I'm from the US and I'd love to use my bike as often as possible, but unfortunately my city isn't very walkable. It would be possible, but to get to a job from where I live would probably take over half an hour maybe an hour depending on how far away I live. Not to mention I'd probably smell bad from such a long bike ride.
I know the bike culture is a lot bigger in Europe. How far do you commute if you commute by bike? I can't imagine you're spending 2 hours a day round-trip commuting just to use a bike, but maybe that's the norm.
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According to Google Maps it would take me 31 minutes by either bike or car and 30 minutes by public transport to get from home to work. Considering the bike path is never congested and there are fewer crossings (it runs through a huge park), in practice it’s faster than taking the car. Also, we have showers at work and my employer encourages bike use by co-financing 2/3 of it.
It’s not bike culture, it’s just culture.
Some people do 10-15km on a rural cycle highway between a commuter village and the office. I’m a city dweller so my commute is only 3,5km; all but 500 meters is separated bike lane alongside a major throughfare. I used to cut short through the neighborhood but road works changed a handy tunnel to a bad traffic lighted crossing for some reason.
It’s very common to cycle to high school at a leisurely pace, I think we usually did 30 minutes for 7km.
The smell isn’t really an issue, for most people it’s just a regular bike ride. My current office has a little washroom in the basement that’s been used by cyclists in the summer, other offices probably do as well. The bigger issue is drying up from rain.
E-Bikes are getting more and more popular, for both office people who do long distances, and school kids who need to come from the suburbs. I have co-workers who have a shorter commute but use an e-bike.
I live in Cologne Germany, and I work from home so my answer isn’t very applicable (no commute). I will say though that while many people here commute by bike, but usually it’s only relatively short commutes, but it really depends on the person and what their options look like. I think it’s much more common to take public transit for your commute here than a bike if the commute is more than like 20 minutes.
Another really nice thing in Cologne is that there are bikes all over the city you can pick up from your transit stop and then ride to your destination and drop them off there. If you buy the Germany-wide public transit+regional trains ticket (58 euros per month) from the local operator here, you get to use these bikes for a greatly reduced rate (first half hour of each journey is free, and then super cheap after that). So because of that, it’s quite normal to have a combi-journey where you use a bike for part of your trip and a train or bus for the rest of your trip.
Cologne has also been doing a lot in the last few years to become more bike friendly, and because of that, there definitely is an increase in bike ridership here which is really nice to see.
Personally, I do most of my errands by bike, and also ride a lot for leisure, or when going to visit friends. So even without a commute, Im probably on my bike for a few hours a week on any given week, and sometimes much longer.
My new job is just 7 km away from where I live. The terrain is totally flat and there is a two-lane bike road next to a car road running basically from door to door.
Given my average speed on flat ground, that would take me about 17-20 minutes.
Depending on the availability of bike infrastructure and local topography, I’d consider everything up to 20 km as “bike distance”, especially if taking the car or public transport wouldn’t be much faster.
Also, biking is enjoyable, while driving a car can be stressful.
I do my daily commute by bicycle. It’s around 14km and it takes around 40mins. I don’t break a sweat, because I cycle casually. I smell worse when I have to take the car and am constantly frustrated by traffic jams and traffic lights.
And although it takes longer than with a car I don’t consider it to be a waste of time since it is relaxing and I am exercising so it is more free time than a chore which sitting in a car feels to me. Especially at the moment when the weather is perfect, there are small lambs, calves, baby deer, blooming flowers and active birds everywhere.
In Warsaw in my case it’s around 7km, so it’s no bother at all. I’m taking a slightly longer route to avoid the crowded city centre and cycle through very nice parks, so it’s actually a joy.
Can’t say I’m looking forward to summer heatwaves though…
Not 2 hours of just commuting, no…
But anything from 15 to 40 minutes each way is common.
Above 40 minutes one-way, it gets less common.
