Best way to travel 5 miles to a train station?

While walking on the pavement, you're something like 300 times more
likely to be hit by a car than to be hit by a bicycle. (in the UK).


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Same in Greece, I spent a summer working there commuting about 10 miles
every day down from the mountains (and back up at 3AM). Everybody uses
scooters in the med. Probably as they are just jump on and ride - noone
wears a helmet, they're treated more as bikes.

 

Given the number of cars is more then 300 times the number of bikes, you
are more likely to be hit by a specific bike then a specific car.

 

Can't you just fly?

 

.... except for those cyclists who get run over by numpty cage drivers...

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I think you'll find the majority of those killed in falls on pavements
are the elderly.

Crawl back under your bridge.

 

Cycling isn't any more dangerous than walking! I know I've cycled for years
and never had a problem. As for needed a shower.. rubbish! Unless the route
to the station is up a seriously large hill then 5 miles is nothing most
people should be able to complete that distance without breaking into a
sweat. Your only issue might be if it is raining, but in that case you can
buy a lightweight plastic raincoat to wear over your clothes.

 

According to the stats, yes. However as most of the bike-pedestrian
interfaces are unlikely to be reported, and as they don't have insurance
companies to deal with, the stats are probably a bit wrong.

 

Some of them are very old.

Back under your bridge, laddie.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington
University

 

Source of that factoid? I have seen estimates of up to 50 million adult
bicycles in the UK. There are over 5 million childrens' bicycles alone, so
unless the number of cars has increased dramatically in recent weeks the
figure of 300 is Clearly Bollocks [tm]

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington
University

 

As others have said, no it isn't and no you won't. Plus, if you get a
Brompton, you can take it on the train and bypass the tube strikes

5 miles is no distance on a bike. I used to ride 7.5 miles from Reading to
Henley every day, and it was quicker than driving, because I could park the
bike in the office. No showers, I used to keep a wash bag and a towel under
the desk but if you shower before you leave, even a fairly brisk ride is not
a problem.

And what would be the problem with showering once you got to work anyway? I
shower every day, it doesn't make any difference to me whether it's at home
or the office, really.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington
University

 

I ride about 5,000 miles per year and drive less than 3,000. My average
journey speed around town is significantly faster on the bike than in the
car. I pay vehicle excise duty on my car, but choose to leave it at home
and reduce congestion. So, you are wrong in every important respect

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington
University

 

And most of the bastards are in my shed.

 

Nah - the real wierdoes are the ones who /drive/ into London every day from
Reading!

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington
University

 

Yep. A further 1-2 pedestrians are killed by cyclists on the road.

Tony

 

Jeezus, you'll be asking us how you should wipe your arse next.

 

Only especially dangerous if you ride it badly, though that doesn't
resolve the parking issue.

The dangers of cycling are terribly overstated. It is, in fact, really
quite safe if you bother doing it sensibly. Read "Cyclecraft" by John
Franklin for how to go about negotiating the roads safely on a bike, and
in the meantime read
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/321/7276/1582 to give a more
realistic idea of the dangers.

Cycling is only sweaty if you're in a hurry and/or toting big loads. So
don't do either, and you wouldn't need a shower.

5 miles on a bike is reasonably fast, even if you're /not/ in a hurry,
and it needn't be dangerous. It's also good for you. My neighbour
bought a folding bike to replace a drive on slightly shorter commute,
and even though he bought a moderately expensive one (a Brompton folder,
which you could easily take on the train with you and use at the other
end, and park under a desk at work to remove security worries) at £468
he reckoned it had paid for itself in purely financial terms within a
year. See http://www.bromptonbicycle.co.uk/

Pete.

 

Slightly more than the number of pedestrians killed by cyclists but over
a hundred cyclists a year are killed by motor vehicles.

Tony

 

Be careful, that can be dangerous.

Colin

 

Neither of these solution are dangerous, if you perceive them as
dangerous I'd suggest that you have not got enough practical experience
of either to really make a wholly accurate judgement!

And don't most car parks have motorbike/scooter/moped parking areas, too?

Later you talk of making this journey at 6-30am - if you cycle summer
isn't going to make that much difference to your being sweaty at that
time of the morning. Indeed, you're probably going to be less sweaty as
you'll be in a well-ventilated T-shirt rather than a waterproof/warm
fleecy/goretex/etc top.

I'd suggest cycling it for a while and seeing, you might be surprised. 5
miles isn't too far once you get used to it and so long as you don't
start treating it like a time trial, just as a means from getting from A
to B, you might well not become as hot and bothered as you think. (And
you'll have burned enough calories off to actually justify that pastry
with your coffee on the train