You had me till the BuY AnOthER OnE, Pay me imaginary strawman. I do love bikes though, so do the fuckers that keep taking mine.
- kryptonite U-lock.
- locking skewers for the tires, gears, seat and handle bars.
- an ugly color
At this point, they'll need an angle grinder to get anything valuable off the bike. It's more expensive but so long its not the standard of ever biker, bike thieves'll target easier bikes to steal off.
It's true although it sucks. You could have several bikes stolen a year and it's still cheaper than a car.
It's, once again, comes with infrastructure. When I moved to Germany from the country with no bike infrastructure, I only thought of a bike as an expensive stuff, but here I bought a used commuter for 40 Euro and it's fucking great. I love it, but if it gets stolen, I would be mildly frustrated and buy another one of those for 40 Euro the next day.
With trains, you don’t arrive sweaty, you can’t get run down by cars, and someone else parks it
I ride a bike to work every day. I'm never sweaty. The infrastructure to cycle exists so I won't get run over by cars.
and someone else parks it
And you don't need to worry about driving
I love trains but they give me so much anxiety. I have stories of facing harassment on public transport. But it’s not just me though, here’s some idea of why public transport can suck for women or other people in case my anecdotes are just that: https://www.metro-magazine.com/10111994/sexual-crime-and-harassment-on-public-transportation-a-study
California had to make a law for race-based harassment, so it’s not just a one place or just sex-based harassment issue: https://19thnews.org/2023/02/california-introduces-bill-harassment-safety-public-transit-systems/
If public transport can come without being subjected to people and whatever miserable state of mind they’re in, I’d like that. I can at least escape a dumbass in my car, but in a train they’re either right in front of me or nearby for a long time. How do we fix this?
Public transport is clean and safe when everyone uses it. In the US, the social expectation is that public transportation is for the poor. Like white flight out of US urban centers in the 60s, it’s a class thing, and owning a car becomes a self perpetuating class signifier. In most of the rest of the developed world, like London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. public transportation is for everyone, rich and poor. It’s just a question of investing in and valuing public transportation over cars.
Only if you live at one train station and work at another.
This is my favorite argument from carfolk, because they'll treat walking one block from a bus station as some cardinal sin but will happily walk four blocks from a parking spot.
Cities with transit typically have several different ways of getting around.
For my last job, som e choices were:
- express bus plus walk a couple blocks
- train and walk a mile
- train to subway and walk a couple blocks
- drive to subway and walk a couple blocks
- train to subway to another subway into basement of my building
I’m not even counting scooter and bike share but I chose each of these options depending g on what was best at the time. But my most common choice was the train and walk a mile. It was a bit of a walk but I didn’t have to deal with people or waiting and it was close enough. But maybe you prefer walking less or like the scooter or bike shares: great, make the choice that’s best for you
Edit to add: for those unfamiliar with transit - every place will be different but I paid a monthly train pass based on my distance from the city. That pass included unlimited express buses, and unlimited subway rides within the city. So much freedom and convenience! One monthly fee let me go anywhere in the city, so much cheaper and easier than dealing with a car!
It's common to bus to the train station, and yes train stations downtown are where many people work.
ITT: Carbrains
As soon as bicycles are mentioned, everyone suddenly has to transport their washing machine 200 miles in sub zero temperatures.
Both directions and against 100 km/h headwinds
Really hurts I guess 🤷♂️
Turns out it's not so perfect but bike nuts don't fit everyone's needs.
The Japanese used bikes to defeat the British in Singapore. The Vietnamese used bikes to defeat the Americans in Vietnam. The Chinese used bikes to destroy manufacturing in the west.
I'll be in the cold cold ground before I use some stupid commie machine powered by rice.
All other arguments for not using a bike are stupid.
Can't tell if satire
Poe strikes again.
Screw that. I love paying for car insurance, gas, oil change, tires, and random bolts maintenance. There is also the thrill of driving in traffic, and dealing with road rage. There is plenty that makes the car the ideal transportation mode loved by the masses.
My personal favorite is how if someone bumps you and you get the smallest scratch or dent on your door, you now have to be late for whatever you were doing, pull over (impacting other traffic) exchange insurance info deal with possible hostility for that and ultimately have a crappy day because of it.
Don't forget punished for literal years by your insurance company
How about the fact that cars are so complicated now that working on them yourself feels next to impossible but you also have to somehow find mechanics that you trust to fix your vehicle when you really have no objective way to know if the mechanics are just bullshitting you or are actually genuinely investigating the problem, not just tossing away what you are saying with a mental note that you are clueless. Fixing a bicycle on the other hand is almost comically simple in comparison.