Used to commute about 8 km (i.e around 5 miles) by bike until my mid 30s when I lived in a larger city, but if the weather was bad (which it was half of the year), I’d go by bus/tram instead.
When I lived in a small town, several decades ago, I used to bike around 6-7km to high-school for a while, until I moved closer.
But then the same distance the opposite way when I began working odd jobs.
Buses were few and far between back there, especially during certain hours.
Though now I haven’t even owned a bike for about a decade.
I don’t usually do it because in my case it’s simply isn’t logical because I’d only use it for the first part of the way and only save myself a 10 minute bus traveling time and a 10 minute wait at the train station but I used to do it when the last underground connection I use daily stopped working for a month, back then I would ride the 10 minutes to my train stop, take the train into the city and, because I hate people who take their bikes on there, avoided the underground and rode another 20 minutes from one of the bigger stations my regional train stops at.
I would not do it daily since I wouldn’t know what to do with the bike when I want to hit the town in the evening for a beer or something and I generally don’t like biking that much but I get how in very special circumstances (being able to avoid the trains rush hours etc.) some people would like it.
I bike about 20-25 minutes each way on weekdays for my commute, and sometimes I bike an hour or so in free time as well
When I used to commute by bike it was usually 30 min-1h. I would only reject the idea of cycling if it takes more than 1h and/or more than 30km, but I have colleagues who do just that. Also if the trip is a few km I’ll just walk or take the tram because otherwise it feels like most of the time is spent taking the bike out, securing it etc
All the companies I worked for had a shower somewhere in the building or another building next door (not owned by the company itself, it’s a service provided by the landlord of the office park), so smell is not an issue — and technically I save a few cents on my water bill. At university where there are no showers, I would just bring a spare T-shirt and change in the restrooms when I arrive
Also you can get a bike allowance if you commute by bike, I think it’s 0.25€/km. So for a 10km commute that’s a nice addition to your salary
By bike I need about 15 minutes, but I don’t go by bike that often. Pretty much only when I’m super late. Otherwise I walk. That’s kinda one aspect of my country bumpkin upbringing I just can’t shake off despite now having lived in cities for almost as long as I lived on the countryside. Just still freaks me out having to bike in traffic.
I do have some colleagues who bike in from 10-15km away.
I do 15 km to work (apox 9 miles) in the summer time, but we have showers at work, so I do my morning shower after the ride.
A little under half an hour, and a little under 10km, but I do use an e-bike. This way I also don’t stink when arriving at the office because it doesn’t require much exertion.
I quite like that it’s a bit longer. I have a subscription to an audiobook service so I listen on the way. Plus my route is through the countryside so it’s nice
I dont have a bike. If I had to commute it would take me two hours one way or so. Too far to consider going by bike.
1.25km, only reason I use the bicycle instead of walking is by using the bicycle I get around €17.00 travel costs per month.
5+ km inner city commute by bicycle has been standard all year around until a few years ago when health said enough. Sweden, regular bike with studded winter tires when there is snow and ice.
I do about 12 km roundtrip everyday and it only takes about 40 min of my day. For a short while, I also did daily 16-17 km roundtrip and took me about an hour a day. Those timetables can be reduced with an e-bike, of course. I use a Dutch city bike for my commute.
After a while you just get used to it. Before this year, I never even cycled for longer than a km.
6.5km/4mi. Pretty standard for my area I think.
A lot of people do longer distances now because of the rise of electric bikes and being able to lease them through work as an extralegal benefit. I just have a regular, old, worn down bike with massive bike bags though.
In used to commute 10km to and from school when I was in high school, and the same distance when going out drinking on Friday night.
Now I live 40km from work and I just got a sporty bicycle to try and commute that by bike! I’m not fit enough yet for that though, but I would like to use it as a form of exercise and it’ll be very relaxing if I can pull it off.
A lot of people have gotten e-bikes and with one those it is quite easy to commute longer distances by bike and still get some exercise.