I've been unemployed for about a week, and I think bicycling is the only thing other than a paycheck I'm missing. I have trouble riding for ride's sake. I ride for transportation. I've done some really long rides (a 135mi/~225km ramble once, with a friend, and a couple of 70mi/120km one-night bicycle camping trips) but as a general rule, I ride to the grocery store, post office, bank, to the office, and just to get around.<p>a 30mi/48km round trip commute by bike takes just about an hour each way for me, and it's great cardio. I'm still fat, and not terribly fast on my bike, but I feel good. At my last job, I had a great route that used mostly frontage roads along main highways. Folks who wished to go fast would use the highway, and cyclists were a common enough site on the road I used that we all got plenty of respect and room most of the time.<p>The worst offenders of cutting it too close? Prius drivers.