The correct answer for most everyone is “get in a car”
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It’s a risky problem. Her Bday is this Saturday and I’m like 10 weeks out from IM Louisville. Moving my ride to Sunday doesn’t help since she claims the whole weekend. Basically my only chance of survival is to get up early enough to finish my ride before she wants a bday mimosa.
This month: cycle outside
Next month: officiate high school football.
Day, week, month, year: training outdoor on my bike
.
The biggest risk I take is commuting to work by bike. It’s only 1.5 miles each way, but it’s still generally in a busy area downtown. I do feel that one of these days there will be an incident, and as always, the worst case scenario could be bad.
With any risk though, there should be a reward or a justification.
- Downtown parking options for me is anywhere from $200-300 per month. Riding my bike is free. So roughly $3000 saved per year.
- Traffic also sucks driving even though it’s so close. And parking would not be on the same block as my office…likely 2-5 blocks away depending what is available. The reason parking is so expensive is because there is very high demand and most lots are full. So riding takes me 7-9 minutes door to door each way. All in time for driving would take me about 20 minutes going there in the morning, and 30 minutes leaving in rush hour traffic. This includes walking the 2-5 blocks, going up/down an elevator to the 4-6th floor of the garage, driving up/down the 4-6 floors, then driving on the surface streets.
- I also get $20 per month in bike fees reimbursed to me for riding my bike to work by my company. So total $3240 saved per year not including gas or wear and tear which would be minimal but still in the range of a few hundred dollars per year.
I also mitigate some risk by leaving early in the morning when traffic isn’t so bad. I also have alternative routes that are a bit slower but safer if need be. I’m also a good bike handler, can track stand, and can accelerate well from a stop which for the most part allows me to keep up with traffic so nobody behind me loses their patience.
Some people I work with who live near me still rather drive because the risk isn’t worth it for them. It’s not for everyone.
Today: take insulin and go to bed. Hope I don’t take to much
Next week: snorkel alone in Maui and take insulin before bed
Next month: backpack solo and take insulin before bed
Next year: stop taking insulin 
just kidding
FYI, snorkeling at Honolua Bay is awesome right now. Well… maybe not while the hurricanes pass through.
Usually driving. I commute to work by bicycle once a week in the summer and that may be more unsafe than driving to work. Since about 80% of the bike commute is on multiuse paths it is hard to determine if that is more unsafe than driving. Commuting by bicycle is certainly more enjoyable and is one of the highlights of my week during the summer.
I enjoy the occasional weekend, primarily in the winter, when I don’t travel in a motorized vehicle or ride my bicycle and the most unsafe thing I likely do is going for a run, primarily off road, through the sedate suburb where we live. Most of the year, however, the wife and I are looking for more exciting adventures like going to a race, a restaurant, a park or a theater so we risk driving to those locations.
Usually driving. I commute to work by bicycle once a week in the summer and that may be more unsafe than driving to work. Since about 80% of the bike commute is on multiuse paths it is hard to determine if that is more unsafe than driving. Commuting by bicycle is certainly more enjoyable and is one of the highlights of my week during the summer.
I enjoy the occasional weekend, primarily in the winter, when I don’t travel in a motorized vehicle or ride my bicycle and the most unsafe thing I likely do is going for a run, primarily off road, through the sedate suburb where we live. Most of the year, however, the wife and I are looking for more exciting adventures like going to a race, a restaurant, a park or a theater so we risk driving to those locations.
Let’s say I live to 75 years old averaging around 10,000km or so through my adult life of riding per year, then the biggest risk I took daily is all the sugar I put in my body. The riding actually helped offset that super high risk activity of the western sugar laden diet
daily-sugar+sat fat related consumption. This stuff is going to kill me (and many of us) sooner than we expectweek: not sure, but I probably won’t die this week from a heart attack from the sugar, so getting in my car…or it could be my bike commute. I think I will get more injured in a bike mishap than a car mishap, but probably more likely to die in a car mishap than falling on my bike. Falling or single rider mishaps on the bike are actually what I am more worried about than cars doing stupid shit…its usually something on the road causing riders to do stupid things that send us into cars. Cars generally they go straight and don’t do totally stupid things IF as a cyclist I ride as if they don’t know I exist.month: same as weekyear: probably that one day that I go cross country skiing and I’m on an ultra high speed descent in flat light and hit the wrong icy patch near a bunch of trees (been there done that). I can’t help myself when I ski even though I am just getting back to it. The rush of being on the razor’s edge of control while being in contol and the speed i, with the trees and snow going by is amazing. That or doing a switchback descent on my road bike carving the switchback and shooting out of the other side and passing cars and motobikes (nothing more frustrating for the motorbikes, when a guy on a bike passes them). Fortunately on the risk management side, I don’t live on Alpe d’Huez so I can’t do that this year.
I am thinking that his chocolate bar staring at me is the highest risk thing that is going to kill me though! Heck I arm curled a bus last year!
