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Commuting
There was something a little different going on this week... a spot of 'commuting' on the bike. Well, sort of commuting - not in the usual sense (I walk to work daily) but in the 'riding on the road of an evening' way. The car needed some work so had to get to Gladesville from home in St Leonards and back. Dropping it one evening and collecting the next with a quick ride filling the gaps seemed the way to go...
... and to be honest, on this showing, commuting by bike must be a very sensible option. Not only is this going to keep you in great shape, but it might take just about the same time. Note that the trips this week were actually taken probably way after most people would be travelling - 7-8pm so the advantage of the bike is very much diminished, but even so, the time taken to ride was only twice that of the trip by car. Let's not forget during the peak I wouldn't have been able to drive in... erm... the rather rapid way I usually do - there would be much more time spent queuing at intersections and the like.
Having had the misfortune to travel a few of the same roads in peak hour traffic I don't think it's an overestimation to say in those circumstances the bike would be much closer, if not faster than car.
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Rob,
I agree. TopGear did a race between a marathon runner and a car over the marathon distance through London during peak hour.
The runner won the race by about 1/4 of an hour!
I think the same thing would be true for bike vs car in Sydney snarl-hour. It'd depend on rider fitness and journey, but it'd be close.
Imagine the improvement in air quality if 1/3 of the short car trips were made using human power!
--
Doug - Demonine
05 Demo 9
I'm not sure about the burbs, but in the city proper it s so much quicker to get aorund by bike, being a courier I've tested this a fair few times. I can get 1 end of George street to the other in 4 minutes during rush hour. Challenge anybody to do it in a car in that time. Same with any other trip, but that's something which I've actually timed
Assumemost people on here are weekend riers, so surely riding to work is going to help you out al round, fitness for te weekends/better knowledge of your bike.
Totally agree (with this age old thread). Takes me 16mins (pb) to work on the bike, and about an hour by bus. I used to use a motorbike until I came off it (doc recommended push bike for physio and I forgot to go back...) - and even that took 20mins - got to love the lack of reg plates on push bikes