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I would rather just ride the subway in Stockholm to be honest. I see no benefit in riding a bicycle as a pure mode of transportation there.

by sebcat 10y ago

unicornporn 10y ago
May I ask why? As a year round bike commuter without a metro card I can not find any good reasons to chose bus/metro over riding a bike. The bike is almost always faster and gives me superior flexibility.
- henrikschroder 10y ago
  1) Cold 2) Snow 3) Ice 4) Did I mention the cold?
  - unicornporn 10y ago
    Haha, yeah, guess I've turned fanatic over the years. But really, I hear these comments all the time and I can't get my head around them. 1) It's definitely no colder than taking the metro. I put on significantly less clothes when I hop on my bike an hour from now and with proper clothing I stay dry and ventilated. 2) Snow clearance is prioritized on the bike roads. So far this year snow has only been a problem one day. That's when the snow chaos hit Stockholm. My friend got stuck in a car for 7 hours. My bike commute took 20 minutes longer than normal. 3) I have have studded tyres, I have not installed them this year though. Ice is hardly ever a problem. The bike roads are salted, which, ironically is the biggest problem of them all for me. Salt ruins the bikes, so I recommend using a cheaper bike in the winter. It's faster, I get an hour of "free" workout each day and I can get to wherever I like inside the city without combining different modes of transportation using and app and standing in the cold waiting. When it's cold outside, I'd rather be moving.
mbrock 10y ago
The subway cards are quite expensive, and keep getting more so. Right now a year ticket is around 850 EUR, a month ticket around 80 EUR.
- alkonaut 10y ago
  Thats still heavily subsidized. If you commute twice per day it's under €2 per way which is relatively cheap in a city where a beer is €8 and your lunch is €10.
  - mbrock 10y ago
    Perhaps, but it's still quite a lot of money you can save by biking.
    - jononor 10y ago
      If you also replace a gym membership then it becomes quite significant.
vanderZwan 10y ago
It's all about personal preferences I suppose. In general I just feel liberated by having a bike, in the sense that I can quickly move from A to B on my own accord; unless you go directly from station to station, you can often beat the metro in terms of speed (without driving fast)). Depending on busses and subways for transportation makes me feel a bit uneasy (which is a bit unreasonable, I know, but the feeling is there). I also get antsy from just sitting all day at work and then on my commute too; the time spent waiting for and sitting in the bus/metro feels like dead time. By comparison, riding a bike makes me feel like I'm on the move and doing something. But hey, I'm Dutch. My love of bikes is part of my culture. I can totally see how a long commute in the metro can be a moment of relaxation too, in-between work and family life at home; it just doesn't apply to me.

I would rather just ride the subway in Stockholm to be honest. I see no benefit in riding a bicycle as a pure mode of transportation there.

by sebcat 10y ago

I would rather just ride the subway in Stockholm to be honest. I see no benefit in riding a bicycle as a pure mode of transportation there.

unicornporn 10y ago

May I ask why? As a year round bike commuter without a metro card I can not find any good reasons to chose bus/metro over riding a bike. The bike is almost always faster and gives me superior flexibility.

henrikschroder 10y ago
1) Cold 2) Snow 3) Ice 4) Did I mention the cold?
- unicornporn 10y ago
  Haha, yeah, guess I've turned fanatic over the years. But really, I hear these comments all the time and I can't get my head around them. 1) It's definitely no colder than taking the metro. I put on significantly less clothes when I hop on my bike an hour from now and with proper clothing I stay dry and ventilated. 2) Snow clearance is prioritized on the bike roads. So far this year snow has only been a problem one day. That's when the snow chaos hit Stockholm. My friend got stuck in a car for 7 hours. My bike commute took 20 minutes longer than normal. 3) I have have studded tyres, I have not installed them this year though. Ice is hardly ever a problem. The bike roads are salted, which, ironically is the biggest problem of them all for me. Salt ruins the bikes, so I recommend using a cheaper bike in the winter. It's faster, I get an hour of "free" workout each day and I can get to wherever I like inside the city without combining different modes of transportation using and app and standing in the cold waiting. When it's cold outside, I'd rather be moving.

mbrock 10y ago

The subway cards are quite expensive, and keep getting more so. Right now a year ticket is around 850 EUR, a month ticket around 80 EUR.

alkonaut 10y ago
Thats still heavily subsidized. If you commute twice per day it's under €2 per way which is relatively cheap in a city where a beer is €8 and your lunch is €10.
- mbrock 10y ago
  Perhaps, but it's still quite a lot of money you can save by biking.
  - jononor 10y ago
    If you also replace a gym membership then it becomes quite significant.

vanderZwan 10y ago

It's all about personal preferences I suppose. In general I just feel liberated by having a bike, in the sense that I can quickly move from A to B on my own accord; unless you go directly from station to station, you can often beat the metro in terms of speed (without driving fast)). Depending on busses and subways for transportation makes me feel a bit uneasy (which is a bit unreasonable, I know, but the feeling is there). I also get antsy from just sitting all day at work and then on my commute too; the time spent waiting for and sitting in the bus/metro feels like dead time. By comparison, riding a bike makes me feel like I'm on the move and doing something. But hey, I'm Dutch. My love of bikes is part of my culture. I can totally see how a long commute in the metro can be a moment of relaxation too, in-between work and family life at home; it just doesn't apply to me.