Interested in seeing what people think are risky things that will come up in our day to day or sporting lives
Next day
Next week
Next month
Next year
I type this while eating a bag of chips with soda. Cumulatively I may be just giving myself diabetes and blocked arteriies by doing this all year. It may be way worse than tomorrow’s bike commute in traffic. But not sure.
I am generally safe in most aspects of my life since risk vs benefit is a daily conversation in my work life.
If there is risk, I personally try to mitigate it as much as possible. Eat right, take care of my health and limit my cardiac risk since that is my lifetime highest risk (*here in the USA) after age 35. And I’m lucky that cancer isn’t in my family and I haven’t done things to increase THAT risk. Those are still the two biggies in all time frames.
On a day/week/month/year basis…the odds are still pretty much in my favor, even driving to work. It seems accidental poisoning is more likely to kill me than my (or other’s) vehicle. Can’t include opioids, as I ‘don’t or didn’t do drugs’, unlike Weiss…ha, but for many, that’s as risky as driving. Pretty sure my lungs are good…and what about falling and not (ever) getting up?? Suicide is pretty high up there, especially for physicians like myself…oh, boy, I hope I make it through tomorrow.
https://www.iii.org/...stics-mortality-risk
https://www.nytimes.com/…-car-crash-guns.html
The Top 10 Odds of Dying:
Heart disease: one in six
Cancer: one in seven
Lower respiratory disease: one in 27
Suicide: one in 88
Opioid overdose: one in 96
Car crash: one in 103
Fall: one in 114
Gun assault: one in 285
Pedestrian incident: one in 556
Motorcycle crash: 1 in 858
I don’t think getting into an altercation with a former cycling doper is even on the list, but maybe one day.
edited for a bigger list:
Lifetime odds of death for selected causes, United States, 2017 Cause of Death Odds of Dying Heart Disease 1 in 6 Cancer 1 in 7 Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease 1 in 27 Suicide 1 in 88 Opioid overdose 1 in 96 Motor Vehicle Crash 1 in 103 Fall 1 in 114 Gun Assault 1 in 285 Pedestrian Incident 1 in 556 Motorcyclist 1 in 858 Drowning 1 in 1,117 Fire or Smoke 1 in 1,474 Choking on Food 1 in 2,696 Bicyclist 1 in 4,047 Accidental Gun Discharge 1 in 8,527 Sunstroke 1 in 8,912 Electrocution, Radiation, Extreme Temperatures and Pressure 1 in 15,638 Sharp objects 1 in 28,000 Cataclysmic Storm 1 in 31,394 Hot surfaces and substances 1 in 46,045 Hornet, wasp and bee stings 1 in 46,562 Dog attack 1 in 115,111 Passenger on an airplane 1 in 188,364 Lightning 1 in 218,106 Railway passenger 1 in 243,765
Excuse my ignorance of nutrition, Dev. How many years is our western sugar laden diet costing us lifelong multisport athletes?
Excuse my ignorance of nutrition, Dev. How many years is our western sugar laden diet costing us lifelong multisport athletes?
Well I am hoping all that risk of riding on my bike is offsetting that sugar risk (see dtoce’s risk on heart disease). Having said that for 4 years, when I had no long workouts as I was mainly swimming I had zero gatorade or other sports drinks on all those longer rides! But now back to all that sugar on rides longer then 2 hrs.
Day: drive to work
Week: drive to work 5 times?
Month: Maybe the drive the RV to Colorado?
Year: run the full racing season in spec miata. Or drive to/from work 200 times?
The risks of any of my sporting activities are far outweighed by driving with all these other idiots 10 hours a week. I had to execute two full-on emergency stops from 80mph to 20mph today just driving home, because people proceeded into the road in front of me instead of waiting for the mile of empty road behind me. In the second case I had to evade into ditch.
This ^^^^^
Statistically, getting behind the wheel is far more dangerous than riding your bike outside. Personally, I don’t buy into riding indoors to be more safe. Your odds of something bad happening are far greater driving, so you should try to cut down on that instead. The problem is we feel more vulnerable on a bike, when in fact you’re far more vulnerable careening down the road at a high rate of speed in a 4 ton death machine.
The biggest risk I take is commuting to work by bike. It’s only 1.5 miles each way, but it’s still generally in a busy area downtown. I do feel that one of these days there will be an incident, and as always, the worst case scenario could be bad.
With any risk though, there should be a reward or a justification.
- Downtown parking options for me is anywhere from $200-300 per month. Riding my bike is free. So roughly $3000 saved per year.
- Traffic also sucks driving even though it’s so close. And parking would not be on the same block as my office…likely 2-5 blocks away depending what is available. The reason parking is so expensive is because there is very high demand and most lots are full. So riding takes me 7-9 minutes door to door each way. All in time for driving would take me about 20 minutes going there in the morning, and 30 minutes leaving in rush hour traffic. This includes walking the 2-5 blocks, going up/down an elevator to the 4-6th floor of the garage, driving up/down the 4-6 floors, then driving on the surface streets.
