Detroit man walks 21 miles/day to get to work (article). Buy it?

not a chance. that doesn't even remotely make any sense. Why would he not just buy a cheap bike from walmart and cut his commute down by, I don't know, a few hours??

something fishy here.

No way. A brisk walk is 4 mph (which is 15 minute miles), so that would be over 5 hours of walking each day. It's possible, but highly improbable.

Because they won't let him put his bike on the bus?

"He walks about eight miles headed to work and about 13 miles home".

Public bus system in a major city will almost certainly have a bike rack as it's meant for commuters.

A cheap bike on craigslist will cost around $50.

I think maybe he did this walk one time and the story rolled downhill.

Alan

This is a ridiculous story. What kind of idiot would walk for like 5 hours a day when he could cut the time down to one hour with a ratty old bike?

Man walks 21 miles a day, becomes famous.

LR'er runs 21 miles a day, becomes injured, stays unknown.

In all these years, the guy couldn't a) find a place to live closer to his place of employment, b) find employment closer to his home, c) get a bike. If he really did spend all those hours commuting, couldn't he have instead engaged in paid employment for a fraction of the time and raised the money to fix his car in a fairly short timeframe?

Sorry, not a hero. Discretion is the better part of valor. Doing something unnecessarily difficult isn't heroic.

not a hero wrote:

Sorry, not a hero. Discretion is the better part of valor. Doing something unnecessarily difficult isn't heroic.

Agreed, this guy just likes to walk alone.

While I doubt the distance he covers every day, he's still showing up for work for a 10 or 11 buck an hour job on time every day, even in the Detroit winter. From miles away without a car.

Where I work if there is a level 3 warning, employees that live just 3-4 miles away won't make an effort to drive in and consider it an excused absence. Even if the plows get the roads cleared by mid-morning.

I would think his bosses would offer a small loan for him to get a decent used car. Maybe they have and he doesn't want to pay for the gas, insurance, upkeep for a vehicle only making 10.55 an hour.

Or maybe he just likes that routine of doing nothing in his life but walk, work, walk, and sleep.

If you believe this story then he's likely walking 20 minute miles and spending 6 hours and 20 minutes on his commute. Working 8 hours. Might only need 5-6 hours of sleep. Still leaves at least 3 hours out of day not walking or working.

I guess it is possible.

A fundraiser just raised $180,000 for him to buy a new car. You guys jealous? lol.

Piano_Man87 wrote:

Man walks 21 miles a day, becomes famous.

LR'er runs 21 miles a day, becomes injured, stays unknown.

LRer runs 21 miles just to get to where he already was.

afldkiadoigoij wrote:

No way. A brisk walk is 4 mph (which is 15 minute miles), so that would be over 5 hours of walking each day. It's possible, but highly improbable.

This.

Hey, Ted Corbitt *ran* farther than that to/from work each day, IIRC.

The (apparently true) story about it is that one morning he ran by a neighborhood guy who said, "Man, that cat is late for work *every* morning."

The article says he has to walk like 7 miles to get to the bus and walk 5 miles afterwards. You can't bring a bike on the bus.

I remember in high school - I had a summer job and just starting it - my car blew a gasket or whatever. I walked like 3 hours to the job and don't remember how I got home. No way someone would do this every day.

Pringles wrote:

You can't bring a bike on the bus.

Uh yes you can...

A great story but it does seem odd.

He must just enjoy it if it's not exaggerated.

A few odd things that I got from reading the original story - not the CNN one - which everyone should read as it has a map of his commute with a timeline that raises red-flags:

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015/01/31/detroit-commuting-troy-rochester-hills-smart-ddot-ubs-banker-woodward-buses-transit/22660785/

1) His girlfriend isn't quoted.

2) It takes him 6 hours to get home but 4.5 to get there.

2) He gets home at 4 am but then gets up at 6 am to get to a 2 pm shift? I don't believe a human can survive on that little sleep.

Even if he was walking the whole way, he'd have time to get there easily in that time frame. To walk 12 miles shouldn't take more than 4 hours.

Have you ever been to a city? wrote:

Pringles wrote:

You can't bring a bike on the bus.

Uh yes you can...

Do you think that this is a universal law?

he is way to big to be walking 10+ mi a day . . .