Do you live close enough to your work to bike or walk? Why/why not?

I do! We just moved to a house that is close enough to work/school for me to bike. I got a screaming deal on a Trek on Craig’s List, now all I have to do is finish a tune-up on the bike and get a new helmet and I’m good to go! I plan to ride until the snow and ice take over the roads. That being said, I live in a city with zero bike lanes and I will be taking sidewalks the entire route.

When they get the bridge reconstruction done, I will be able to bike to work. But they are 2 years into a 6 month project with at least another 6 to go.

I used to cycle to work, but now I work from home. I commuted by car for a while but didn’t like it because of the parking problems.

I work at home. A close commute is highly desirable. We lived 17 blocks from my husband’s office in Florida, and he biked to work a lot.

No, it’s dangerous for bikers here. Neither of our jobs is close to where we live and even if we looked into the real estate between the two jobs, it would still be over a 10mile ride for each. Aside from the dangers of the roads, there is the extreme heat to where we’d arrive at work disheveled and stinky. Our jobs are the transient kind to where the priority is to find a good place to live and have that as the base of stability rather than a job.

I live too far away, because that’s where the cheapest apartments were lol.

I work out of my home but do have to travel sometimes.My husband rides his bike to work and comes home everyday for lunch too :)

I work out of my truck, which is really a toolbox on wheels so I have to have it with me.

Within walking distance which is great for the very reasons you’ve mentioned. Better for the environment and y body!

I would love to. The only people I know who can do this are in academia. They can live in a relatively safe, nice community near the college.
Here in Massachusetts, everyone I know is jumping from job to job all the time and really can only live where they can afford.

I was just seeing how long it would take to bike to work as I was finding this question. Apparently it would take me over an hour to bike to work, and that’s at the closest of my three jobs. For my furthest job, it would take all day biking.

I was really hoping to hear from people who can’t walk or bike: what prevents you from living closer to your place of employment?

@nikipedia When I have not, it has been because budget does not allow me to live close to where I work.

Sometimes it has been choice. Once I chose to live on an island rather than in the city where I worked.

I would bike to work for $4Mil a year and not a penny less…and then I would only do it for a month.

I’m not working right now, but I do live on campus and so I can walk to class. If I weren’t living in a very, very rent-controlled student residence, though, there’s no way I’d be able to afford to live close enough to school that I could walk or bike.

Check out where the UofT campus is located in Toronto. The campus is basically the brown-shaded square, bordered by Bloor, Spadina, College and Bay. Rent downtown is ridiculously expensive – in fact, in today’s Toronto Star, rents on Bloor Street are among the highest in the world. Yes, I know, we’re talking retail space, but trust me – apartments don’t go for cheap around here either.

I only live two and a half miles from my high school and could easily bike there if need be, but the roads are slightly ridiculous and not at all entailed for biking. Also my books skew my weight enough to make me uncomfortable biking with them. However, even if I had I no books to carry, my school still makes no accommodations for bikers and would require me to leave my bike out all day with nowhere to chain it to.

@plethora Lol!

I could ride my bike but it would be really risking my life as over a mile would be on an insanely busy road that would surely lead to trouble. Plus I like to be able to zip home and surprise my wife for lunch! :)

No, we bought a house near my husbands work, and then the company moved their offices to a building 5 miles away. It is on the bus line, so Hubby could take the bus, but it would take an hour, with one transfer to get there, and only takes 20 minutes to drive.

We have always lived close to his work. Before we were transferred here, he was close enough to walk home for lunch. I loved that.

He used to ride his bike 5 miles to work, along the beach, when we lived in Ocean Beach, CA.

@nikipedia I was really hoping to hear from people who can’t walk or bike: what prevents you from living closer to your place of employment?

My husband’s office is bike-able, however, he is a Network Engineer and must travel to clients with a laptop and other diagnostics.

My mom is a district property manager, which means she must travel to various sites throughout any given day.

Instead, we chose vehicles that conserve fuel, and live within a close proximity to meet both of their career needs.

I’m at home, so I have no commute. We live a block away from grocery, post office-etc so I can be without a car all day.

I live to far to bike/walk right now because it just so happens to be that the place that offered me a job was on the outer region of where I applied.

To be honest though, even if I did get a job closer, I probably still wouldn’t walk/bike to work. I work 12 hour shift on my feet 90% of the day. With going in a 6-something in the morning and not leaving work until after 7-something at night, I don’t really think I’d be up to the extra walking/riding before and after work, not to mention walking/riding along the major roads in the dark.

Yeah! I lived a mile from work too for the past year and it was so awesome. Like you said, a itty bitty workout before work! Although in the wind/rain/snow/hail it sucked bollocks.

I live 7 miles from work, a relatively easy ride but I don’t because I need the pickup many days for the job and can’t leave it at the office.

Yes, and I wouldn’t trade it for a cushy job in the executive suite I own my own Web Development business. I have a home office. So after brewing up a coulle of cups of coffee and getting a few sips to recharge the batteries, I set out on the 12 foot hike to my office. I absolutely love it.

I work 4 miles away from home which would be within biking distance, except that having a visual handicap, I’m not safe on the roads.

Even if I could I’m not sure that I would: there are steep hills between home and work, and no showering or changing facilities when I get there. Wouldn’t want to arrive all sweaty and have to sit there stinking all day… >.<

Moving house is expensive and the neighbourhood where the office is located is a LOT more expensive than where I live now, I can’t afford to move to within walking distance. But we have a good bus service here. I go everywhwere on the bus.

Not really. My commute to work is about 30 mins by car although, I work with someone who lives quite close to me and he bikes it in everyday. I’m too lazy to do that. I live this far away from work because, what I spend in fuel, I save in rent!

I currently live about 10 minutes walk from where I work but even when I lived 10 or so miles away I still considered it walking distance and walked to work 2 or 3 times a week.

I live about 45 miles from my job. Why? Because I live in a great rural area and I work in a ghetto. The two are polar opposites and I don’t want to move.