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If cities provided separated bike infrastructure and kept that infrastructure clear of snow, cyclists can manage it. Pogies (https://bikepacking.com/gear/pogies

If cities provided separated bike infrastructure and kept that infrastructure clear of snow, cyclists can manage it. Pogies (https://bikepacking.com/gear/pogies/ https://bikepacking.com/gear/pogies/) are incredibly effective for keeping your hands warm; the rest of your body can be kept warm in cold temperatures by standard wind-resistant gear & the heat generated by your body when you exercise. Studded tires make an enormous difference if you get ice in your town. The problem is not the climate. It is the infrastructure. American cities, towns, suburbs, roads, and just about everything else are designed for one mode of transportation: the car. Even walking is an afterthought -- ever feel uncertain of how you're supposed to get from your car to a business, because there's a sea of parking lots right up to the business's front door? Cars are not scalable. We need to redesign American cities for micromobility today.

bmj 4y ago
(NB: I was, prior to being a fully remote worker, a full time cyclo-commuter, and sometimes bike infrastructure advocate.) The problem is partially the infrastructure. My rust belt city, or Eau Claire WI, could put in perfect bike and pedestrian infrastructure tomorrow, and it would be barely used for a generation, or more. Many bike advocates advance the wrong approach. Sure, with the right gear, anybody could commute in the middle of a Wisconsin winter. A better approach would be convinced the residents of Eau Claire (or any town, USA) to start by riding their bikes when the weather is good. Then gradually shift expectations to riding when it is raining. Then riding when it is cold. Lather, rinse, repeat. I think it would be a huge improvement if 2/3 of the residents of my city walked, took the bus, or rode their bikes to work five months out of the year. Over time, some percentage of those folks would realize that they could ride (or walk) when the weather isn't great.
- jackvalentine 4y ago
  I don’t think a single bike advocate starts from the position that “everyone will ride in all seasons from day one!” The solution to get people riding in summer is the same as winter… safe infrastructure.
shagie 4y ago
I believe a lot of that "towns are built for cars" has to do with the population density of the surrounding area. I was using Eau Claire as an example... Eau Claire itself has a population of somewhere between 68,000 and 70,000 depending on when the count was done. 70 is a nice round number. Eau Claire is in Eau Claire County which has a total population of 105,000 (2/3 the population is in the city) an area of 645 square miles (1670 square kilometers) and the population density for the county is 165 people/square mile (64/ square kilometer). We head to Assen, and that has a population of 68,000 and move up to the province of Drenthe... that has a land area of 2634 square kilometers (1017 square miles), a total population of 493,000 (nearly 5x the population of the county of Eau Claire) and a population density of 188/square kilometer (490/ square mile). This is, where I believe, things get different when doing these comparisons. The city of Eau Claire needs to be built for the people who aren't in the city (even though most live in the city). Its a 90 minute drive there before you get to Minneapolis or if you head in the other direction, its 90 minutes before you get to Wausau (population 40,000). In Drenthe, there probably isn't any place where you need are 50 miles from the nearest hardware store or grocery store of reasonable size (according to Google Maps you can drive from one end of the province to the other in under an hour). Assen to Groningen (p. 200,000) is 1/3 the distance of Eau Claire to Minneapolis. With that much higher of a population density it makes a lot more sense to optimize for more local transportation. If we took a Voronoi chart based on cities with a population of more than... 40,000 and overlaid that on Wisconsin and the Netherlands I am fairly sure that the area that each city reaches to is larger in Wisconsin and that the population that area is larger - that there's a lot more rural population in Wisconsin. The consequence of that is that the cities at the centers of each area need to be designed primarily with distance travel in mind rather than local travel. The places where those areas are smaller because the cities are more closely packed (the large metro areas on the coasts in particular) it is more feasible to invest in local transportation options because that citywide be serving a higher portion of local population rather than the "out of town". In terms of investment in bicycle infrastructure - it is those places that will have the greatest return - like Portland and Seattle. Trying to redesign Eau Claire or Wausau for micro mobility means that population outside of the urban area is very poorly served by the city.
- jackvalentine 4y ago

bmj 4y ago

(NB: I was, prior to being a fully remote worker, a full time cyclo-commuter, and sometimes bike infrastructure advocate.) The problem is partially the infrastructure. My rust belt city, or Eau Claire WI, could put in perfect bike and pedestrian infrastructure tomorrow, and it would be barely used for a generation, or more. Many bike advocates advance the wrong approach. Sure, with the right gear, anybody could commute in the middle of a Wisconsin winter. A better approach would be convinced the residents of Eau Claire (or any town, USA) to start by riding their bikes when the weather is good. Then gradually shift expectations to riding when it is raining. Then riding when it is cold. Lather, rinse, repeat. I think it would be a huge improvement if 2/3 of the residents of my city walked, took the bus, or rode their bikes to work five months out of the year. Over time, some percentage of those folks would realize that they could ride (or walk) when the weather isn't great.

jackvalentine 4y ago
I don’t think a single bike advocate starts from the position that “everyone will ride in all seasons from day one!” The solution to get people riding in summer is the same as winter… safe infrastructure.

shagie 4y ago

I believe a lot of that "towns are built for cars" has to do with the population density of the surrounding area. I was using Eau Claire as an example... Eau Claire itself has a population of somewhere between 68,000 and 70,000 depending on when the count was done. 70 is a nice round number. Eau Claire is in Eau Claire County which has a total population of 105,000 (2/3 the population is in the city) an area of 645 square miles (1670 square kilometers) and the population density for the county is 165 people/square mile (64/ square kilometer). We head to Assen, and that has a population of 68,000 and move up to the province of Drenthe... that has a land area of 2634 square kilometers (1017 square miles), a total population of 493,000 (nearly 5x the population of the county of Eau Claire) and a population density of 188/square kilometer (490/ square mile). This is, where I believe, things get different when doing these comparisons. The city of Eau Claire needs to be built for the people who aren't in the city (even though most live in the city). Its a 90 minute drive there before you get to Minneapolis or if you head in the other direction, its 90 minutes before you get to Wausau (population 40,000). In Drenthe, there probably isn't any place where you need are 50 miles from the nearest hardware store or grocery store of reasonable size (according to Google Maps you can drive from one end of the province to the other in under an hour). Assen to Groningen (p. 200,000) is 1/3 the distance of Eau Claire to Minneapolis. With that much higher of a population density it makes a lot more sense to optimize for more local transportation. If we took a Voronoi chart based on cities with a population of more than... 40,000 and overlaid that on Wisconsin and the Netherlands I am fairly sure that the area that each city reaches to is larger in Wisconsin and that the population that area is larger - that there's a lot more rural population in Wisconsin. The consequence of that is that the cities at the centers of each area need to be designed primarily with distance travel in mind rather than local travel. The places where those areas are smaller because the cities are more closely packed (the large metro areas on the coasts in particular) it is more feasible to invest in local transportation options because that citywide be serving a higher portion of local population rather than the "out of town". In terms of investment in bicycle infrastructure - it is those places that will have the greatest return - like Portland and Seattle. Trying to redesign Eau Claire or Wausau for micro mobility means that population outside of the urban area is very poorly served by the city.

jackvalentine 4y ago