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That's great. Assuming the following: - Your commute is sufficiently short - You have facilities to shower and dress at work - You have sufficient time to s

• bluefirebrand 6y ago
  - You live somewhere warm enough to bike year-round.
  • fumar 6y ago
    I rode year round in Chicago. When weather was too extreme and unreasonable I took public transportation.
    • twiddling 6y ago
      ding ding. We also need to invest in proper public transit
  • yaacov 6y ago
    And cool enough! I’d rather bike year round in New York than in Phoenix. But if you can bike 80% of the time it’s not so bad to take inconvenient public transit the other 20%.
  • cinntaile 6y ago
    This is not a real issue, you can bike at any cold temperature if you dress accordingly. What is a real issue is a lack of cycling infrastructure, if it's dangerous to commute to work by bike then a car is a better choice.
  • jamesrr39 6y ago
    Cycling is very popular for commuting here in Sweden...
  • refactor_master 6y ago
    “There’s no such thing as bad weather”.
    • FredPret 6y ago
      Try cycling through 3ft of snow or on ice... with snow-plows lumbering by. Even if you're walking, -20C and below is just too damn cold even if you have proper gear.
      • estebank 6y ago
        > Try cycling through 3ft of snow or on ice... with snow-plows lumbering by. That sounds like bad infrastructure, which admittedly is the default almost everywhere.
        • FredPret 6y ago
          Practically speaking, keeping 100% of the ice off of even well-used sidewalks 100% of the time all winter long isn't going to happen. All it takes is one patch of black ice and you can have a very serious bike crash. There's also a safety issue in that if you're in that kind of cold for long enough, it'll kill you, jacket or no jacket.
          • estebank 6y ago
            > Practically speaking, keeping 100% of the ice off of even well-used sidewalks 100% of the time all winter long isn't going to happen. Again, it's a matter of infrastructure and priorities: https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU?t=260 https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU?t=260 > There's also a safety issue in that if you're in that kind of cold for long enough, it'll kill you, jacket or no jacket. In any situation where being outside for the time a commute could take would kill you, roads wouldn't be safe to be driven on.
            • FredPret 6y ago
              I’m genuinely surprised by that video. That would certainly make Canadian winters more cyclable. However, what if you have a 30-60 min commute and it’s -20, -30 out? You can easily drive that, but cycling is another matter.
  • doikor 6y ago
    A lot of people cycle to work in Finland in the winter. This also applies in the northern parts like Oulu. All you need is a good cycling network that is properly maintained in the winter and people will use it. A okish video about winter biking https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU Basically the temperature does not really matter much. It has more to do with the maintenance. If the cycling paths exist and are in good condition people will use them. Actually I think properly cold weather (stays below freezing most of the winter) is better then when weather is going above and below freezing point all the time. edit: And cycling in the rain is much worse then riding in the winter in my opinion.
    • twiddling 6y ago
      "All you need is a good cycling network that is properly maintained in the winter and people will use it." If you're going to invest in infrastructure, I would think that investments in public transit will be more palatable to the taxpayers.
      • adgjlsfhk1 6y ago
        Invest in both. Both are needed.
      • doikor 6y ago
        In the cities we do invest in that too. Also cycling is superior (faster, cheaper, more convenient) to public transport for short enough trips. Also public transport and cycling are not opposites of each other. Here in Helsinki a lot of people cycle to the train or metro station and then take that to the city for their commute. You can also take your bike into the train or metro here if that works better for you. People also drive their cars to the metro/train station and do the same. Parking can be really expensive (and hard to find) in the center if you happen to work there. For example my work place (a bit over 100 person IT company office) we have a total of 2 car parking spots for the whole company that you reserve in a google sheet when you need it.
    • Aerroon 6y ago
      I have a hard time seeing there being much cycling in winter. Icy conditions are scary on a bicycle. All it takes is for snow to cover some ice and the bicycle can simply slip out from under you. Not only that. It's also possible for temperature to be above 0 during the day, but drop to below freezing in the evening/at night. You might not even realize that some of the bike paths are icy. I had that happen a few years ago. My knee still feels painful from time to time because of it. Another problem with cycling in the snow is that it's way harder. You need much wider and softer tires, but this also means that you need to put in more energy. Going uphill is a pain. Add a little soft snow and/or ice to it and it's awful. You'll also sweat in the coat. Batteries for ebikes don't work as well in the cold either. I think you pretty much need an alternative transportation system for winter. Or maybe we should all start using electric tricycles or quads.