Also can’t forget the thrill that it only takes a second or two of distraction at the wrong moment to kill yourself and other innocent people and irrevocably send your life down a worse path. To be clear, this experience is happening when you are tired, grumpy and stressed about getting to work or getting back from work. It’s a nice little detail that we aren’t all driving boats around or something where hitting other boats requires a bunch of really stupid choices chained together, all we have to do in a car is go slightly in the wrong direction for 3 seconds and boom just murdered somebodies kid.
Stay out of the road with the heavy machinery. Cars won. Get out of the way or get run over.
Moved to the suburbs in my 30s. Got a new bike to hit the nearby bike trails. First bike ride turns into agonizing ordeal as it literally feels like someone ripped open my knees and poured broken glass in them. Diagnosed with arthritis in my knees.
There are plenty of reasons people don't use bikes, and health reasons are one of the main ones.
I was gonna argue, but we really are filled with out of shape people here. Even so, biking is easier than walking.
Based on your comment, it's pretty obvious to see that you don't have arthritis in your knees, otherwise you'd know that biking requires you to exert force to push down on the pedals, thus exerting force on your knee joint. Whereas walking is just lifting and lowering your leg, with no force exerted on the knee joint.
In other words, you don't have arthritis and have no clue what you're talking about.
Distance. An hour commute or a 20 minute trip to the grocery store. We killed walkable neighborhoods so now here we are. Trapped.
But we can't have 15 minute cities because...that's tyranny somehow?
Start yelling at your city legislators then. Force them to change how the city zones so things are closer together. It will take a couple decades of work, but you have to be apart of that change for it to happen.
Oh I do but for as much as conservatives whine about California it's not really a progressive state. More like a solid liberal bastion of performative politics. Where they'll talk about banning guns from state property like it's going to solve firearms deaths and just don't look at how we're treating homeless people...
A car cuck utopia
You can do what I did and move to another country. It just takes a lot of time, work, and money to get there (though money can accelerate the former two, in some cases).
I'd love to. And the brain drain is already beginning. College is cheaper and just as good over seas. That's always the first stage because you never get all the kids back.
Every time I see this kind of post I just wish they would try to go to work in a +40 degree Celsius environment.
It must be nice to work in a place that won't mind if you arrive drenched in sweat.
Edit: I love the hive mind
It would be one thing if all employers offered locker rooms and adequate time to get ready along with safe storage.
There is a way to get all of this and more
Honestly, no matter the mode of transportation, I'd arrive drenched in sweat in a 40° environment.
I would probably not even step outside unless absolutely necessary. At that temperature I would already suffer indoors, and if I stepped out I'd faint if I stayed out there for longer than thirty minutes.
Here in Palestine people drive bikes the most in the hottest city, Jericho. It reaches 40 degrees there. An ebike would make you get less hot from exertion. In combination with good urban planning with small streets and trees and buildings creating lots of shade it's workable. It's not sustainable to have air conditioned cars transport people everywhere. This is what living in a hot climate means.
But Texas exceptionalism!
Where do you live that it's 40+ degrees at ~8am in the morning, the entire year round?
Or could you simply be looking for an excuse?
Most tropical/subtropical areas will have a heat index in this range for the majority of the year thanks to humidity.
I live in Florida and maybe for two months of the year I could cycle around without getting soaked, either by rain or humidity.
I do cycle around for fun though.
So let's build more urban heat islands and parking lots. Exactly what a +40 C environment needs. Biking might be unpleasant in 40 C weather, and the cyclist might get a bit sweaty, but all of the positives are true. And cars are just going to make the planet hotter.
Or underdeveloped infrastructure that forces you to bike on the road. There's this road near my house thats like a quarter mile long and its 40mph and people usually speed up to 65mph.
Trying to get to work on my bike with that is fucking suicide, and my work is only a mile away.
Even walking is excrutiating. The weather is very cold, which is fine since it's only a mile, but the busy roads you need to cross make you wait so damn much. Waiting for the signal to walk is about 5 minutes. There are 5 busy crosswalks that turn my 10 minute walk into a 35 minute walk in the freezing fucking cold.
Yeah you could jaywalk but you can be arrested and trying to jaywalk a road with cars going 60 is like Russian roulette.
Have you considered, that different places need different infrastructure?
I might also remark, that your houses are utterly unprepared for the -5C where I'm at currently, but that would be stupid.
+40? I wonder why...
While taking your kid on a 10km detour to the only child care center thats anywhere near your home or work that has availability. And dont forget to swing by the shops and grab milk on the way home.
That's an urban planning problem. My dad's detour to drop me off at daycare when I was little was a 10 minute bike ride. When I was old enough to go to school, there was no detour because it was on the way to his work. Shops are also on the way or at most a 5 minute detour.
While taking your kid on a 10km detour to the only child care center thats anywhere near your home or work that has availability.
Imagine living in ex-USSR country. Daycares everywhere.
