Discuss: The Commute

Great descriptions, thanks for sharing them. After many years of flying to work as a consultant, I finally got a job 17 miles from home last year. This last summer was the first that I have been able to commute by bike. It was wonderful. Way more sociable than driving - even my colleagues seemed intrigued (or at least polite). I lost weight, got fit enough to wrap the season with a century in under 6 hours. Saved LOTS of gas in the summer of the $4 gallon. Pity about the rough winter in Chicago, can’t wait to start commuting by bike again in the spring.

Thanks for your article.  I, too, am an attorney who commutes downtown from a nearby suburb by bicycle.  I work in Chicago. I cannot commute as often as you as my work often takes me out of town where I must use what you describe as a polluter to get to another city. Don’t despair for us in Chicago. We ride year round.  However, when the streets are very icy I will opt for the train.

Love your article! Its exactly what I have been experiencing over the past year of commuting by bike. I’ve taken notice of the seasons a lot more, I appreciate little changes in nearby neighborhoods that I would not have in a car. Yesterday was my first day in 30 degree weather (I dont know how you east coasters do it!). Even though my fingers felt like they were going to fall off, I noticed myself enjoying the soft crunch/crackle that my bike tires made when I biked down the path and how the hills were covered with frost. I’ve also lost 10 pounds, have more energy during the day and only fill up on gas once a month!

In response to Sandy Turner in Comment 10.

Sandy - I think that this space attracts folks that are in the afternoon of life. Quoting Dr Wayne Dyer ” We can not live the afternoon of life according to life’s morning, what was great in the morning will be little in the evening and what was True in the morning by evening will have become a Lie”  ... As you move into the meaning phase of Life, it is not as though you lose your ambition, you begin to have ambition about other things” hence Orion is attractive to folks who are in either chronologically or Spiritually in the afternoon of Life. See http://www.drwaynedyer.com/ for “Ambition to meaning” I’ll see you at the silomar some time ; )

I ride almost the exact commute you describe in this article.  I haven’t witnessed the Schuylkill flood the eastern bank along, Kelly Drive, but have ridden daily in all weather for the past two years.

We must’ve met along the trail at some point.