School Project on cycling

[whereswaldow118]

Hi guys im doing a really big School project this year focusing on a single topic (Cycling). One of the requirements is to write a short survey. I want to show that cycling is an efficent way to commute and move rather than everyone going around the world is gas guzzlers. It would really help. If you do fill out the survey only do it once please. https://docs.google.com/spread...FsYzFMUUE6MQ&ndplr=1

[John Nelson]

Bad link. Try again.

[whittierider]

I think it's https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDRPLVRybjBYNVhMNG1nRzFsYzFMUUE6MQ&ndplr=1 but he copy-and-pasted it from another forum post where the display of it is shortened.

[Ailish]

Several of the questions are difficult to reply to within the constraints of the options given.

In the reasons for cycling question, non-commuting transportation isn't an optional answer.

As for whether cycling is an efficient way to commute, it seriously depends on the particulars of a given commute.

In the hobby/sport question (which gets asked twice), again, it depends on the context.  Cycling is clearly a sport to those that do it competitively.  I ride for what I think of as exercise, recreation, and transportation, but I can't really pigeon-hole any of those as hobby or sport.

My main form of transportation depends on the circumstances of where I'm going.  Sometimes it's a car, sometimes it's a bike, sometimes it's public transit, and sometimes it's walking.  I'm not comfortable ticking a radio button to pick just one.

[geegee]

In order for cycling to be an efficient way to commute, a bigger decision on where you live needs to be made. Many people who are committed to commuting by bicycle choose to live in communities that make it possible and convenient to do so (within a few miles of one's workplace on cycle-friendly roads).

[forrest]

Took your survey, however you can not judge if cycling is a better way to commute because there are to many variables.  First, most places that I ride or would like to ride have no safe bike lanes, traffic is worst during the hours that I would like to ride.  Shoulder are not well maintained usually very rough and full of debris that come from the cars and trucks causing many flat tires.  Just because we have bikes does not make it a better mode of transportation.  Many jobs are located far from home these days and it usually takes the average ride about 1 hour if conditions are ideal to cover a 15 mile stretch.  Carrying items are very difficult also which would require you to add some sort of saddle bags or panniers to carry your stuff, thus this slows you down and can be problematic while riding.  Therefore I would say that for the majority of riders it is more for leisure and sport than a form of transportation, everything can not be green and as far as the globule warming aspect it is a farce and has not been proven it is a weather cycle that we go through not something that Al Gore believes is man made.  

[whittierider]

Yeah, these surveys done by non-cyclists never ask the right questions.  The person who set up the survey is asking what they're curious about, not realizing that they're missing the meat of the situation, so what they have is pretty irrelevant.

With that said, I commuted 25 miles each way for school in 1982, and it took me consistently an hour and ten minutes, with panniers for clothes and books.  If the freeways parallelling the bike trail were clogged up, the bike could actually be faster than the freeway.  Health requires exercise anyway, so even if it takes a little longer than a car, it's a savings of time to not have to take the exercise time out of an additional part of your schedule.  As far as riding in town with traffic lights and all on the boulevards though, I used to tell people when they thought it was too slow, "If you can get there in 15 minutes in a car, chances are it will take me 18 on my bike-- not much difference."  I do fine in fast, heavy boulevard traffic (I can go 0-30mph in just a few seconds), and I don't need bike lanes, although I do want the right lane to be wide enough for cars to safely pass me in the same lane.  The problem with many bike lanes is that they're just the door-opening zone for the parked cars, so you have to ride on the left line of the bike lane, or even avoid it altogether.  There are plenty of good web pages about this sort of thing.  I work at home now, so I don't commute per se, by any means of transportation.

[FredHiltz]

BUMP to renew this topic after removing an identical request posted on October 29.

Fred