Sounds like you live in a car dependent city. Imagine if it were built for walking or biking. Everything you need within 15 minutes walking rather than 15 minutes driving. Just try imagining it.
Bruh I live 26 miles from where I work by car, and 21 miles by biking per Google Maps. And most of it is highway travel. It would make my commute over 1.5 hrs.
It is the dream if/when we can move closer though.
if entire cities were designed around these the way they are with cars, everyone would be fine with it and you would live less than 6 miles from where you work.
Public Transport
EDIT: looking back it seems I replied to wrong comment
You may live in a place that is the result of building car dependent infrastructure. To achieve a "bike city" op is describing, it would take decades, if not a century in your area for it to make sense to just bike everywhere. It takes time.
That's why you start small, and work up incrementally. Bike lanes are the first step: just make it possible. Next is paths that cut across town to allow bikes (and pedestrians) to avoid roads altogether. Just put them in wherever you can. Eventually you can start connecting them, and gradually it starts to make sense to say "let's just walk there" or "I'll meet you there on my bike."
It's literally just paint and gravel, and micro zoning. But it helps every step of the way, and it adds up quickly.
Oh it is. It's exploded like CRAZY in the past 10 years and it just keeps expanding outward instead of upward. City planners definitely designed this place to be the epitome of "urban sprawl".
For real though, if I had it my way, we'd live within 5-8 miles of where I work and I'd bike every day it wasn't raining.
Next duty station though! We're gonna buy/rent closer to the base, wherever that is!
An excellent bike city is a long process but there's a lot of simple stuff that could help folks cut down on car trips. Imminent domain a few side yards and put in walking and bike paths to make neighborhoods more walkable. Knock down some houses to put in corner stores with apartments on top. If you build dedicated bus lanes, light rail, and bicycle paths you're on a road to a safer and more connected city.
Yeah but the hypothetical is if there was better biking infrastructure and I suppose that would include not expecting people to travel so far to work.
Again if it was better public transport infrastructure you could take public transit and wouldn't need the car the problem is that these improvements have never been made.
Well yeah that's for a big ol artery - that's never going away, but within-region is different.
Like I'm not going to take a bike to go visit my brother in the town over. That's just not appropriate use of the tech
No need for parking
Yeah, just look how Nederlands or Belgium looks like xD
Rookie numbers.
Have you ever seen a walmart parking lot in person? You can fit the Netherlands and part of Belgium in one.
I'm Dutch and live rural. Used to cycle to school daily, 22km per day.
Never again. I need a car for work as I visit clients alot. I think cities could use bike friendly environments, like we have. But rural, no way. Good luck cycling 2 hours to get somewhere decent if you can drive that in half an hour.
It simply costs too much time, and with the amount of wind and rainfall we had past year is absolutely no fun.
Yeah, rural areas will pretty much always need cars or something similar - not just for traversing the massive gaps between places, but also because most rural homes are their own logistics for most things.
It also doesn't help that this conversation itself is a pretty America-centric one. In the US and Canada, dense urbanism does not exist outside of major cities. NotJustBikes on YouTube has many videos talking about just how car-centric and space-inefficient it is here.
We have some big parking areas and garages specifically for bikes, especially at train stations, schools, city centres, etc. But at home, you don't need a lot of parking space
Now imagine if all those bikes were cars.
(You definitely do need bike-specific parking when you get to those numbers though. And other good infrastructure, though it's rather the other way around: you need the good infrastructure to get to those numbers.)
All I’m saying is nobody ever got a great ass because they drove a car a lot.
Or erectile dysfunction for that matter.
The opposite of that, actually, prolonged sitting on your ass without much movement linked to all sorts of problems down there
"Cars are freedom! *
Except for the monthly finance payment, the legal obligation to insurance companies, the dependance on oil companies, etc"
Don't forget the fact that you can be randomly stopped and forced to provide documentation that you're legally required to carry in order to operate the machine... Unlike a bike, which you can just ride wherever.
Oh... And yeah, and most bikes don't have computers in them that can tell on you to the cops if asked.
But yeah... Freedom.
I mean I think in my state you still have to have iD for some reason while biking, also it's illegal to ride on the sidewalk, which everyone still does but if a cop forgot his donut that day he's got a reason to hassle you
And don't forget all of the other cars making it harder for you to get where you want to go, whether you're in one or not.
I would love it if my city had bike only days. Or at least specific bike route that do not allow cars.
I don’t live in the us and there is a major road in my city that has a bike lane, but they just split one of the car lanes so there is a bike lane, half a lane for a car, and a full lane.
So cars have no choice but to drive in the bike lane. It’s also between the cars and a place with tons of right turns.