• vcanhoto 6y ago
  The Dutch would disagree with you pretty much with every single point. Except the last one, maybe.
  • BitwiseFool 6y ago
    That's great for the Dutch but I don't live in the Netherlands, I live in Texas. All of the above are absolutely concerns - especially in the summer.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  • miahi 6y ago
    They do have a lot of advantages: a flat country, good infrastructure for cycling, cool climate. That means you don't sweat on the way to work so you don't need showers and to change clothes.
    • twiddling 6y ago
      Small country, high density, etc.
  • jariel 6y ago
    Until they had to bike in Canadian winter? Or on SF hills? Or 30 Km to work with 2 kids to drop of 8 Km in the other direction? The Netherlands is nearly a perfect place for biking, which is why they bike.
    • jeddy3 6y ago
      Well, obvious places less suited for biking is going to be obviously less suited for biking. Just as driving a car in Venice, in a jungle, or up to the summit of Mount Everest is not optimal. That said, biking in Swedish winter works just fine. We plow our bike paths as well as roads, and get on with our lives.
• killjoywashere 6y ago
  I'm 45, I've been riding bicycles for leisure and competition since I could walk. I've been to big cities on multiple continents, small towns, islands, raised kids, etc, etc. I'd say you're missing "someplace to put the bike at work" and could probably skip the time and facilities to shower for some commutes. But yeah, that's a good list of impediments.
• Zababa 6y ago
  - You can either store your bike at home and on your job, or rent a bike
• leifg 6y ago
  - the commute is sufficiently flat
  • maccard 6y ago
    It's not really a requirement. I live in Edinburgh, and cycle to work in a hilly city over icy cobblestones .
    • VBprogrammer 6y ago
      Edinburgh is so compact that you can practically walk everywhere. I frequently did when I lived there.
  • estebank 6y ago
    Before shelter in place I commuted by bike in notoriously hilly San Francisco and biggest concerns was people on cars acting aggressively or having a safe place to lock the bike, not hills. Electric bikes are also an option that allows more people to ride in a wider range of situations that would otherwise be a limitation, including hilly terrain.
  • adrianN 5y ago
    Electric bicycles are a thing.
• genericone 6y ago
  - bicycle parking/storage at destinations ( you're not going to bring a muddy bicycle into the office ) - physically separated bicycle/automobile traffic ( safety like the netherlands ) - cycling support infrastructure ( to quickly address flats / part breakage when out and about ) - reliable backup transportation ( when all else fails )
• jedberg 6y ago
  The Dutch have solved the kids/cargo problem. My friend lives in a suburb of Amsterdam. She has an electric assist bike with a cargo carrier. She uses it to carry kids and cargo, like groceries and such. She used it to carry four kids (her three and one of mine) when we visited. We took the rented car and she beat us there.
  • analog31 6y ago
    In my view, the most striking feature of the Dutch solution is that it's not a type of bike, but a transportation system developed over a span of years within a specific niche of climate, terrain, population density, and so forth. Cargo bikes came after the system was already up and running. Moving any specific component of that system to another niche might help a little, and I'd welcome any progress, but is not a solution. With that said, I'm a year around bike commuter. Cargo bikes, trailers, and baekfiets are gaining popularity in my locale, especially the electrics.
    • twiddling 6y ago
      I actually have a picture of my Opa delivering bread in the 1920s with a cargo bike (bakfiets) in the Netherlands.
      • analog31 6y ago
        That's really cool. I had no idea they went back that far.
        • twiddling 6y ago
          https://mechaniccycling.com/blogs/blog/a-visual-history-of-the-cargo-bike https://mechaniccycling.com/blogs/blog/a-visual-history-of-t...
    • supertrope 6y ago
      People keep hoping for a technological solution to housing and transportation but the real answer is a big cultural and political shift toward apartments and walkable cities. On second thought that may be a heavier lift than self-driving cars.
