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60% interested but concerned is not even close to enough, there are significant entrenched views (car culture) and lobbies(AARP, Big oil) who will make this ver

60% interested but concerned is not even close to enough, there are significant entrenched views (car culture) and lobbies(AARP, Big oil) who will make this very difficult/impossible. Also how many Americans are “interested” in being fit, or following a diet to lose weight. Interest means little in the face of a routine that requires substantially more effort. And yes, riding an eBike is substantially more effort than hopping into a climate controlled automobile. >engineering The US has so much infrastructure debt it’s crazy. Our bridges are falling apart, I don’t see bicycle infrastructure being a priority any time soon. The spice must flow and so semi-trucks must be made roads to drive on. Also a Billion dollars is chump change in California infrastructure terms. The upgraded eastern span of the bay bridge was 6.5 Billion, and required no land acquisition. I try not to think about the HSR boondoggle. >education I don’t see this being realistic at all. AARP will fight any sort of further drivers-ed, and the US already has very lax driving standards. Even in California people resent cyclists. >enforcement How does this mesh with (5)equitable? Being able to bike to work is super privileged. It means you have a job where arriving tired and sweaty is okay. It means you have time and energy to bike to and from work, the average US commute is something like 16 miles. It also means you are financially secure enough that you don’t need a backup place to sleep just in case, and you have adequate healthcare as biking is obsentsibly more (especially at fault) injury prone than driving. Enforcement primarily on cars would be a covert regressive income tax. >equitable How are we going to restructure the US to make biking equitable? Most of the wealth is concentrated in a dozen or so urban areas. Is the solution for middle class people to sell their house in the burbs so they can rent in the city so they can ride an ebike to work? such equity.

wffurr 7y ago
Enjoy living in a dystopian hellscape forever then I guess?
- riversflow 7y ago
  ? I think cars are fine, probably one of the greatest aspects of the modern human experience. I think all this “cars are horrible” talk is just edgy millennials who are now parents, worried about their out of control and highly distracted children. They’ve got their life in a situation that they can do without a car and as a result think that everyone else should do without too.
  - wffurr 7y ago
    Wow, that's one way to look at 30,000 dead per year in the US alone. Sure, I am "just" worried about the number one cause of death for children 3 and up. To say nothing of the costs car culture forces on individuals, the climate, the economy, etc. Your "greatest aspect of the modern human experience" entails an enormous amount of human suffering too, you just choose not to see it or acknowledge it.
    - riversflow 7y ago
      It’s not that I don’t see it, it’s that I accept it. 30k people per year dying (and many more getting mangled) is a tragedy, but dying is a fundamental part of living. Sucks not to be immortal. We live in a country that is practically defined by having large distances between everything, and values personal space highly. I’d posit that you have it backward, car culture developed as a result of Americans’ culture of traveling and personal space. That some urban dwellers don’t like this is their problem, as a minority in a society that likes space and developed cars as a result. How many people die each year to get us high tech? I can’t find good numbers, but with all the mining and refining required(and done under lax/no labor/environmental laws) I’m sure it’s shocking. Fossil fuels(4.5M) kill far more people than cars(1.24M) globally[1] so lets shut off the lights too, while we’re at it. I clearly do not see eye to eye with you at all about death(which I find to be (relative to you) really not that big of a deal, especially children), so I’d rather not go there. [1] https://qz.com/568450/fossil-fuels-kill-more-people-every-year-than-wars-murders-and-traffic-accidents-combined/ https://qz.com/568450/fossil-fuels-kill-more-people-every-ye...

wffurr 7y ago

Enjoy living in a dystopian hellscape forever then I guess?

riversflow 7y ago
? I think cars are fine, probably one of the greatest aspects of the modern human experience. I think all this “cars are horrible” talk is just edgy millennials who are now parents, worried about their out of control and highly distracted children. They’ve got their life in a situation that they can do without a car and as a result think that everyone else should do without too.
- wffurr 7y ago
  Wow, that's one way to look at 30,000 dead per year in the US alone. Sure, I am "just" worried about the number one cause of death for children 3 and up. To say nothing of the costs car culture forces on individuals, the climate, the economy, etc. Your "greatest aspect of the modern human experience" entails an enormous amount of human suffering too, you just choose not to see it or acknowledge it.
  - riversflow 7y ago
    It’s not that I don’t see it, it’s that I accept it. 30k people per year dying (and many more getting mangled) is a tragedy, but dying is a fundamental part of living. Sucks not to be immortal. We live in a country that is practically defined by having large distances between everything, and values personal space highly. I’d posit that you have it backward, car culture developed as a result of Americans’ culture of traveling and personal space. That some urban dwellers don’t like this is their problem, as a minority in a society that likes space and developed cars as a result. How many people die each year to get us high tech? I can’t find good numbers, but with all the mining and refining required(and done under lax/no labor/environmental laws) I’m sure it’s shocking. Fossil fuels(4.5M) kill far more people than cars(1.24M) globally[1] so lets shut off the lights too, while we’re at it. I clearly do not see eye to eye with you at all about death(which I find to be (relative to you) really not that big of a deal, especially children), so I’d rather not go there. [1] https://qz.com/568450/fossil-fuels-kill-more-people-every-year-than-wars-murders-and-traffic-accidents-combined/ https://qz.com/568450/fossil-fuels-kill-more-people-every-ye...