barrys@hercules.UUCP (Barry Steel) (01/06/86)
Bicycle Commuting Survey I received 39 responses to the survey. A summary is given below, with a few observations. >I'm curious, how many people commute by bike to school/work? How often: > > 1) Almost always (all year)? 17 people > 2) When the weather is reasonable (part year)? 9 people > 3) Occasionally (a few times a year)? 12 people > 4) Never? 1 person > > Also, I would like to know how many miles round-trip. The average was 12 miles, with the shortest 1 mile, the longest 40 miles (all round-trip). > > Let me know if you don't own a car or use a bicycle as your primary source of > transportation. This one was a little harder to objectively summarize. 19 people said that autos were their primary transportation, 10 people mainly used their bikes, feet, or mass transit. 10 people did not respond to this. A few comments: The limiting factor for most people was short days, although some were rain-limited. I'm glad to see that there are indeed folks out there who do not own cars! Most of these are students, but a few hard-core commuters have stuck to their bikes while in "the real world". More power to them. A few exerpts that I couldn't resist: >I commute all year, 6 miles one way. If there is heavy snow, I ski to work. ---- >I own a car but use the bike whenever I can. In the winter I'll walk before >using the car. ---- >I would usually ride in any weather except pouring >snow. Riding in moderate snow (2-4 inches) is like skiing >on only 1 ski. ---- >I am on the >board of the Boston Area Bicycle Coalition which promotes utilitarian >bicycling, and edit its newsletter, "The Boston Cyclist", copies of >which are available on request. > > Doug Mink > {harvard|genrad|allegra|ihnp4}!wjh12!cfa!mink > mink%cfa.UUCP@harvard.ARPA ---- >In the 3+ months I have lived here, I have yet to use public >transportation (unless you count the airporter the day I moved >here). ---- Thank you for your letters, I found them most informative (and amusing at times). Sorry to take so long in getting the summary posted. barry steel