In addition to this, the city has some of the worst traffic in the world short distances can take hours. But it’s too dangerous to ride a bike.
but they just split one of the car lanes so there is a bike lane, half a lane for a car, and a full lane.
This is brilliant. Imagine their surprise when cars did not shrink to accommodate the change.
Yeah! I just started driving in the country and stuff like that’s been really confusing for me. I feel bad, but there really is nowhere else to drive and merging is really hard due to all the motorcycles swerving around.
IIRC Bogotá did this and might still do it. They were called cyclovias or something similar
How many corpses can you fit in the trunk and where would you even put the shovel while you ride?
Yeah... a basket just isn't enough. And if the corpse gets stiff, you can't bend them into the saddlebags anymore either.
A true chad butcher their corpse on scene. I heard they make great "pork" buns.
Gotta get a bakfiet for that.
Here is another reason. I can't afford a reasonable sized apartment that can house my family near my work. So I have to travel further. Bikes are great for cities if you can afford to live in the city.
Also, what happens when it snows and you gotta get to work? Snow chains?
Snow chains?
Studded tires for bikes are quite common where I live.
You can get chains for bike tires too. I haven't tried it myself but I've seen mixed reviews. Meanwhile somewhere in Europe everyone bikes everywhere in the snow with regular tires because their infrastructure is awesome, snow compactor thing is awesome, and people aren't brainwashed by big automotive.
biking in snow is possible and common in some places, just need the infrastructure to clear out snow in a timely matter. In some places its quite common to use a bike, even in the winter
I live in Canada. I have a set of studded tires on rims that I just swap out in the winter
These problems are interlinked. So much space in American cities is wasted on parking for cars. Then there isn't space to build housing close to where people work.
Nothing stops you from commuting by bike. My best friend commutes over 40km by bike every day. Due to eternal traffic jams he's not even much slower than going by car, he also almost gets to go in a straight line rather than following highways. Get out of that US centric mindset and realize a lot more is possible by bike than you might think.
Yeah, with this climate, we are not going to see much snow soon... :(
MUCH slower, no protection from the elements, most can only support one person at a time. Great for shorter distances, but that's about it.
A velocycle basically solves all these problems.
There are lots of multiple person bicycle type vehicles.
Like this magical invention
Cars were, and to some extent, still are, a statement of wealth. Having a "horseless carriage" back when personal vehicles were called that, was an easy way to distinguish that you were a successful person. As time went on, this transformed into having the latest vehicle or vehicles of a specific brand or type, or that cost x amount of dollars... Many of these points are still true today, unfortunately.
Because of the status you would demonstrate having a vehicle, demand for infrastructure from the affluent persons that owned these vehicles, most cities were built with space in mind so their richest could enjoy their personal vehicles as optimally as they could. As time went on, and more people bought cars due to the ease of transport they provided, that infrastructure demand only increased.
Specifically in America, further pressure was given to state and local governments by automobile manufacturers to build better and better roads to more places so more people would have access to roads and therefore see value in owning a personal vehicle.
Then there's the interstate. Again, specifically talking about the states here, mostly... The Interstate systems were desired by the auto makers and people, but we're not strictly required. AFAIK the largest push for interstate freeways came from the military, so they could rapidly move equipment from one location to another. This is why interstates are so built up; if you compare the underlying structure of most roads with what's done for interstate freeways, the difference, at least, historically, is quite significant. The interstate was designed to have a batallion of tanks roll from place to place, something that would utterly destroy most roadways. Of course they can also move other equipment on it, since the majority of the remainder of what they would need to move is less damaging to the road than tanks.... Like planes. Many interstates are designed, on purpose, to act as impromptu runways to land or take off from. This enables the military to set up shop pretty much anywhere they need to, in order to defend the land.
The existence of the interstate only drove (no pun intended) more people to want and buy cars. Further compounding the problem.
Now, many years later, city streets are generally not built for you. They're not built with regular human lives in mind. They're built to act as conduits for emergencies so personnel or equipment can move from place to place with ease and relative speed. Public emergency services (police, ambulance, fire) are all geared around the existence of roads for transit. Because of this and a multitude of other, somewhat less notable reasons, roads continue to be a fixture in most cities and urban areas.
Another stupid (mostly American) reason is how far away everything is. The reason everything is so distant is a simple explanation: zoning. Commercial and residential zoning created problems where getting a plot of land re-zoned to build a strip mall or plaza is challenging at best. So since you live in a residential zone, all the commercial zoned services that you use, must be on different land in different areas. The nice thing about this is that residential zones tend to be much quieter than commercial most of the time, so homes can sit in quiet area while all the hustle and bustle of the city stays separate. This has somewhat changed on recent times but it still exists as a significant issue. Since zones of residential and commercial are generally not very small, unless you live at the edge of a residential zone that borders a commercial zone, essential services like grocery stores and shops are generally a significant distance away. Owning a vehicle and road infrastructure makes this a minor inconvenience at most, unfortunately it also makes this a major inconvenience for anyone who does not (thus driving sales of personal vehicles, again, compounding the problem). Again, in recent years, maybe the last 20-30, this has been changing, and we're starting to see, at least in large Metro areas, the rise of condos. Usually intermixed with commercial areas, it's a home you can buy that is surrounded by commercial services within walking distance (copy/paste for apartments).