- I also get $20 per month in bike fees reimbursed to me for riding my bike to work by my company. So total $3240 saved per year not including gas or wear and tear which would be minimal but still in the range of a few hundred dollars per year.
I also mitigate some risk by leaving early in the morning when traffic isn’t so bad. I also have alternative routes that are a bit slower but safer if need be. I’m also a good bike handler, can track stand, and can accelerate well from a stop which for the most part allows me to keep up with traffic so nobody behind me loses their patience.
Some people I work with who live near me still rather drive because the risk isn’t worth it for them. It’s not for everyone.
You’ve probably walked to work. Given the level of concern, why not walk if you live 1.5 miles from work vs chance riding in traffic?
Excuse my ignorance of nutrition, Dev. How many years is our western sugar laden diet costing us lifelong multisport athletes?
Well I am hoping all that risk of riding on my bike is offsetting that sugar risk (see dtoce’s risk on heart disease). Having said that for 4 years, when I had no long workouts as I was mainly swimming I had zero gatorade or other sports drinks on all those longer rides! But now back to all that sugar on rides longer then 2 hrs.
I was living off sugary drinks for the last 60 years with a BMI well under 20 and at 145lbs. Used to think that I was burning it off with no ill effects with +1000 calorie workouts.
My liver revolted last year. Now I get itching/pruritis if I drink/eat sugar, which is good because the symptom helps me determine what to eat/avoid. Sugar and not just alcohol could give one a fatty liver too. It’s water and 2 cups of coffee a day for me.
The biggest risk I take is commuting to work by bike. It’s only 1.5 miles each way, but it’s still generally in a busy area downtown. I do feel that one of these days there will be an incident, and as always, the worst case scenario could be bad.
With any risk though, there should be a reward or a justification.
- Downtown parking options for me is anywhere from $200-300 per month. Riding my bike is free. So roughly $3000 saved per year.
- Traffic also sucks driving even though it’s so close. And parking would not be on the same block as my office…likely 2-5 blocks away depending what is available. The reason parking is so expensive is because there is very high demand and most lots are full. So riding takes me 7-9 minutes door to door each way. All in time for driving would take me about 20 minutes going there in the morning, and 30 minutes leaving in rush hour traffic. This includes walking the 2-5 blocks, going up/down an elevator to the 4-6th floor of the garage, driving up/down the 4-6 floors, then driving on the surface streets.
- I also get $20 per month in bike fees reimbursed to me for riding my bike to work by my company. So total $3240 saved per year not including gas or wear and tear which would be minimal but still in the range of a few hundred dollars per year.
I also mitigate some risk by leaving early in the morning when traffic isn’t so bad. I also have alternative routes that are a bit slower but safer if need be. I’m also a good bike handler, can track stand, and can accelerate well from a stop which for the most part allows me to keep up with traffic so nobody behind me loses their patience.
Some people I work with who live near me still rather drive because the risk isn’t worth it for them. It’s not for everyone.
You’ve probably walked to work. Given the level of concern, why not walk if you live 1.5 miles from work vs chance riding in traffic?
It’s not that much of a concern to me. Just because it is the riskiest thing I do, doesn’t mean it’s beyond what I can tolerate. Walking has its own risks too, as does driving. As I mentioned, each person weighs their risk reward. Someone who can’t handle their bike for shit and takes 20 minutes to ride the same distance it takes them to drive 20 minutes will probably see less benefit and choose not to take the risk of riding.
Backdoor brag but I ride a lot faster then the average bike commuter. And I am comfortable riding down a five lane one way road and changing lanes from the far right to the far left if I need to. I would never recommend my coworkers to do what I do…but for me the risk is well worth it. At least for now.
Next day
Gran Fondo tomorrow but generally it would be driving to work.
Next week
I do a weekly road race that has put me in the ER a couple of times over the years.
Next month
Road Race again
Next year
Probably a snowy/icy drive to work.
Next day. Wearing 2 different socks and sandals
Next week. Changing a loaded diaper
Next month drilling a hole in my head for more oxygen.
Next year flying from the netherlands to columbia,from there to iran with 50 kilograms of white powder and then back.
Just living on the edge
Personal note. It should be pink
Go to Kona without 4% bodyfat and a six pack.
Year: Ride the bike no-handed through a tunnel on a long descent on the Blue Ridge Parkway with no lights during rush hour while feeding a live mongoose with rabies to a boa constrictor wrapped around my neck while chewing a massive amount of bubble gum and blowing a large bubble that pops covering my entire face, all while forgetting to close the skewers on the front and back wheels (back wheel being an old J-Disc chosen to test my bike handling skills on an especially windy day) wearing flip-flops that have gotten tangled with the eggbeater pedals. Timing is still TBD, haven’t found the right day to do this.
On a serious note: Month: early morning open water swim solo; Year: Overcooking a descent on a fast-technical downhill.
Well so much for that.
Came here looking for some interesting things to do…
Commuting and riding a bike, while eating sugar.?
jeez!