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European cities are also extremely dense compared to American sprawl.

TulliusCicero 10y ago
1. Bikes don't really depend on high density the way transit does. They don't do well in rural/exurban sprawl, true, but standard American suburbs are usually dense enough to make a good number of bike trips practical (the infrastructure is another matter entirely though). 2. Wikipedia says Oulu's urban density is 2300/sq mi, which is really not very dense at all. 3. In fact, apparently the suburb in the article (Takoma Park) has a density of 8000/sq mi, so more than triple that of Oulu.
- serge2k 10y ago
  The problem is people live 30 miles from work and come and go at the same time.
  - TulliusCicero 10y ago
    > people live 30 miles from work Agreed, sprawl is an issue. > come and go at the same time. Yes, but at the same time, there are good reasons for why most people have roughly in sync schedules: it makes any kind of socialization much, much easier. Yeah, you can dodge traffic by leaving for work a few hours later than everyone else, but then hanging out with any of your friends or family will be painful or outright impossible. And it's particularly important for anyone with kids to have a schedule that roughly matches them being in school.
  - akamaka 10y ago
    The average American commute by car is about 12 miles. In the Washington DC area mentioned in the article, it's 9.1 miles. As this particular moment, a bike ride from Takoma Park to downtown DC is 41 minutes, versus 35 minutes by car.
- alistairSH 10y ago
  This is true. I live on the other side of the river from Maryland and well outside the Beltway. The parts of the suburbs that are configured for cycling-as-transport get used year-round. The only problem is the parts that are cycle-friendly aren't consistent. So, some neighborhoods are linked to commercial areas and others are not. I can easily ride the 11 miles to work without getting on any non-residential streets. But, there are areas 3 miles away that would require driving because of busy roads.

1. Bikes don't really depend on high density the way transit does. They don't do well in rural/exurban sprawl, true, but standard American suburbs are usually dense enough to make a good number of bike trips practical (the infrastructure is another matter entirely though). 2. Wikipedia says Oulu's urban density is 2300/sq mi, which is really not very dense at all. 3. In fact, apparently the suburb in the article (Takoma Park) has a density of 8000/sq mi, so more than triple that of Oulu.

serge2k 10y ago
The problem is people live 30 miles from work and come and go at the same time.
- TulliusCicero 10y ago
  > people live 30 miles from work Agreed, sprawl is an issue. > come and go at the same time. Yes, but at the same time, there are good reasons for why most people have roughly in sync schedules: it makes any kind of socialization much, much easier. Yeah, you can dodge traffic by leaving for work a few hours later than everyone else, but then hanging out with any of your friends or family will be painful or outright impossible. And it's particularly important for anyone with kids to have a schedule that roughly matches them being in school.
- akamaka 10y ago
  The average American commute by car is about 12 miles. In the Washington DC area mentioned in the article, it's 9.1 miles. As this particular moment, a bike ride from Takoma Park to downtown DC is 41 minutes, versus 35 minutes by car.
alistairSH 10y ago
This is true. I live on the other side of the river from Maryland and well outside the Beltway. The parts of the suburbs that are configured for cycling-as-transport get used year-round. The only problem is the parts that are cycle-friendly aren't consistent. So, some neighborhoods are linked to commercial areas and others are not. I can easily ride the 11 miles to work without getting on any non-residential streets. But, there are areas 3 miles away that would require driving because of busy roads.