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23% of the French population is more than 6km from a train station [1], which is considered close enough to bike. That's 15.6 million people. Assuming those are
by bertil 4y ago
23% of the French population is more than 6km from a train station [1], which is considered close enough to bike. That's 15.6 million people. Assuming those are families of 2.2 people on average, they would need 7 million cars. That’s 18% of the current 38 million cars in France.
We could have five times fewer cars, and half of the country’s carbon footprint if the 31 million car owners who don’t need them gave theirs up. But somehow, the 7 million necessary cars are used as a loincloth to shelter the rest from poisoning everyone else
[1] https://www.cairn.info/revue-transports-urbains-2014-3-page-13.htm#pa15 https://www.cairn.info/revue-transports-urbains-2014-3-page-...
- speedgoose 4y ago12km of daily biking is not for every family.
- bertil 4y agoThat’s 30 min of light exercise, five times a week — less if you are using electric assist. It’s the minimum requirement to not be considered sedentary, which would triple your health risks. If you think that’s too much and you don’t have a serious physical handicap, you are about likely to have one.
- speedgoose 4y agoI assume you don’t have small kids and you live in a flat sunny part of France with good road infrastructures for biking.
- kuschku 4y agoI used to live in a hilly, rainy part of Germany. I cycled that exact distance every day. It's not an issue. If you've got children, get a cargo bike with child seats or a bicycle trailer with child seats. Works fine, many parents did that.
- speedgoose 4y agoYou need very convincing arguments to convince people to downgrade their quality of life that much. Biking on the rain uphill with a bike trailer is not fun compared to driving a car. That’s my point, I personally enjoy biking.
- kuschku 4y agoIf you've got dedicated bicycle lanes, then “it costs 10x less and you save 2x the time because you're not stuck in traffic” quickly becomes a winning proposition.
- bertil 4y agoI would love that this argument about the quality of life to be also heard when talking about people who have to suffer the consequence of cars: violence, children's deaths, pollution, noise, aggressive tone, inhospitable cities, enormous parking lots that are hellish all Summer and don’t let water seed though. For the last years, deadly heat waves, and floods. Selfishness isn’t an argument when making collective decisions.
- bertil 4y agoI don’t live in France anymore (too many taxis were trying to kill me, and the Police said they were powerless to help after ending up at the hospital multiple times), but my family still does. Nine nephews and nieces, tenth on the way. The house is on a sharp hill (12% gradient) and the nearest train station is… 93 km away.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]