• aeturnum 6y ago
  I think you're approaching this from the wrong direction (the article's framing doesn't really help). It's about how we allocate funds at a high level, not that every city needs to have an equal amount of cycling. From a climate change perspective, we care little about where we take cars off the road. So while it's true that Siberia won't ever be bike-first, we should understand that each person we can get to transition to biking is worth 10x the carbon reduction of getting them to transition to an EV. It will also be harder! But the 10x heuristic should help us think about how to balance the increased difficulties against increased benefits. Also, this is a transition that will eventually involve everyone. There will always be people who can't cycle and we need to maintain room for them to be full participants in a non-petrochemical-based economy. This makes low-carbon personal transport like cycling even more valuable in the context of needing to allow people with more limited mobility options access (they will need the parking spaces we increasingly hope to move away from).
  • africanboy 6y ago
    > we care little about where we take cars off the road. as someone who almost completely abandoned the car, even though I live in Rome, one of the most car crowded cities in the West (and probably the World), if we care about taking cars off the road, we need to make cities walkable Many areas of Rome already are and have been by design, because pedestrians and cars don't compete for the same space and there are large enough sidewalks in the city centre where streets are narrow, cars usually drive very very slowly, because the road is occupied by people walking and have precedence But when pedestrian share the space with other vehicles, like in car restricted areas, that's where things start to get unpleasant if not impossible bikes, electric bikes, scooters they all make walking difficult to the point that pedestrian need to be careful about them more than with cars in this covid times with virtually no cars for Rome standards, my biggest concern when I am around is avoiding riders and their bikes, they are everywhere and respect no rule. I can be relatively sure that on a one way only street no car is gonna suddenly appear from the wrong direction, not so much with bikes (and other two wheeled vehicles) especially because they are extremely quiet this is my experience after 45 years as a Roman citizen and 7 years without a car
    • 6y ago
• the_duke 6y ago
  Ebikes mostly solve 1, 2, 3 and 6 on your list. They are quite fast, require very little physical effort, and have a small fraction of the energy consumption of a car. And you can still get the health benefit by investing as much muscle work as you want to.
  • flaque 6y ago
    I’m convinced most people haven’t realized just how good ebikes have gotten. ~$1000 gets you basically a slow, mini-motorcycle. It’s dramatically cheaper than a car, longer range than a bike, and wonderful in cities.
    • trulyme 6y ago
      I would be worried about leaving it unattended though. Are anti-stealing systems any good these days?
    • Aerroon 6y ago
      Considering how common bike theft is, I'm not sure I'd consider a bicycle that's half the price of a used car to be a great deal. I like ebikes and bicycles in general, but they're expensive for what you get. Perhaps if cheaper bikes appeared while still being decent then people might consider them more often?
      • avianlyric 6y ago
        Bike insurance is substantially cheaper than car insurance. It’s also substantially cheaper than paying for fuel. You could get an ebike, insure it, and come out well ahead just from fuel savings.
    • basch 6y ago
      For someone who wants a more bicycle like experience, it's better to set expectations beginning at $3k-4k. And as far as "longer range than a bike" that's more than likely untrue. The largest batteries, best motors, and most efficient mode might make it to 100 miles on a charge, but more realistic on more common models is 30-40 miles in a middle power mode. A 40 mile limit is less than you can acomplish on a non electric bike.
• ylhert 6y ago
  nearly every one of your concerns is addressed by this wonderful youtube channel - "Not Just Bikes": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A
  • sergeykish 6y ago
    Yes, I've found this channel few days ago and it is wonderful. Author from Canada, and he has seen all the problems described in the thread. He is not bike promoter, just a person who wants comfortable and safe commute. So he moved to Netherlands where even commute by car is better because of the way city is organized. He describes in details how and why, and it is amazing. Now I want to visit Netherlands.
