What is your comfortable biking radius to essential needs/etc.?

[imadandylion]

We've been living car free for a year and a grocery store is about a 10 minute walk, and work is about a 5 minute walk. We have to move soon because of a job change, but still want to live car-free and don't want our lifestyle to change too much but may consider living more within biking distance of things instead of just walking distance because housing costs can be expensive for convenience, and we want to save money.

I'm trying to gauge what radius is considered comfortable/convenient for most people to essential needs such as grocery store, work, etc. I have cycled to work about 4.5 miles to work before and while it was okay, it definitely sucked on a hot day and that was the only reason I cycled. I also used to cycle everywhere in a small college town but it must've not been more than 2-3 miles. I understand everyone's comfort levels/values are different and am wondering if it may be annoying to have bike to groceries and other places *all* the time after a certain distance. Also, I want to know because my husband never cycles and sometimes gets angsty if I even ask to cycle to the park, (approx a mile) so I am wondering what would be a good tolerance level for most people, though I suspect his bike is uncomfortable to him, so we may get him fitted for a different bike and see if he's happier about it.

I used to work with someone from the Netherlands who said he chose his workplace/home by drawing a map with a 6-mile radius so that his cycling commute would fit inside that radius. For people who don't have the convenience of a car (or if you have one and *hardly* ever use it) what is a comfortable cycling distance for you? How often do you get groceries via bike? Is it better to get a bag for your bike or keep groceries in a backpack? What if you want a watermelon?! :P Note that I don't want to this to devolve into a cycling pissing contest, I'm just trying to understand how I should adapt to a more cycling friendly lifestyle vs my experience of being able to walk everywhere.

[Car Jack]

Depends on lots of stuff that'll matter to you alone.  Need watermellon?  You don't need a 30 pound ginormous thing.  Buy the watermellon pieces.

Personally, I'd say zero on the street.  Although I've competitively cycled and would train 40+ miles every day, cell phones have made it too dangerous to put a bike on the street beyond riding across the road from my house to hit the trails with a mountain bike.  I know it's all cool to be without a car and all, but I'm sort of down on being killed by some 16 year old LOL'ing on her phone while she knocks me into a tree with her Range Rover Sport.

[PoutineLover]

My work is about 3 miles away and that's a pretty comfortable ride for me. I only do it half the year though, I don't feel safe or comfortable biking in the winter. I try to bundle errands and do them in the same trip or on my way home from work. I'll rarely bike to the grocery store or pharmacy because it's less than a mile away. My personal limit for a daily or frequent ride would be about half an hour, for a one-time or rare activity it's more like an hour ride.

[Retire-Canada]

10kms is a reasonable maximum radius for me to ride for an errand that's regular. 0-5kms is a nice comfortable radius I would do without much thought. 25kms would be my maximum for stuff that's rare. I can certainly ride a bike 100kms in a day and would do so for fun, but I wouldn't want to rely on that sort of range as something I would do for errands.

This ^^^ assumes some modest hills. If it's 100% flat than you can extend that range. If it's very hilly you can reduce that range. Same goes for wind/bad weather.

In terms of how to carry stuff I'd get:

1. a backpack
2. a rear rack and set of panniers
3. a cargo trailer

Then I'd use whichever makes the most sense and you can combine then as needed like backpack + panniers to fit your load.

Cycling well requires fitness and skill. Anyone can see improvement in both areas by simply doing it more. Some people could benefit from some coaching so they get more comfortable riding around town if self-confidence/fear is an issue.

[jeninco]

I rode a kid to elementary school 3.4 miles each way for 6 years (the first year or two he rode on a tag-a-long, but after that he rode his bike and I rode mine, and I'd give him a boost up hills if necessary by putting my hand in the middle of his back), but it was mostly on a dedicated bike path. I agree with earlier comments that route matters -- if it's 2 miles on a heavily-used highway, I wouldn't do it. If its 4-5 miles on a lovely shaded (and plowed) bike path, definitely.

I use a cargo trailer (OK, it was a kid trailer in an earlier incarnation) for large-ish shopping trips. The impulse-purchase big watermelon fits :^)

[TrMama]

How far I'm willing to cycle is inversely related to how much weight I have to carry. So I'm willing to ride further to work (provided I can leave a lot of my crap there) than I am to do a big grocery haul.

If your DH is really resistant to cycling, get him an ebike. Even a really fancy one is still way cheaper than a car.

When you're choosing a house, pay careful attention to hills. Specifically, don't pick a house on top of a big hill. You'll be tired and carrying stuff at the end of the trip.

[ysette9]

I have an ebike and it is transformational. I went from car for everything to bike for almost everything. When I was working that was 10 miles one way, which was a good distance but doable. The grocery store is 2 miles, school was about 2 miles. I have a basket on the back and use the bike trailer all the time for kids and/or groceries.

If your husband is resistant to biking I strongly recommend renting a well-fitted ebike for a week or two. I can’t say enough good things about mine.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

I voted 1 mile, because for me, it's the distance I feel safest with in terms of our roads.  We live close enough to our downtown and many amenities that we can walk easily, so bike riding is a cinch, and church is also just under a mile away.  Any farther than a mile, and the roads are dicier for me, with higher speed limits for the cars and less awareness of shared roads.  Reality is I usually prefer to walk the mile or less unless I'm carrying heavy or unwieldy items, or if it's excessively hot.

