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> - weather might make the ride unpleasant; As the Dutch like to say: there is no such thing as bad cycling weather, only bad cycling clothes. I would strongl
by alkjsdlkjasd 4y ago
> - weather might make the ride unpleasant;
As the Dutch like to say: there is no such thing as bad cycling weather, only bad cycling clothes.
I would strongly recommond a pair of water/wind proof trousers to go over your regular trousers, if you don't already have some. This has lead to a much more pleasant riding experience, especially in winter. They aren't very practical on a regular bike as they make you uncomfortably hot, but on an e-bike, it's much less of a worry.
- meindnoch 4y agoHow often does it snow in the Netherlands?
- badpun 4y agoAmazingly, there is a city almost as dominated by cyclists in Finland (don't remember how it's called atm). The city is plowing and de-icing all the bike paths on regular basis. They're also well-lit, as people's commutes during winter months are often in the dark.
- joromero 4y agoAnother interesting fact is that at least some of the cycle lane markings are projected rather than painted because otherwise they would be covered by the snow.
- bertil 4y agoYou are thinking of Oulu. It’s not just Oulu, though: any city with students in the North has a lot of bikes, Umeå in Sweden has 40k students almost all on bikes; Vaasa (opposite Umeå, in Finland) also has a lot of bikes. Uppsala, Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg, Eppo, all have a lot of bikes—and just as many in winter and summer.
- Xylakant 4y agoMeet Oulu, the winter cycling capital of the world. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-loving-finnish-city-that-keeps-pedalling-even-in-the-snow https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-... https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-winter-biking-1.6781027 https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-winter-biking-...
- nicehill 4y agoFascinating How do Europeans keep ice off bike lanes? Salt?
- dagurp 4y agoIn Reykjavik they used sand at first because pedestrians prefer that but that is pretty dangerous for cycling so they use salt on designated cycling paths and sand everywhere else.
- jkaljundi 4y agoTractors and snowplows. Salt kills the bicycles and salty slush is much worse to drive in. Hard packed snow is actually the best to ride on. Interestingly Oulu bike roads clearing contract states the company doing the snowplowing can do inspections only on bicycles, not cars :)
- nicehill 4y agoMaybe hard packed snow is a strategy for only flat cities Seattle infamously tried the hard packed snow strategy about a decade ago, and it turned it into a dangerous (hilly) ice rink
- avianlyric 4y agoThere's a difference between riding on hard pack with a bike, and driving a car over it. I have no idea why you think an experiment with hard-pack snow on automotive roads is in anyway indicative of what works on cycle lanes.
- nicehill 4y agoHard pack on a hill doesn't seem to make sense for bicycles either
- xorcist 4y agoIt depends. Salt only works until ten below zero. After that it only makes things worse. When it works the result can be magical if combined with sweeping. Trashes the drivetrain real bad though. There's a nice big picture how Oulu does it, halfway down the article.
- docdeek 4y agoGoogle says snowing on 20-30 days a year in Amsterdam: https://thingstodoinamsterdam.com/blog/snow-winter-amsterdam/ https://thingstodoinamsterdam.com/blog/snow-winter-amsterdam...
- Denvercoder9 4y agoNot that often anymore (most winters there's at most one or two weeks with snow cover), but when it does, in many municipalities cycling paths get priority for snow removal.
- sandworm101 4y ago>> As the Dutch like to say: there is no such thing as bad cycling weather, only bad cycling clothes. Easy to say in a country famously flat, small, and with a relatively narrow weather window. I welcome any Dutch person to attempt a 15+km commute during a rocky mountain winter. I know of driveways in US/Canada with more vertical than any Dutch commute.
- barbazoo 4y agoHow many people live in the Rockies though? And how many live in relatively flat cities. You're not wrong I just think that this is akin to saying EVs aren't practical in the US because of Alaskan winters.
- sandworm101 4y agoHow many? Me. Much of my family. The place i used to work. The rockies, and coastal mountains, cover a huge swath of north america.
- barbazoo 4y agoOn a grand scale, sure, but even those places aren't necessarily super hilly. There's a reason towns and cities exist mostly on relatively flat terrain.
- rkangel 4y agoI have a close friend who lives in Edinburgh (Scotland) who has an electric cargo bike. Edinburgh is full of very steep roads, lots of them cobbles rather than tarmac. It's also cold and wet in the winter (although nowhere near as snowy as the rockies). The electric cargo bike works well there - the hills make electric an absolute necessity, but once you've done that it works very well.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- alkjsdlkjasd 4y ago
- iso1631 4y ago> As the Dutch like to say: there is no such thing as bad cycling weather, only bad cycling clothes. The Dutch also like to drive, with 588 cars per 1000 people, higher than Denmark, Ireland, Sweden etc, and more miles per person than France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and 14% higher than the EU average
- CalRobert 4y agoThat makes sense, the excellent infrastructure in the Netherlands makes it a very pleasant place to drive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RRE2rDw4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RRE2rDw4k
- bertil 4y agoNot sure where your stats are from, but they probably include Dutch people driving abroad: they can easily take the train and bike anywhere in their own country, so I suspect most of their driving is to go on holiday in Europe. They are famous for being a small country with surprisingly large number of caravans near every beach in Europe.
- Jwarder 4y agoI would add boots that are high enough that there is no gap between the rain pants and the shoe. An old pair of "hiking" boots did the job for me. Riding through a puddle and getting your socks even mildly wet feels terrible.
- paganel 4y agoThe Dutch have passable weather for most of the year, of course that it’s easy for them to say that.
- andrewshadura 4y agoHave you ever been to the Netherlands? I can tell you haven't. It rains a lot, winds are strong.
- scythe 4y ago>As the Dutch like to say: there is no such thing as bad cycling weather, only bad cycling clothes. What kind of cycling clothes will mitigate a 40 C / 70% humidity afternoon in Memphis?
- zip1234 4y agoMemphis is full of underutilized 4 lane roads--remove 2 lanes and add a bike path + trees. The difficulty is that unless there is a bike network, it will get limited utilization. Need to build out a way to get places and people will use it.
- selimthegrim 4y agoNew Orleans is trying this and facing a lot of pushback.
- el_nahual 4y agoTrees and an ebike.
- maigret 4y agoTrees for example. City highways make everything hotter.
- dzikimarian 4y ago> there is no such thing as bad cycling weather Wet snow being blown into the face? Compared to 20°C inside a car, commuting between two underground garages? That's going to be a hard to sell. In the summer bike is fun, but from November, where I live it's just masochism.