I ride my bike to work -- why don't you? (Denver: houses, employment)

[steveindenver]

So for caveats; I don't ride my bike to work much, I more or less work from home or travel to all parts of the world for a week or so -- and so I have about zero to contribute to the whole green movement.

We take our kids to school in the bike trailer year round so perhaps that hepls -- a bit -- but I realize there is some hypocracy in my following question.

Still -- I do bike at least an hour a day; My family (3 kids) now own just one car (down from 2 race cars and 3 other cars at our un-childed prime). We ride or walk to the grocer ... etc etc. A tank of gas last us generally 2 months or more.

I know plenty of people who commute on average 8 miles each way a day to work, some of whom trade the bike for a bus when they are not on two wheels.

So the question is; if your commute is less than 5 miles to work, why do you drive your car?

[2bindenver]

I usually work in the office at my house, so no bike needed. But if I have an appointment, it is usually at someone's house or office. Not usually, within 5 miles. I did just sell a house two blocks from mine and we walked and looked at the competition, and waved at the neighbors. It was fun.

Showing houses on a bike would be interesting. How can I talk/text and steer a bike at the same time?

[Katarina Witt]

It's uphill both ways, really!

[TheCaliforniaBear]

I've been riding my bike....everywhere, for 4 years.

I got sick of spending upwords of 800 dollars a month on a car. So I put an end to it.

I'm in the best shape of my life now. My legs have gotton strong and massive. My abs are like baseballs, I love it. I don't even want a car anymore.

Most people do not do it because, basically, they are lazy. Or they don't want to get sweaty, or they have other excuses. But really, if it's under ten miles, you have no excuse.

[karpiel]

Old job included a stretch of 2000 vertical gain in 2.5 miles and is snowy/icy/muddy for 6 months. New job is walking distance.

Both good excuses.

[ryanswindle]

I was looking forward to riding my bike to work when I moved to I-25 and speer last year while working in 16th street mall.

I was looking forward to it, until the first time I did it and found out how big that damn hill getting home in the evening was. Hell to that, me and my wife car pool in a Prius, hopefully that helps..

Also, I've known tons of folks who did ride there bikes to work, one of the reasons I never had the opportunity is the cost of living in most places that are near enough to business areas, puts it a bit out of reach to a lot of folks..

[Reivax]

Even if I did live within 5 miles, I still don't think I would. 98 degrees and 90% relative humidity would make me a sweaty mess once I got there. Suppose it's easy to brush that excuse off and call me lazy, but I don't think starting my day drenched in sweat with no means of bathing is really how I wish to do things.

I do my exercising at home, in the evening, or after work. We have miles of wooded bike trails where I live and a nice refreshing shower waiting for me at home when I'm done. And I have weights and an elliptical machine for when it is raining.

[Scott5280]

I moved from Boulder to Cherry Creek in 94 strictly because it was safe,and was one of the better bicycling accessible neighborhoods. I actually went without a car for over two years,and rode a bike everywhere or just took a cab if needed at times. Before I moved to Denver.. a typical afternoon ride would either be from Boulder to Estes park/Fort Collins/Lyons, and back or a ride from Boulder to Cherry Creek resevoir and back. So my tiny rides from Cherry Creek to Wash Park to work were absolutley nothing..Trips back up to Boulder meant riding to Market street station loading my bike on the A-B express and then riding to my destination up there. However for the past five years I have barely been on a bike, until recently. I travel a lot too and had two knee surguries last year (both cycling related) so I wasn't riding at all last year..the fact was I put so much wear and tear from twelve years of running,cycling back in 90's that I could barely walk(literally almost crippled) from my house to my office in Creek which was four blocks away in 2007. I almost considered a cain. Now the knees have been worked on and I enjoy riding/hiking, everything again and don't take it for granted..but my type of employment and geographic factors are not favorable at the moment for bike commutes. I would like to get back to a bicycle sustained lifestyle, and have actually been looking at ways I can do that soon.

[cowboyxjon]

Because I don't like riding a bike on a road with lots of traffic.

I ride the bus to work now that I work downtown and it's convenient, but my former office location was around 3 miles from where I live. Not on a decent bus line, and not a particularly bike-friendly route, so I drove every day, each way (and I don't feel guilty about it in the least).

[Scott5280]

I'm really thinking about commuting twice daily from Boulder to Colorado Springs in a new stretch Hummer H3, and of course taking several small detours out to Limon now and then for a pepsi, for every cyclist I mormon hunt off the side streets..Ya that's right kids 3 points. actually I believe that just might be a nightmare Steveindenver has had.