For my husband and sons, however, the answer is easily 3-5 miles for essential needs, because they are all cyclists and thus have the endurance and the street cycling skills I lack.  They're also less worried about biking in traffic.

We have racks on the commuter bikes, detachable pannier baskets which fit one style of rack (on two of the bikes), a cargo trailer, and a thrift store child trailer used as a cargo trailer.  My pannier bags got stolen when my son was using my bike, so now I use a milk crate zip tied to my rack, which honestly I love much more than the panniers.  We have flashing front and rear lights which we use in daytime and nighttime, adding a steady front light at night.  We have fluorescent vests which provide daytime visibility due to color and nighttime visibility due to reflective strips.

All that said, in the current environment we are shopping far less often, and even the two trailers wouldn't hold what we bring home from Costco or Aldi.  This morning we did our first Aldi trip in almost 12 weeks -- the cart was filled to the top and the little car was quite full on the way home.

Also, by choosing to live where we can do so many things without a car, we share one little car between 4 adults (3 drivers -- 20YO hasn't need a license yet). 

[Kwill]

I'm not much of cyclist, but I've been car free for over 4 years now. For me, the comfortable biking radius for everyday things and essential needs is what I could happily walk in a pinch if something happened to the bike. I'm a mile and a half miles from work, and the supermarket I usually used pre-COVID is also about that far but close to my route home from work. So if I went to work and then to the supermarket on the way home, it would be under 4 miles round trip, which was pretty perfect. I live in a flat town with good bike lanes and bike paths, so it's not that it's hard to cycle here.

One of the things that has made it much easier for me to be car free over the past year and a half was occasionally getting groceries delivered--maybe once every five weeks. It's harder to get delivery slots right now, but what I had been doing was making big orders for canned goods, pasta, rice, and other heavy things plus whatever I needed for that particular week. Then I would just pick up milk and vegetables and other fresh foods from the supermarket now and then on the way home from work.

I have a basket on the front of my bicycle, and I also wear a backpack.

[John Galt incarnate!]

I live in the mountains where the roads are much too steep to bike back and forth to the grocery store that is ~4.5 miles from my house.

If the  terrain were flat 4.5 miles out and 4.5 miles back would so easy I would enjoy such a bike ride.

[BDWW]

I don't even think about anything under a mile. It's probably faster than a car in my immediate vicinity. I internally debate anything 2-3 miles(depending on whether/task/weight), and further than that I always take the car.

I would travel further distances, but the town I'm in is about ~3 miles across, and all the roads connecting to other areas are 55mph+ with minimal/non-existent shoulders.

[ETF2]

I have an ebike and it is transformational. I went from car for everything to bike for almost everything. When I was working that was 10 miles one way, which was a good distance but doable. The grocery store is 2 miles, school was about 2 miles. I have a basket on the back and use the bike trailer all the time for kids and/or groceries.

If your husband is resistant to biking I strongly recommend renting a well-fitted ebike for a week or two. I can’t say enough good things about mine.

This.  The difference between an ebike and regular bike is massive.  3 or 4 miles on an ebike is nothing, but I wouldn't want to ride my regular bike 4 miles for groceries.

I have a 12 mile commute to the office, and ebiking only adds 5 - 10 minutes vs the car.  I bike fairly often because of that.

[ysette9]

I have an ebike and it is transformational. I went from car for everything to bike for almost everything. When I was working that was 10 miles one way, which was a good distance but doable. The grocery store is 2 miles, school was about 2 miles. I have a basket on the back and use the bike trailer all the time for kids and/or groceries.

If your husband is resistant to biking I strongly recommend renting a well-fitted ebike for a week or two. I can’t say enough good things about mine.

This.  The difference between an ebike and regular bike is massive.  3 or 4 miles on an ebike is nothing, but I wouldn't want to ride my regular bike 4 miles for groceries.

I have a 12 mile commute to the office, and ebiking only adds 5 - 10 minutes vs the car.  I bike fairly often because of that.

Exactly. Your radius expands but also hills don’t matter, how many groceries you buy doesn’t matter, how heavy your kids are in the bike trailer doesn’t matter. It is very freeing.

Plus it is super fun to bike that fast!

[darkadams00]

8 miles one way to work. 3 miles one way to pretty much all of my weekly errands, including weekly groceries. Up to 9 miles one way for irregular shopping. Up to 30 miles one way to Saturday morning cafe breakfast (to various nearby towns). Year-round, car-lite commuter (1 car, 2 adults). I ride more miles than drive. Wife drives slightly more than rides.

As to groceries, two panniers and a basket on our tandem easily handle most weeks. Trailer used if stocking up on paper products or cleaning supplies. Roll up on a tandem pulling a trailer in January! We just laugh at everyone’s amazement and dumbfounded looks while they’re sitting in the grocery pickup line. Hills? Unless it’s the mountains or tough San Fran hills, tough it out for a few weeks. You’ll be surprised how quickly you adapt to regular routes.