Unfortunately, due to the military and historical reasons, as well as continued demand for roads from people living in residential zones that are further away, roads are and continue to be built, and maintained, in cities.
If you look "across the pond" to Europe, there are many examples of cities that existed long before zoning was even considered and where automobiles didn't exist that are very convenient to bike or walk through. Homes are intermixed with shops, and generally living in the city, while a bit more noisy than a residential zone, is otherwise very convenient for walking and cycling where you need to go. Mainly because cars were not a consideration at the time that those cities were constructed. Walking was common and cycling was not unusual, so the infrastructure reflects that.
We're seeing a resurgence of this kind of anti-vehicle infrastructure thinking among people, and with the rising costs of everyday living and the expense that vehicles can incur, both in operating them, storing them and maintaining them, it's easy to see why, especially when housing, in the form of apartments and condos, is getting closer to the commercial services that people want and use. However there seems to be a growing animosity among those that want more walkable and cycling friendly cities, with their car-driving counterparts.
I'm impartial. I own a car and live in a rural area, so I need one to get pretty much anywhere. My situation is not that of a city dweller and I see the merit in the walkable city. At the same time, I see the merit in drivable cities too. I wouldn't mind driving to a parking structure and taking a bus/subway/bike/whatever to get into any major city, since I do so very rarely. But I can't deny the convenience of driving into a city and parking less than a block away from my destination. Both arguments have merit and ultimately, I don't really have any "skin in the game" (so to speak), so what happens shouldn't be up to me, and cities should sort that out among their populous. I just know way too much about the issue, so I decided to comment. Sorry for the wall of text.
Hurts my ass
there is a seat you can use, you know.
Doesn't feel as good
There's another set of buttons on the side of it. Should save on jaw fatigue too.
Sure is better than dealing with airports though
I know what you're talking about, and those sensitive bits toughen up pretty quick.
For real. No matter how much I rode when I was really into cycling, I always got saddle sore pretty bad by the end of the session. Dunno why bike seats are designed so poorly in regards to comfort.
I'd still love a bike-centric infrastructure though.
Try a bigger saddle, that made the difference for me.
Saddle comfort is highly dependent on the shape of the sit bones of the individual. Your local bike shop may have the tools required to measure them, to get you a properly fitted saddle.
Install a seat
For some reason the slow and relaxed franchise with Vin diesel doesn't sound like a blockbuster to me.
I never learned how to ride a bicycle, I should really get to it someday. I just walk everywhere I need to go, or use carpooling/bus/subway..
Go for it! I think it really helps getting around more easily! Once you learn it you won't forget even if you don't ride your bike for a long time, so it's worth it IMO!
Lemme just bike from Lansing to Detroit lmfao
The US is huge, I love bikes but they aren't really the solution for like 85% of the country
95% of people don’t live or go to 85% of the country? The problem of mass transit has nothing to do with people driving cars around in the middle of nowhere.
What you're describing is a 200(ish) mile round trip commute.. aka 3(ish) hours in the car. Your post makes it sound like this is just a normal, everyday thing that a majority of Americans do, but its not..
as a daily commute, this is squarely classified as a “super commute”… about 2% of American commuters hate their life enough that they willingly subject themselves to such a grueling commute. Well outside the norm..
A good rail system would've done wonders, but cars would still probably be really useful for more rural areas.
That's not even a century ride!
Seems more like the kind of distance you should be covering on a train. With high speed rail, that distance is easily under an hour.
It's also not really the kind of distance you should be having to commute for that matter.
HVAC and shelter.
ain't gonna survive sleeping in your bike for a few years scraping by on the few places willing to hire you under the table.while all the shitstain hiring managers complain "nobody wants to work anymore" as they fucking shred your application over and over and over again.
Nobody should be forced to live in a car in the first place though. That’s a separate problem altogether from transit, which could be solved with reform to labour rights and housing provision.
yes, it would be nice if this were not the shape of the world we lived in
where vacant homes are piggybank tokens for foreign billionaires and their real estate holdings firms while families are left vagrant on the street.
where all the currency liquidity of our market has pooled at the top like a brain hemorrhage and our entire economy goes through seizure after seizure as we watch pieces of it die.
where basic human rights and necessities for life are commoditized, gatekept, and sold at a premium, to the extent that some people can't afford to livebut unfortunately, one must make do with the tools one can access...
