5 ms·
What do you do in winter? Or during rain?
by Aerroon 6y ago
What do you do in winter? Or during rain?
- umvi 6y agoPut on a coat/rain jacket
- sokoloff 6y agoFor cold or rain? Sure. For 4-6" of snow, you're going to need a lot more than a jacket to cycle in that.
- Fricken 6y agoWe use snow plows up here in Canada.
- sokoloff 6y agoOn the bike paths as well? That's very progressive of Canada. We don't do that effectively here in Massachusetts.
- Fricken 6y agoOn the bike paths as well, yes. In my home city of Edmonton they are a priority. According HN I don't ride year round in Edmonton, it's impossible.
- Aerroon 6y agoThat's great for the hour after the snowplow passes, but what about after that? Snow + ice on a bike is a pretty easy crash. Even a slow speed crash on a bike can break bones, unlike cars.
- rhys91 6y agoThere's a level of risk associated with the activity, there's no denying that. Risk mitigation factors can be applied to reduce the risk to a palatable level for a lot of people. Snow tyres, riding slowly, using lights in low light etc. The opportunity is to convince more people that cycling is a legitimate option for a large group of people. Infrastructure investment instills confidence and further education for both cyclists and drivers help to manage that risk. Whilst cycling in the snow might not be your cup of tea, there's a cohort of people who could consider it as a net positive to get from A to B, exercise and put less wear into the road. And we need to support those people.
- mijamo 6y agoSnowplows don't remove all the snow usually because it would damage the road a lot, so you are left with packed snow which is fine to ride on. You can also use studs tires if you worry. I ride my bike in Sweden frequently even with a lot of snow without trouble. The only thing to worry about is when spring comes and the snow melts by day and freezes at night but on the main bicycle lanes the problem is solved by salting them once the weather gets mild. I use a regular gravel bike (so not huge tires, 38mm) without stubs tires. Never fell. I just don't ride during snowstorms directly of course but in those cases even buses and trains can be canceled until it calms down a bit.
- carlhjerpe 6y agoAs a fellow swede I don't think your argument holds against the real argument they're not mentioning. People want to ride cars because they're lazy and they don't want to experience the elements, but since it's shameful to admit they'll come up with any other excuse to sit in their car, drink soft drinks, eat junk food and listen to the radio with perfectly controlled climate surrounding them. I bought myself a Xiaomi scooter and wear a good jacket while listen to music through my Sony overears riding to work. I'll have to wait with the soft drink and junk food til I arrive though. I also wear a backpack to carry whatever.
- germinalphrase 6y agoChiming in from Minneapolis, major bike paths/routes are generally plowed just as often as the roads. It can be a hurdle, but it’s not as bad as you might think.
- onnimonni 6y agoWe used trucks with snow plows constantly in Finland too when it snows. The city where I'm from is called Tampere. I thought that the city used to be quite hostile towards bicycles ten years ago but since then they have built so many new biking lanes or removed lanes for the cars and replaced them for pedestrians and cycles. It was just faster to go everywhere with bicycle and with bicyclr6you don't need to spend time to search for a free parking place. If it rained a lot I used rain jacket or used the public transportation. In the winter we used tires with spikes in them (to battle the slippery ice). Removing some lanes makes the city much more enjoyable for everyone but ofc this is harder to do in really old cities which were designed for horses or big metropolitan areas wherr extra land is scarce. We moved to Tallinn, Estonia last year and compared to Finland the cycle lanes here are poorly designed and many local politicians still support cars over cycles which is a sad.
- temp8964 6y agoJacket might be ok for small rain, but for heavy rain and thunderstorm? No. Employers expect employees to come to work every business day, and people expect business to open every business day, even under heavy rain and thunderstorm. Watch! Heavy rain/wind! Most people can't go to work! Most businesses are closed! Teachers can't go to schools! Nurses can't go to clinics and hospitals! What a ridiculous picture of a modern city. New proposal: this city only allows residents who are 20s/30s years old and healthy and fit.
- cuu508 6y ago"There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing." :-) If the existing materials are not good enough, perhaps we can invent more waterproof, windproof, breathable, warmer, cheaper etc. materials
- TomSwirly 6y agoI'm almost 60. I'm not a jock. I bike everywhere. Try again.
- temp8964 6y agoYou read my whole comment right? The context is in heavy rain / wind. Do you do that too?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- TulliusCicero 6y agoOulu, Finland is way further north than most cities and handles it fine: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.euronews.com/amp/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-loving-finnish-city-that-keeps-pedalling-even-in-the-snow https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.euronews.com/amp/2021/01/22...
- Aerroon 6y agoBeing further north should actually make it easier. If it's consistently below zero then you're less likely to get the really dangerous ice.
- TulliusCicero 6y agoIt's funny, no matter how I post about cities that have made cycling for transport work, there's always someone downplaying how meaningful it is. You could look at Stockholm or Amsterdam or Copenhagen or Munich for biking, too. Those are all colder cities (but not as cold as Oulu) with decent or better bike infrastructure and cycling rates. I'm in Munich and can speak to my experience here. Munich isn't as good as Dutch cities, but it's still better than any US city I've visited or heard of, by a fair margin. Weather is similar to Seattle, so kind of cold on average, but not horribly so. This winter we definitely had a fair amount of freezing though, and actually the last couple days we had snow again. Munich makes it work with lots of protected bike lanes that clearly used to just be sidewalk. That's not ideal -- it cuts into walking space, obviously -- but it's still better than no bike infra, or painted bike lanes. There's also a fair number of off-street trails, multi-use paths (half the time these are just sidewalks where bikes are allowed, really) and walk/bike cut-throughs in neighborhoods. Oh, and the default road width in residential neighborhoods is small, which helps a lot.
- zucker42 6y agoNotJustBikes has a great video on winter cycling https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU
- TomSwirly 6y agoPublic transport and walking. Actually, I bike in the rain with a raincoat, it's great. For the last four years, I have occupied an internal combustion engine almost exactly once per year. It's not just been doable, I'm in the best shape I've been in twenty years.
- occz 6y agoTake the public transportation you also need to invest in.
- zip1234 6y agoThe sad fact is that most bicycles sold in America are not equipped properly for inclement weather or for utility. They should all have fenders and bike racks/baskets and the utility increases immensely. Fenders alone are super helpful. Without them you can't really even ride right after it is done raining because there will be spray up your back.
- Ygg2 6y agoWhat if I want to take grandma to visit family in neighborhing city? Common grandma, giddy up?
- orthoxerox 6y agoTake a train? Rent a car?
- Ygg2 6y agoNo train there. Rent a car? We're back to square one.
- orthoxerox 6y agoWe're not back to square one, as you won't need a rental car every day.