• dmm 6y ago
  Commuting by car has and creates lots of problems but all of these are ignored because cars are normal and bikes aren't. That's the biggest problem. For example, driving a car is necessary to be a full member of society in most places in the US. If you can't drive basic things like going to work, buying food, visiting family, seeing a doctor aren't possible or take 2-3x more time without a car. As a result people are very hesitant to take away people's licenses, even if they really shouldn't be driving. > - Your commute is sufficiently short This is the most important one. Most people would be happy biking 2mi/3.25km to work. I like biking a lot so I would bike up to 10mi/16km. > - You have facilities to shower and dress at work I commuted by bike for years in hot, humid climate without showering at work. Consider all of the remarkable achievements of humanity. You could figure out something that could work for your situation. > - You don't have to bring kids or sizable cargo Places where cycling is normal have various solutions for this.
  • isbjorn16 6y ago
    > > - You have facilities to shower and dress at work > I commuted by bike for years in hot, humid climate without showering at work. Consider all of the remarkable achievements of humanity. You could figure out something that could work for your situation. It's called a shower. I weigh 300lbs. Trust me, I am going to be sweating like I was sprayed by the grossest stink hose of all time. Sure, I'd love to believe I'd be closer to 200lbs than 300lbs after a year or two of riding, but that's a year or two smelling like a rank asshole. On behalf of myself and everyone around me, hard pass.
    • dmm 6y ago
      In that case I prescribe an electric assist bike and baby wipes in a bathroom stall. ha! But I really don't blame anybody for not wanting to cycle in the US. It's legitimately dangerous and unpleasant in a lot of areas. It doesn't have to be that way but that's the world we have.
  • Johnny555 6y ago
    This is the most important one. Most people would be happy biking 2mi/3.25km to work 2 miles is around the lower end of what I would consider bikeable, much less than that and I'd just walk.
• verbify 6y ago
  Electric bikes mitigate some of your concerns.
• ab111111111 6y ago
  Not insurmountable issues, in my experience: - Your commute is sufficiently short (I managed a 30k round trip every day at my last job. Took about 45 minutes each way.) - You have facilities to shower and dress at work (I was lucky enough to have this, but some people who don't use e-bikes to avoid arriving as a sweaty mess) - You have sufficient time to shower and dress at work (Say 15 minutes? Is that really a major issue? Just think of all the time you're saving by exercising and commuting at the same time.) - You don't have to bring kids or sizable cargo (I've got a kid's bike trailer and a kid's bike seat to take my kids to Kindergarten on the way to work) - Weather is sufficiently good (I live in Germany. I get by. When there's deep fresh snow I don't cycle, the rest of the time it's fine.) - You're sufficiently healthy (Cycling's a great way to get sufficiently healthy.)
• dfgdghdf 6y ago
  > Your commute is sufficiently short Cities are usually quite small in area. USA is an exception to this but that is due to car dependency. We can't reverse care dependency if we continue to pander to it. In London, the average speed of traffic is much lower than a gentle cycle. For longer distances, municipalities should focus on rail infrastructure. You might also consider an e-bike, which can double or triple your range as a cyclist. > You have facilities to shower and dress at work Cycling at a moderate pace does not make you any sweatier than public transport . With adequate infrastructure, cycling in a city can be leisurely, rather than a battle against motor traffic. Riding a bike is not the same as racing a bike, much like how walking is not the same as running. > You have sufficient time to shower and dress at work Presumably you have to shower somewhere. What difference does it make if it is before or after your commute? > You don't have to bring kids or sizable cargo Cargo bikes are remarkably efficient and can carry two small children. They are cheaper than a car too. Older children can cycle. Did you know 75% of dutch teenagers cycle to school? However, we need infrastructure where people feel safe to do this. For occasional journeys a car may still be required, but that's fine, we are targeting the 90% case here. > Weather is sufficiently good Cycling away from traffic in the rain with fenders and a jacket is no worse than walking. Toughen up? > You're sufficiently healthy In The Netherlands, disabled and elderly people can use powered scooters and wheel chairs on the cycle paths. This gives them independence even after losing their driving license. In other countries, they would likely end up in a home. For those who must use a car, that is still an option. Traffic is actually reduced since cycle lanes have much greater carrying capacity in terms of _people_.
  • big_curses 6y ago
    Regarding weather and showering, I think the person is thinking more about the times of year when it is 100 degrees F outside and 60% humidity for 1/3 of the year.
