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It's true. Go to Europe, poor people ride the bus the better-off use a bike. I think it'd have to do because of things like getting a bike requiring a larger i

It's true. Go to Europe, poor people ride the bus the better-off use a bike. I think it'd have to do because of things like getting a bike requiring a larger initial capital investment, plus there's the danger of it being stolen (which is smaller if you live in a nicer neighborhood).

InitialLastName 10y ago
This raises a funny distinction between the US and Europe... Outside of urban areas of the US, almost everybody drives cars, which are MUCH larger capital investments (and a larger long-term expense) than bicycles, regardless of income level.
dkarl 10y ago
Go to Europe, poor people ride the bus the better-off use a bike. This was my impression from the United States, too, but then numbers made me look again, and I started to notice a lot of people who didn't fit my assumptions. The image that makes me think "bike commuter" is someone briskly riding a practical, efficient bike with a laptop bag of some kind, so I was ignoring a lot of other people who are often not carrying anything, not riding very fast, riding an ill-fitting bike or one not particularly suited for commuting. It never occurred to me that those people might be riding to work.
- krakensden 10y ago
  The DUI commute.
usrusr 10y ago
I think it's because navigating adult life on a bike is a skill people learn while going through university. For everybody else, bikes are just a stepping stone to being allowed to drive. If you correlate cycling with wealth and education, I suspect that the link with education will be much stronger. It might even be a bidirectional causality, with people who can't wait for earning their first car being much less likely to "waste" years on education.
- Symbiote 10y ago
  If we're generalizing to all of Europe, which is obviously unwise, then cycling is a skill used to get to school or college. Unfortunately, I don't speak another language well enough to search for statistics outside Britain and Ireland.

InitialLastName 10y ago

This raises a funny distinction between the US and Europe... Outside of urban areas of the US, almost everybody drives cars, which are MUCH larger capital investments (and a larger long-term expense) than bicycles, regardless of income level.

dkarl 10y ago

Go to Europe, poor people ride the bus the better-off use a bike. This was my impression from the United States, too, but then numbers made me look again, and I started to notice a lot of people who didn't fit my assumptions. The image that makes me think "bike commuter" is someone briskly riding a practical, efficient bike with a laptop bag of some kind, so I was ignoring a lot of other people who are often not carrying anything, not riding very fast, riding an ill-fitting bike or one not particularly suited for commuting. It never occurred to me that those people might be riding to work.

krakensden 10y ago
The DUI commute.

usrusr 10y ago

I think it's because navigating adult life on a bike is a skill people learn while going through university. For everybody else, bikes are just a stepping stone to being allowed to drive. If you correlate cycling with wealth and education, I suspect that the link with education will be much stronger. It might even be a bidirectional causality, with people who can't wait for earning their first car being much less likely to "waste" years on education.

Symbiote 10y ago
If we're generalizing to all of Europe, which is obviously unwise, then cycling is a skill used to get to school or college. Unfortunately, I don't speak another language well enough to search for statistics outside Britain and Ireland.