) cost- free (with some costs for repairs, parts etc...but I cycled before commuting anyway) vs rip-off. no contest.

4) fitness - exercise and no gym membership (see number 3) why do people insist on sitting in their cars to go and sit on a stationary bike in an air conned room?? i also tend to drink less at pub and at home because i want to stay fresh for next morning's cycling, which is good for health and wallet.

5) smugness -yes maybe a bit, i love whizzing past lines of traffic, and when i hear colleagues complain of their awful journeys by public transport/car, i smile to myself. They also seem more understanding of my very occasional lateness because of a puncture than they are of train-related lateness.

6) camaraderie amongst cyclists- eg the large numbers that queue up to cross the road at hyde park corner through the wellington arch. something about large numbers of cyclists is nice, rather than getting annoyed at someone else standing on your foot.

6) environmental reasons; it's a bonus but not exactly a big deal for me. If, theoretically, cycling was less environmentally-friendly than driving or training it to work, i'd still cycle.

I do own a car, mainly for family reasons (I live in a place that's not chocca with public transport options, and it is useful for doing big shops etc... and for driving the bike to fairly distant sportives etc... but i'm a pretty light car user) even in the pissing rain and dark of winter i prefer cycling as transport, tho i will draw a line at snow and ice (too many crashes because of ice).

the only disadvantage is not being able to read on the train to and from work, but that's v minor.

Boomer2010

Hi All, Thanks to everyone for taking time to put forward their thoughts, clearly there are a lot of similar reasons as to "why we do it". Also glad hear someone else admitted to feeling a little smug, I too cannot help but feel a twinge of smugness as I gently coast by the long line of stationary traffic at the bottom of my road each morning. Thanks again.

il_principe

'cos cycling is good. mmmm'kay.

and public transport sucks sweaty balls.

Bassjunkieuk

MadammeMarie wrote:

We do it for one reason only: we love riding our bikes. End of story. No environmental and blah, blah, blah reason. We love it. Full stop. The environment and health benefits are a bonus, but not the reason we do it. Nobody in their right mind would cycle in freezing temperatures in the winter, or against strong headwinds just to save the planet.We do it because we f***Ing' love it! End of.

Very well put! I guess you could ask how many other people sitting in the presentation look forward to their commute? Fairly sure you won't get a good show of hands unless there are other cyclists in the room or someone who gets flown to/from the office :-)

Of course I also cycle for pretty much all the reasons everyone else has mentioned (with the exception of "it saves money" as technically I can claim for my travel expenses......)

cjcp

Cycling rocks 8) . And it's light years better than standing or sitting aboard a skanky train. Those words may not be ideal for your presentation.

Fitness.

And the ability to eat with a certain amount of impunity. See W1's comment (although I clearly don't have a tape worm... )

Train cancellations become irrelevant. I can beat the train home.

SCR.

You get to "meet" a cool bunch of strangers on bike forums. Er...

Did I mention that cyling rocks?

Bassjunkieuk

cjcp wrote:

You get to "meet" a cool bunch of strangers on bike forums. Er...

Now I was going to mention the social aspect as that has been brilliant as well! I wonder if there is such an active social scene on the undegroundradar or busradar forum ;-)

EDIT: DOH! Quoted wrong text first time!