http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2011/08/24/the_route_to_commuter_happiness_two_wheels.html

The route to commuter happiness? Two wheels

Two-thirds of cyclists are very satisfied with their commute, far more than drivers and transit users.

Cyclists are the happiest commuters. And walkers, too. That isn’t according to bikers and pedestrians, but to Statistics Canada, which released a study on travel time to work Wednesday.

Terri Flinn reflects that study. Only three kilometres separate Flinn from her home and work. She bikes when the weather permits and takes the streetcar during the winter.

“I’m happy six months of the year when I’m biking,” Flinn said. “And miserable the other six.”

Two-thirds of cyclists said they were very satisfied with their commute. Only 6 per cent were dissatisfied, according to a Statistics Canada survey of more than 6,000 people across the country.

It’s a striking difference from their car and transit-riding brethren. Only 32 per cent of drivers and 25 per cent of public transit users were very satisfied with their trip to work.

In warm weather, Flinn leaves her place on Bloor St. W. at 8:45 a.m., hops on her bike and cruises down Spadina Ave. to her office at Wellington St. W. She arrives a few minutes before 9 a.m.

“It’s an eight-minute ride,” Flinn says. “I love it — I actually look forward to my ride in and my ride home.”

During the cooler months, Flinn takes the streetcar down Spadina. She leaves her place at 8:15 a.m., stands in a long line at Bloor station that snakes around pillars and up stairs, and she eventually shuffles onto the streetcar.

The streetcar is jammed and a seat is a rare find. About 35 to 40 minutes later, Flinn escapes the streetcar and trundles up to her desk.

“In the winter, I don’t want to go to work because I dread the streetcar ride.” Flinn said. “Once I’m at work, I don’t want to leave because it means I have to get back on the streetcar.”

For Robin Telly, it’s all about walking. She lives downtown, about four kilometres from work at Yonge and Dundas Sts.

“The only reliable way I can get to work is to walk,” Telly said in an email. Telly’s commute is 40 minutes on foot. To take transit, she said, she’d have to allocate an hour.

“I run the risk of being late if I leave my house the same time I leave when I walk.”

When Telly’s sister left for a week, she borrowed her Metropass. She left at the same time she did when walking and was late the first two days. She decided to walk the next three days, but get on a streetcar when it rolled by. Two of those three days, she made it to work without a streetcar passing her.

“Relying on your own two feet is the best way to go,” Telly said.