  • sokoloff 6y ago
    From your reply, I'm guessing snow isn't much of a factor where you live.
    • 6y ago
• umeshunni 6y ago
  Most of the world over the next 50 years will live in hot, big, Asian and African cities with >1M or >10M people. Vast transit networks will be the primary form of commute for those billions, not bicycles. Electric cars, vans, busses will solve the last few miles and support the cargo use cases. It's telling that the most of the examples in the article and in the comments are about tiny shrinking European towns (lol, Copenhagen).
  • supertrope 6y ago
    Every 30 people that bikes to the transit station is one less feeder bus. That's one more driver and vehicle that can be allocated to run between between stations. Mass transit networks would be impractically expensive if they could not offload the edges of the network to human powered travel.
  • FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
    A sad thing is that those are cities where bicycles are actually pretty common, but where they are becoming less common, because of the choices being made about development. The same is true in India and in Eastern Europe. Comfortable, mixed low-speed pedestrian/bicycle/scooter/animal traffic is getting replaced with dangerous high-speed car traffic, complete with traffic barriers. It's painful to watch a mistake get made, on a massive scale, in real time. The American Way is the wrong way, here.
• mchusma 6y ago
  I'll note safety of cycling is a big concern of mine, and by far the biggest reason I do not generally bicycle to commute, and only do it for leisure off roads whenever possible. Cycling is roughly 2x as dangerous as driving (1) to the person themselves per mile travelled and motorcycling is 35 times as dangerous (2). Electric bikes are probably somewhere in the middle. I am hoping once we get humans off the road, cycling can be safe and I would love to cycle places. (1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140517306035 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221414051... (2) https://www.askadamskutner.com/motorcycle-accident/how-do-car-accidents-compare-to-motorcycle-accidents/ https://www.askadamskutner.com/motorcycle-accident/how-do-ca...
  • briga 6y ago
    I would assume cycling safety increases proportionally with bike infrastructure. Something tells me the people dying on bicycles aren't dying from collisions with other bicyclists. If you have adequate infrastructure bike safety starts to become a marginal concern.
    • supertrope 6y ago
      I grew up trained at school to always put on a helmet else I'd end up a vegetable after a bike accident. Not one mention of how American roads are designed for car supremacy at the expense of human safety. A helmet won't do you much good if a texting SUV driver hits you.
      • briga 6y ago
        Meanwhile in Europe barely anyone wears helmets. It turns out you don't need them when bikes have their own dedicated infrastructure.
        • brippalcharrid 5y ago
          Motor vehicles aren't the only risk; whether a helmet would prevent serious injury in an accident depends on factors such as how fast you're travelling, and you don't need to be sliding along the ground too fast and connecting with a a kerb/a wall/street furniture for a head impact to cause life-changing injuries.
• mynegation 6y ago
  + the route is safe enough or - better yet - there are dedicated bike lanes for most of the route
• TulliusCicero 6y ago
  Yeah it's not like many cities all over the world already have 10%+ biking numbers, pack it up everyone, it's an impossible problem.
• m01 6y ago
  Combining cycling with other forms of public transport (e.g. trains) enables much longer-distance commutes, and effectively increases the "catchment area" of (e.g.) train stations. Other sibling comments have addressed the other points.
  • gorbachev 6y ago
    I forgot exactly where this was, maybe in Copenhagen, Denmark, but the buses in this place were designed to cater to bicyclists as well. If I remember right, the buses had bicycle storage in front of the bus and also ample space inside for about half a dozen bicycles total. It was awesome to see a bus stop, a few folks hanging their bicycles in front of the bus and get on board. Fast and easy.
• avianlyric 6y ago
  Or you buy an e-bike, and the electric motor does all the heavy lifting. Allowing you to cycle in coat with breaking into a sweat.
• rednerrus 6y ago
  You can buy an electric assist cargo bike for $1,500. No car payment, no insurance, minimal sweating, etc.
• AtlasBarfed 6y ago
  battery-assisted bicycles address #1, #2, #3, #4, and #6. And probably #5 too.
