Daily Commuting Tip: Don't be a martyr to the Commuting Cause

Posted: 21st Sept 2009 | Eddie Allen

I'm not ashamed to say it. I drove in to work today. There, I said it.

When you make the decision to commute by bike, it's easy to fall into the trap of becoming a commuting extremist - swearing a solemn oath to never dirty your hands on a car steering wheel again. However, sometimes, life throws interesting challenges at you. Like you've got to drop off the kids at school, pick up some groceries for the evening meal, bring home a pile of paperwork from the office and pick up your mother-in-law on the way home. Whilst you can do all of this by bike (mother in law excepted), it can be tough to do it all in the one trip.

However, a great trick to ease your Bike Commuter Guilt is to use your car commute to improve your next bike commute.

Here's how:

• Use your car commute to check out a new cycle commuting route - You might have spotted a promising route on a map but are unsure whether it's suitable for bike commuting - driving the route first is a great way of safely reccying it. You can check out the finer points of navigation, traffic levels, hills, scenery and possible diversions without commiting yourself on the bike.
• Use your car commute to bring heavy stuff to work - this is a classic move - Drive in on Monday with your laptop, paperwork, change of clothes, showering stuff, etc and travel light Tues - Thurs, then take your stuff home by car on Friday. You still get three days of quality cycling without being weighed down with a heavy bike.
• Combine bike and car - if you've got a longish journey (perhaps over 10 miles, consider doing your errand running by car, then park up somewhere legal and convenient and cycle the rest of the way. Or you can do the drive in with car in boot/cycle home/cycle in/drive home with car in boot trick. Either way, you get your cycling fix.

More: Daily Commuting Tips Archive