BC on Facebook BC on Twitter

Commute Cold Turkey

12th November 2009 | Eddie Allen | Inspired by Yehuda Moon

More: Daily Commuting Tips Archive

For the last few days, I've just not felt right. I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong. I was restless, grumpy, fidgety and unpleasant to be around. And then I realised - I hadn't ridden my bike to work for nearly a week.

The tyranny of work and family life had conspired. The odd lift to work, the ‘quick' lift to school had become a daily occurrence and the bike was left hanging in the shed, unused and unloved.

The first symptom was a restless left leg, twitching as I sat watching TV in the evening. The next was a vague feeling of claustrophobia, a hankering for open spaces, open windows and fresh air. Stage three was a sulking irritability - getting worse as the days progressed.

There was only one thing for it. I had to nip this pernicious creeping car usage in the bud and get back into the biking mode. No matter what the weather was doing (and it happened to be doing rather a lot) the next commute to work had to be BY BIKE.

The next morning it was 6 degrees, with wind and rain aplenty. There were two opposing tractor beams at work in the house, one pulling me toward the car keys, one towards the bike shed. But the bike shed had to win! I pulled the bike from the shed, pumped up the tyres, grabbed my bag and got out of the door before the lure of the car with its heater, radio, CD player and comfy seats took its hold.

A few minutes into the commute I knew I'd done the right thing. The sun had appeared from between the clouds, the wind had dropped and the temperature had risen enough to consign the coat to the bag. As I cut through the park and headed towards town, the restless leg had vanished, along with feeling of being hemmed in and the mean ole mood was diminishing fast.

Make no mistake, commuting by bike is addictive. And once you start, it's very hard to stop.