[Arbitrage]

Another e-biker here, and like some others it now defines my personal transportation.  We've pretty much settled on selling the second car, but it doesn't seem like the best time.  My radius is about 10 miles on the bike, and I'll do that with heavy loads/trailers and such. 

[PDXTabs]

In my experience most people will do a 10 mile (round trip) commute every day. For me it's probably closer 16 miles.

[Much Fishing to Do]

Personally, I'd say zero on the street.  Although I've competitively cycled and would train 40+ miles every day, cell phones have made it too dangerous to put a bike on the street beyond riding across the road from my house to hit the trails with a mountain bike.  I know it's all cool to be without a car and all, but I'm sort of down on being killed by some 16 year old LOL'ing on her phone while she knocks me into a tree with her Range Rover Sport.

Unfortunately I've come to agree with this.  I used to run long distances with much of it on the road because from my house that was the only way to get to a trail, and even with eyes ahead running against traffic I've had a couple of near misses (on bridges, etc).  Then had a good friend killed on a bike, so I drive to my running trails now and just doing all I can to try to get the town to put a bike/walking path out to me.  Heck, my kids could walk to school if we had something like that but currently there's no way I would let them walk the road.

[imadandylion]

Ebike is a great idea, we will probably look into that for him depending on where we end up renting.

@Much Fishing to Do I am sorry for your loss.

[nereo]

I put 3-5 miles but honestly this depends on three additional factors:

• The hilliness of the terrain
• The weather
• Biking infrastructure

In short, I wouldn't hesitate to bike 3-5 miles (one way) even with large hills and/or in hot, humid conditions and/or sharing the road with cars (within reason). That largely describes my commute in two previous cities.  Honestly a 3 miles bike ride under such conditions typically added just ~5 minutes over driving, and was infinitely more enjoyable

If it's a relatively flat, mild weather and there's a dedicated bike path I would have no qualms riding 6-10 (10-16km) miles for most things.  As I understand it, this describes much of the Netherlands

[GreenToTheCore]

For my husband and sons, however, the answer is easily 3-5 miles for essential needs, because they are all cyclists and thus have the endurance and the street cycling skills I lack.  They're also less worried about biking in traffic.

Honestly, learning how to bike with traffic was the biggest factor in increasing my willingness to bike. It's like a whole other world, like Pleasantville's transition from grey scale to Technicolor.

Before: biking was nice with the fresh air and the fun coasting down hills, but I was less willing to go to places where I would need to leave bike paths, I had squeeze passes all the time, I had to have my head on a swivel to cover all the traffic lanes and entrances because I didn't know where the next unpredictable motorist was coming from. Even with all that, I knew biking was fantastic and made me happy.
---
After: I went from able to bike to being empowered to bike. I can go anywhere in my town, even if I haven't memorized the road conditions because I now know how to interact with the road in the safest manner. I never knew how much anxiety I was experiencing until it wasn't there any more. Learning how to bike with traffic error-proofs out the main collision types so it's so much safer. It went from close calls almost every day to maybe one close call a month. Since you're more easily seen and you see more, you're head isn't on a swivel, you know where to look for collision possibilities and prevent them. Granted, it did take me the better part of a year to internalize that my safety was more important than a car's convenience, that's how ingrained ride-as-far-right-as-possible* was.

Seriously, can't recommend it enough.
Some places to start:
https://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/
https://www.bikeleague.org/content/ride-better-tips   
https://www.bikeleague.org/content/where-should-i-ride
https://cyclingsavvy.org/road-cycling/


https://vimeo.com/iamtraffic
https://iamtraffic.org/
http://ipmba.org/resources/instructor-resources
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/commute.html   (it's not glamorous, but Sheldon's site is a great source of info. RIP.)

Some handy visuals:
https://cyclingsavvy.org/lane-width-space/  (scroll down for the interactive bit)
https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/intersection-crashes-and-prevention.jpg
https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/How-wide-he-thinks-his-car-is-1030x756.jpg
https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CVC-21202-flowchart-handout.pdf  (this mirrors most state laws)


But to answer your question, here is my current life (one way distances):
Grocery: 1mi
Downtown/errands: 3mi
Work: 6mi or 3mi depending on that week's building
Terrain: hilly-ish, ~100ft elevation changes
Weather: all year, winter is the best since drivers are going slower and it is quite obvious why I'm not huddled on the shoulder (it's full of snow). I do the mountain bike with a backpack with yellow cover.
My normal gear: gravel-type road bike with rear rack & panniers. Current load max: 48lbs. I did the backpack thing for the better part of a decade, panniers were a game changer, another Pleasantville moment.

Glad you're thinking about getting him a better bike, it'll make all the difference.
Happy riding!


*One little word can influence so much. No law says "as possible", they all say "as practicable with exceptions".
**All of this is USA centric

***Anyone know how to remove the embedded videos? The bbcode doesn't show anything for those two url lines.

[soccerluvof4]

I would have no problem with 6-10 miles only because we have a trail system that is pretty flat to an area where we have all our shopping etc.. Otherwise as others had said it would determine on many factors.