• jjj1232 6y ago
  Long commutes are something most bike-enthusiasts want to fix too! That means more affordable housing, usually. But I agree, weather and disability issues definitely require some kind of supplemental modes of transportation. Even then I’d rather we invested in public transportation instead of cars.
• imgabe 6y ago
  > - Your commute is sufficiently short > - You have facilities to shower and dress at work > - You have sufficient time to shower and dress at work You can address these by planning where you live and work to make it so. These are not immutable facts of nature you have no control over. If your work doesn't have a shower, maybe a nearby gym does. > - You don't have to bring kids or sizable cargo There are solutions for transporting kids on bikes. Unless your job is to transport cargo, how often do you need to transport sizeable cargo? Most people are not bringing a refrigerator or something with them on their daily commute. If the switch to biking only works for the 95% of people whose job doesn't require hauling around large pieces of equipment with them everywhere all the time, then that is still a huge win. > - Weather is sufficiently good Or your clothes are sufficiently good > - You're sufficiently healthy Bike every day and you will become healthy
  • msla 6y ago
    > You can address these by planning where you live and work to make it so. Yes. We can all afford to move to a dense urban center such that we'll never have to carry a few week's worth of groceries, or enough clothes for the next school year, or anything else which is hard to transport on a bike. Roads (streets, really) are always in good condition, and never icy or that special condition where there's a layer of ice with a thin layer of loose snow on top. Winds never gust to 70 mph, because it would be unseemly for a proud cyclist to fight a headwind on badly-plowed streets. > Or your clothes are sufficiently good I still idly wonder what clothing is equal to the task of a whiteout blizzard.
    • imgabe 6y ago
      By definition, you would only have to get a few weeks worth of groceries once every few weeks. Do you need to drive alone in your car every single day because you need to get groceries once a month? > whiteout blizzard Why the hell are you driving anywhere in a whiteout blizzard? Stay home. You don’t need to go into the office and update the TPS report during a blizzard. A blizzard happens maybe once every one or two years. You need to drive on a sunny day in May because sometimes a blizzard happens? That makes no sense. If you live somewhere that whiteout blizzards are a year-round everyday occurrence, maybe consider a dogsled as an alternative to driving.
• zip1234 6y ago
  With ebikes you may not even break a sweat while riding. Really most of these are solved/solvable. I think the hardest part is just getting the political will for the infrastructure.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• Robotbeat 5y ago
  Yeah, I find the article has things 100% backwards. If you live in a place where you don't need a car, then sure, I guess that might work, but the VAST majority of Americans do not. They would have to move somewhere else. There isn't enough housing in such places, so new apartments (and schools and stores) would need to be built. That takes time and emits a bunch itself. We don't have the time to empty the suburbs (and no chance it'd happen politically). So the fastest solution BY FAR is electric cars as we can decarbonize people where they are. A lot of cycling advocates massively underestimate just how good electric cars are. (They also last at least 10 times longer than bikes, in terms of number of miles... including tires, etc.) People want climate change to force solutions to other problems. But we didn't solve ozone depletion by getting rid of refrigeration or air conditioning. We did it by developing and using non-ozone-depleting refrigerants. There's no political will to do much else, except around the edges. Absolutely, build better biking infrastructure. There are good reasons to do it. But electric cars and trucks are WAY more relevant to actually getting most of America off of fossil fuels in a politically and economically feasible way than telling everyone they have to bike, now. Technological solutions are more feasible than social ones. (Also, all the inputs to an electric car CAN be decarbonized as well.)
  • jamil7 5y ago
    > (They also last at least 10 times longer than bikes, in terms of number of miles... including tires, etc.) What? By what metric?
    • Robotbeat 5y ago
      Miles. Bike tires last 1000-3000 miles. Really good ones, maybe 5000 miles. EXTREMELY good ones 10,000 miles. Car tires last 30,000 to 50,000 miles. Really good ones are 80,000 to 100,000 miles. Similar for the mechanisms.
      • jamil7 5y ago
        So an electric car is actually the better choice for the environment because it has bigger tyres?
• hokkos 5y ago
  My commute is 10km, I do it with an ebike so I don't need to shower because I do not sweat, sure I don't have kids, but I do it on any weather heavy rain, snow with appropriate clothing