We’ve all seen those riders, bravely riding into work each morning, letting neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor slick, icy roads deter them from getting into the office by 9 a.m.
Every teeth-chattering cold front gets us thinking about those badass bike commuters who refuse to let a beatdown from Mother Nature stop their rides. Based on data from advocacy group People For Bikes, we reached out to several riders from America’s coldest and most bike-crazy cities to find out their secrets.
New York City Cyclists Don’t Quit
With car parking both expensive and hard to find, many of NYC’s 8.5 million residents find bicycles to be the perfect solution. As the mercury falls, the number of commuters stays relatively steady at 4 percent of the population. Not only must commuters deal with the brutal Northeast winter but also the apathy of city workers, says Yoni Reinberg, owner of the social-justice oriented website company Social Ink.
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“In NYC, the infrastructure is not appreciably worse in the winter than the summer, except for the wind—it can be bad enough to require pedaling downhill,” Reinberg says. “At times the bridges are left unplowed or other high bike traffic roads are plowed with regards to cars only. In general, the Department of Transportation, police and (other departments) care about biking very little in general and even less so in the winter, so you’re much more ‘on your own’ in any kind of hazardous conditions.”
Even so, Reinberg soldiers on, commuting via bike 10 miles each way, five days a week. He only refrains from the bike when the snow is virtually impassible, and that’s because he’s more concerned about dangerous drivers and sliding cars.
When asked about his favorite memories of his winter commute, Reinberg flashes back to the transit strike in 2005, when NYC officials instituted temporary restrictions on cars traveling in and out on the city's bridges.
“That left Manhattan completely open,” Reinberg says. “People were walking (and not driving), so I was able to bike the city on wide open boulevards for blocks and blocks. It was really freeing to be able to ride in near silence."
Denver’s Winters Can Be Brutal
In Denver (and its surrounding suburbs), nearly 650,000 cyclists bike to work every day. Katie Macarelli, a marketing manager, commutes about five-and-a-half miles each way to work nearly every day, assuming she’s not extending the ride by summiting the nearby Lookout Mountain. Although she could do her commute almost exclusively on bike paths, she doesn’t for a couple of reasons.
“I usually don’t give myself enough time (to ride exclusively on the bike trails),” Macarelli says, laughing. “I also firmly believe that our infrastructure will never get better if we don’t mix with motorists. If I’m riding the speed limit, I am going to mix with motorists.”
Macarelli credits warm layers to help her stay warm on the bike during the brutal Colorado winter. She and her husband share one car between them, and the cost of great cold-weather gear is still less than a car payment.
Although it takes more time and effort to commute in the winter—when the city didn’t plow one of the roads on her route one day, she was forced to shoulder her bike and muscle her way through the snow for more than a third of a mile—she believes the positives greatly outweigh the negatives.
“There’s a beauty to (commuting in the snow),” Macarelli says. “I’m convinced I don’t get as sick in the winter now that I bike to work every day. Fresh air and sunshine are scarce if you work a desk job in the winter. I crave both. Plus, I live for the challenge of biking in the rain, snow, hail, wind, and cold. I grew up on a farm and, for the most part, feel pretty lazy in comparison to how I was raised. Biking keeps me young and will certainly prevent me from ever becoming soft.
“I have cried on commutes. Several times because it was just hard, cold, and I was tired. Once, I fell on ice and skidded a long way before stopping at the feet of a woman walking her dog. She clucked her tongue at me and said, ‘You shouldn’t be doing this on a day like today.’ I went on to ride to work and then to the DMV to renew my driver’s license. So she can suck it.”
Living in the suburb of Golden, Macarelli has no problem bending the ear of the local mayor and city council if bike lanes aren’t plowed or just to offer a suggestion.
4 Great Cold-Weather Cycling Caps
Castelli Difesa 2 Cap
Full-coverage materials: Gore Windstopper on top, Thermoflex on the ear flaps.
Giro Merino Winter Cap
Wool keeps your head warm and stink-free, the X-Static liner wicks sweat.
Louis Garneau Winter Cap
The extra-long, thermal-lined ear band extends low to keep the chill off your neck.
This minimalist cap has no ear flaps, but its large brim is ideal for rainy days.
Chicago Commuters Brave the Wind and Cold
It shouldn’t be a surprise that a blue-collar city like Chicago has more than its fair share of badass winter commuters. People For Bikes estimates that 2.7 million people use a bicycle as part of their daily commute, and many of those riders are still at it during the winter.