Metaphorically speaking, our civilization is flooded and we are traped underwater.
It is indeed a problem that we are trapped underwater.
People are drowning every day.Yes, no one should have to need SCUBA gear.
Yes, it sucks that we've built our entire infrastructure around facilitating the use of SCUBA gear.
Let us not mislead ourselves, however, into thinking that criticism of SCUBA gear would ever change the fact that we are trapped underwater,
or that someone would be any less likely to drown down here if we took their SCUBA gear away.
What about the people who can't even afford a car they are even worse off? Society should not waver on its social services, or sociietal norms to only meet the needs of unhoused people with cars. Many managers won't hire housed people who don't have a car, or even share a car with a spouse. Societally mandated car ownership just makes everyone more poor and hurts those who cannot afford a car.
Just think of what you will save in car payments! /s
Scooter, pic unrelated
Being able to travel almost 100 miles in just an hour is a pretty significant advantage to motor vehicles. Not everything is within cycling distance. Not everybody lives in your overcrowded city.
My problem is that I have terrible balance on a bike, and the last time I tried to ride one I had an anxiety attack. I still am strongly for bike usage, though.
Practice makes perfect
Ableist comment.
What about an electric scooter? Or honestly tricycles with a big cargo spot on the back are pretty sweet so long as you have the space and aren’t going up any crazy hills (could get an electric tricycle thoo).
At the end of the day though, I love bicycles but they can’t work for everyone… which is why the hope for most American cities at least is in busses. I know everyone hates busses and they are usually considered the least cool thing ever but honestly they are the future for mass transit in the US. We ripped out all the streetcars which is heartbreaking but I think busses are the closest practical replacement.
LONG LIVE THE BUS
If practice doesn't help, then maybe an adult tricycle could work? I remember my grandfather used to have one, and he had a debilitating muscle disease. Served him well enough.
The fact is goes as far as as fast as you can isn't really a good thing. Also collisions are more likely to kill you.
...aaand we're back to adjusting our speed to suit the circumstances.
Cities are inhospitable, but mostly because they're built around 1 tonne death traps as opposed to other means of transport
You won't be able to adjust it very high. And what is a better solution than 1 ton death traps? Is it trains? No. That would require rebuilding every city in America to be like 4 buildings and nothing else and the places where it would work already have it like new York. Is it buses? No. They are already in place and nobody uses them. So tell me, what is the actual solution besides cars?
Cause you can't actually GO anywhere on a bike. If you want to go somewhere 200 miles away for a week, it'd take a day and a half each way, minimum, and you can't bring anything with you bigger than a backpack. It's also physically strenuous to go literally anywhere, even the places you are allowed to go.
cities should look like this: bicycle/walking paths, trains, trams and buses. and a tiny road for the rare occasion you actually NEED a car. boom, problems solved. also mixed use zoning, rezone every city so it's more compatible with a non car centric lifestyle
Also, bad weather is a major pain in the ass on a bicycle, but only a minor inconvenience in a car
Does not protect you from weather
Cannot haul anything
Takes forever to get anywhereThats what your jacket is for.
You can get bike trailers.
Infrastructure issue rather than the bike itself.
What are you hauling anyway?
Oh no, it can only do 99% of my transportation needs instead of 100%
Ironically also the reason people shit on EVs with 200 mile real world range
More like 10% but you do you fam
Wear a raincoat or winter jacket, much cheaper than a car.
I have a trailer that can hold 40 kilos. That's enough for anything I need regularly. I rent a moving van for the once in a couple year big item hauls.
Cars spread things apart making places take long to get to not using a car.
When you say takes long to get anywhere by bike, it is a self report you don't live anywhere meaningful with anything fun around you
This person is seriously shitting on me for living 20 minutes from my job. What an moronic ciriticism.
Biking during Finnish winters sucks for sure and bike and public transport is slower than car, but it's a tradeoff. Owning a car here is fairly expensive and has downsides of its own.
For hauling bigger stuff I can rent a van or see if any of my friends with one are up to it.
Can't sleep in it. Gotta haul your groceries. Won't get you to the next state and back.
Y'all are deluded.
Aww, you don't list showing up for work drenched in sweat or with frozen fingers 😰
drenched in sweat
Skill issue.
frozen fingers
There's these things called gloves. You should look into them.
We have a lot of days in the upper 30s here every summer. I don't know how anyone can do anything without being drenched in sweat here.
👌👍
I bike to work when I go into the office, it's about an 8 mile ride. I go at a speed where I'm not sweating. I'm not a pro athlete or anything either
For the love of God, don't ride to work naked.
Bikes are ableist aren’t they? They work well for you if you don’t have any physical or cognitive issues.
A bike centric city would be just as, if not more, wheelchair friendly as a car centric one. There's detachable front wheels that can be attached to wheelchairs and pedalled by hand so wheelchair users can use bike infrastructure just as well.
I get that, but how does take away the inconvenience of inputting more strength, energy, stamina and time for your commute? So it basically locks people in to finding opportunities which are commutable by biking distance?
I don’t mind other people having bike centric cities, but I want to be to drive around as I find that a more productive way to commute. If public transport was less riddled with human misery and harassment issues, I’d prefer trains or buses.
If we were talking about banning cars entirely, that would be relevant.
Oh, some people do talk about banning cars completely. I guess you’re a fuck cars moderate lol. Local ordinances can really change the way people live in an area, like banning plastic bags etc. So it’s not unreasonable to worry about total bans, people who want less car usage policies should try to understand other perspectives.
I'm all for biking everywhere, but depending on the state of the roads in your city, you'll want a decent enough bike to handle potholes and the general shakiness you'll get from uneven road. That makes the inexpensive part utter bullshit, especially because bike theft is a huge problem. I've had enough stolen that I now don't cycle anywhere without indoor secure parking.
It's a bike, you just... Don't hit the pot hole. They are small and agile vehicles, it really isn't that hard unless it'd a literal sink hole in which case a car isn't going over it either
Maybe the roads are pretty good where you are, but in the UK you're forced to the side of the road, and there are loads of holes that wear down your bike. They're bad enough that I've had to switch away from my ebike and road bike into using a mountain bike to get around.
Being "agile" is good and all when you're not sharing the road with dozens of 1T killing machines...
I hit one once because it was dark and I didn't see it it time (despite the streetlights and my own light). Literally hit the road head first (thank fuck for helmets)
Some roads are absolutely mangled
Plus because my bike is my primary vehicle, I've customised it and kitted it out with everything I need, from rear rack to trailer mounts, I added turn signals and extra safety lights, kevlar lining for my wheels because the shit roads shred my tires.
The bike itself was expensive, but affordable, the additional kit, and the time and labour I put into making it a transport system that perfectly works for me is much harder to replace.
But I'm lucky to live in an area where you can find secure bike cages at transport hubs, and there are enough other bikes around that my clunky 30kg step through frame isn't as desirable as a lightweight carbon fibre roadster frame when someone is going around with the bolt cutters.
My front strobe light has been stolen 8 times though.
That one is baffling. Because I keep my saddle bags on my bike at all times, so you'd think someone would take those, or at least have a rummage through them and take my tool kit or pump or stuff. Or steal any number of the expensive fixtures I have, like the tail light that plugs into my brakes, or the actual bike flood lamp that's attached to the handlebars with a quick release scew.... But no, they keep stealing the $3 headlamp I buy from the dollar store that's cable tied onto the handlebar stem.
I live in a mid-sized city in the UK, and if I lock my bike outside, someone will try to steal it within 30 mins, almost without fail. We've tried getting public bike cages set up, but then motorists get shitty because those portable cages end up taking up space that cars could use.
I've dropped hundreds on bike locks alone, and despite this have had parts of my bike stolen when someone decided that they couldn't get through the lock, or couldn't cut through where I've secured the lock.
I do wish licensing and insurance was required. I've been hit by 3 cyclists. 3 claims that would need to use uninsured motorist coverage and I had to go out of pocket on the deductible if I wanted to fix my car even though none were my fault. The one time damage was bad enough to where I did submit a claim, the insurance company tried to shake down the cyclist for my deductible, but failed, so I was out $500 or so. The other 2, I just accepted that my car now has a scratch there which was shitty too.
Tokyo actually requires bicycle insurance to be carried by riders now. Nothing nationwide here.
It doesn't seem too farfetched imo, but I got downvoted to hell for it so whatever. I get that I'm pretty unlucky to get hit by 3 cyclists, but it would have been nice to have been able to get their info and settle things though insurance rather than them just fucking off, and me getting screwed. Whatever. It is what it is.
Tell you what, we could do that once car drivers start paying for all the damage that their mode of transportation causes to the world.
All of the trillions of dollars of damage that climate change causes - all of the trillions of dollars that it costs to construct their infrastructure (no, gas tax doesn't pay enough, don't even go there), all of the insane amounts of damage caused by all of the death and other bodily harm caused by vehicle collisions.
Once you pay for all of that, then you can have a few bucks to buff out that tiny little scratch of yours.
You'd be bankrupt by that point though, and left without a vehicle, of course.
Unusable by almost everyone that's disabled, most of the elderly, and cannot carry any significant amount of goods.
Difficult to impossible to carry more than a single passenger as well, which reduces range and energy efficiency steeply when it is done.