“I may ride less for recreation and fun or may make less stops during inclement weather, but I enjoy the challenge of riding throughout the year,” says Chicago resident Elizabeth Adamczyk. “Having access to Chicago’s robust Divvy bike share network certainly helps keep me moving on two wheels, even on those days that logistics wouldn’t make taking my own bike feasible, practical, or safe.”
While Adamczyk was quick to praise Chicago’s improving bike infrastructure, she also admitted she often avoids the protected bike lanes in the winter because they’re not always plowed or salted immediately in the winter. Most aspiring winter bikers might want to go as fast as they can to get out of the cold, but Adamczyk warns against it.
“Slick conditions, pot holes, cold weather—all of these can slow down your bike commute,” Adamczyk says. “It sounds counter-intuitive (at least to me) to go slower and just enjoy the ride more in the colder weather, but it works. Slowing down makes the commute less stressful and gives you more time to react if needed. Being proactive and alert can really help prevent disaster.”
Adamczyk knows she’s a badass, so she doesn’t rely on outside validation. If the weather is too slick or icy, she finds drivers to be less predictable, so she’ll abandon the bike for the day. On days where the weather is merely freezing, you’ll find her pedaling to her bike educator job buried under layers of clothes and rocking a new set of pogies to keep her hands toasty.
Minneapolis’s Deep Freeze Poses Challenges
Anyone who follows Jenn Bouma on social media knows what a badass she is. City officials in Minneapolis learned it the hard way after closing part of her commuting route for the winter.
“We were smacked in the face with some water line maintenance that closed the trail,” Bouma says. “Fortunately, there is a wide shoulder on the highway, but it's harrowing at times with big trucks buzzing by at 60 to 70 miles per hour. When the snow fell, the route along that highway became extremely sketchy with the shoulder disappearing and cars spinning out next to us. Sadly, we were presented with a sign on the path telling us the path would not be maintained in the wintertime and was closed indefinitely.”
Bouma and other commuters immediately went to work, contacting every city official they could think of. Finally, the parks department relented, not only reopening and maintaining the trail but also creating a temporary hard-pack dirt trail to connect riders to a crosswalk with a light.
According to People For Bikes, nearly 400,000 Minneapolis riders commute via bike each day, including Bouma. She rides the 10 miles to her office every day, no matter the weather.
“The change in the seasons hasn't affected my commuting; I still do it every day,” Bouma says. “I actually love the super-duper deep freeze in the winter. I love the Spartan landscape of winter. You can see through the trees and all the cool birds of prey along the river are exposed for viewing. It’s quite breathtaking.”
Like most of the commuters profiled, Bouma credits having great gear as one of the reasons why she’s able to keep riding when other commuters reach for their car keys. But not everyone can afford it.
“It can be challenging for folks who don't have the resources to afford the appropriate gear for being safe in conditions that dip down to 30 below zero at times,” Bouma says. “I educate folks as much as I can on where they can get gear that works at an affordable price. There's also workshop for winter cycling run by Grease Rag Minneapolis every fall to encourage, educate, and support people of color, women, trans, and femme riders. They are so helpful in answering questions people have, getting folks started, and providing resources.”
Bouma often advises those newbie riders to just ride, even just once a week to start. It will become obvious very quickly what they need to keep doing and what they need to change.
Steady Rain Can’t Stop Seattle Cyclists
Although Seattle doesn’t get the inches of snow that Minneapolis receives, local cyclists know the cold, hard rain can make winter commuting just as tough.
Mark Villegas braves that dampness most days, riding to his job at Davidson & Kullaway Custom Bicycles. He estimates the rains typically start in September and lingers until April or May, leaving the pavement wet for months on end. A straight 30-40 days of rain happens about every other year, he says. Despite that, more than 653,000 people commute to work each day in Seattle on average.
Once every six years or so, it does snow enough to stick. In 2008, snow fell for three or four days and stuck around for about a week, Villegas says, which led to one of the most glorious weeks of his commuting career.
“Basically Seattle all but ceased to function because there was almost a foot of packed snow in the streets,” Villegas says. “Some residential streets were impassable as they could only be cleared with four-wheel-drive and chains, so the city just blocked them off to cars. There were articulated buses jack-knifed all over the place. Many businesses had to close because even if people could get there, they might not be able to get home. It was quite the event. But if you had a bike with spiked tires and disc brakes like I did, you were lord of the city.”
After spending nearly a decade as a reporter for The Indianapolis Star, Robert Annis finally broke free of the shackles of gainful employment and now freelances full time, specializing in cycling and outdoor-travel journalism. Over the years, Robert's byline has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Outside, National Geographic Traveler, Afar, Bicycling, Men's Journal, Popular Mechanics, Lonely Planet, the Chicago Tribune, and Adventure.com.