You can negate part of those difficulties with variations on the bicycle, including tri and quad bikes, but you still run into range limitations that are incompatible with living anywhere but a city.
The posted text is yet another example of someone with a narrow view of how life actually works outside of their own situation. I used to love riding a bike. Can't now because of disability, but it also would have made my main job impossible back when I could still work. You can't ride a bike thirty miles across mountainous terrain in snow and ice to get to a patient's house. You simply can not do it with any regularity at all, no matter what condition you're in.
Even in cities, you're still limited by weather and time.
The posted text is yet another example of someone with a narrow view of how life actually works outside of their own situation.
This can be applied to your own comment.
Going out of your way to find exceptions doesn't make the idea wrong, nor make you right
Unusable by almost everyone that's disabled, most of the elderly, and cannot carry any significant amount of goods.
Damn, I should call my 80 year old mom and tell her to stop doing her shopping on her bike. She'll pass it along to all her friends of similar age when they bike to the community centre together, I'm sure.
you still run into range limitations that are incompatible with living anywhere but a city.
Damn, so it only works for 274 million Americans and 555 million Europeans who don't live rural.
but it also would have made my main job impossible back when I could still work. You can't ride a bike thirty miles across mountainous terrain in snow and ice to get to a patient's house.
Oh no, it doesn't work for everyone all the time everywhere. Since this isn't a perfect solution for everything always, we should just completely ignore it and never use it.
I do 90% of my trips by bike, but sometimes I have to work at a construction site or a factory complex or some other middle-of-nowhere place, so I go by car. But when I go grocery shopping, or to a cafe, or out for dinner, or to my friends nearby, I go by bike. Most of the time I go to the DIY store, or clothes shopping, or just for fun, I go by bike.
And when it doesn't work, I take the car, but it's by far the minority of trips.
Most elderly people can at least easily ride electric bikes. At the point where they can't, they also shouldn't be allowed to drive a car anyway.
You can haul anything you need for daily life with a cargo bike (or even a regular one depending on your circumstances). When you do need more you can just rent a car for those rare occasions.
Disabled people yes but they don't need anything as big as current cars either.
if an old person falls, they will likely be injured quite severely. it's also likely that they won't heal quickly or properly.
this is going to be compounded on an electric bike, due to the fact that they will be able to reach higher speeds than they would on a conventional bike.
much like cars, the addition of extra power will keep them riding long after they should've hung it up.
You've (potentially accidentally) made a great comment in support of bikes. You've listed some pretty specific and niche situations which I don't think cover 99% of car usage. If those are the sum of the exceptions, we can advocate for reducing car usage to 1% of what it is today.
You will never get rid of cars entirely, because of course not everyone can cycle. Reducing it by a factor of 100x benefits everyone, even those who still need to use one for disability or work reasons.
As a disabled person, I am lucky to ride my bike. I know other disabled people who can't. But I know plenty of disabled people who can't drive too. When people advocate for human centric cities instead of car centric cities, disabled people benefit the human centricity. Less cars on the road makes it convenient for other disabled people to get around in their cars. Also bike lanes are wheelchair accessible.
First of all, google cargo bikes for significsnt capscity
Second of all needing capacity is a Us thing because you only go shopping once a week because your wallmart is 30 minutes away and you dont want to do that every day or two days
It's a great plan if you intend to live the entirety of your life within a 15 mile radius of your house!
GENIUS! 🤯
Or anywhere with public transit. Basically not most of the US
No one tell this guy about Europe!
Moving isn't an easy option. I'm assuming they're commenting from their POV as someone without good public transport etc.
You appear to have missed a line in the OP
if entire cities were designed around these instead of cars...
The only reason you can't live the majority of your life within that radius is because it was designed otherwise. The vast majority of human society has been within 15 mile radii, and many parts of the world still are that way.
You know, it is possibe for a person to have both a bike and a car. A bike is impractical for some situations, a car is wasteful for others.
European here. Most of what I need are within 2 miles, so for most things everyday I ride a bike. For things further away, there's great public transportation. For when we need to transport bigger things or go where it's hard to go by public transport, we do have a car. However, the car gets used at most once per week.
We wouldn't strictly need a car either. There's several car pools around where you can book a car for a few hours when you need it.
Non european here, the only reason I don't have a bike is because of space and hassle (have a tiny apartment with no garage), I could and would do my commute and most errands on bike, it would even be easier and faster.
I can do 90% of my life within 35km of my house, except occasionally work and visiting friends and the occasional hobby. So I can easily do 9 out of 10 trips on a bike
Bikes for intracity, trains for intercity. Rural populations may have specific use cases for cars and trucks, but trains could also be useful.
Just because you use a bike once does not mean you are forbidden from using cars. If you have to go further, you can still take a shared/rented car or your own, if noone lives around you.
