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There is nothing worse than using a bike in a dense city. I love cycling, but the moment you are confronted with high concentrations of pedestrians and cars it

There is nothing worse than using a bike in a dense city. I love cycling, but the moment you are confronted with high concentrations of pedestrians and cars it quickly gets unbearable and unreasonably dangerous. Not to mention that it is impossible for some people, 1:30 with a train, 45 minutes with a car and about 3 hours with a bike, makes thr choice rather obvious.

baxuz 3y ago
See, the problem you have is a large concentration of cars.
- constantcrying 3y ago
  And pedestrians, who are easily as reckless and uncaring.
  - batiudrami 3y ago
    They don’t kill me if they’re reckless or careless, though.
sharkweek 3y ago
Alternative take: I LOVE riding in a dense city. It’s exhilarating and gives me the wildest rush akin to downhill skiing on mountain biking, it puts me in a flow state requiring extreme focus. No doubt it can be dangerous and no matter how honed my instincts are with regard to predicting how cars and pedestrians are going to act there’s always unpredictable risk, so I understand not loving that. In another life I wish I had done a few years as a bike courier, I would have loved it.
- constantcrying 3y ago
  A life or death obstacle course is absolutely not something I want to experience every day while going to work. And I am pretty sure that the same thing goes for most other people.
swader999 3y ago
Building a custom ebike that can do 50km/HR and then you can pace cars and it's s lot more harmonious. I spent a lot of time planning routes to work, preferred side streets and bike paths. Your not constrained to the shortest route when you have a bit of per power helping you out.
- constantcrying 3y ago
  >Building a custom ebike that can do 50km/HR Illegal. And suicidal.
  - Chilko 3y ago
    Not a particularly nuanced take there - my road legal '250W' e-bike in New Zealand provides electric assist up to 45 km/h, which lets me keep-up with & over/undertake traffic in my dense city. Definitely doesn't feel suicidal, rather practical actually (especially compared to my 60+ km/h hill bomb commute on my previous vintage non-electric bike).
    - constantcrying 3y ago
      Where I live it is illegal. In a car, basically any accident at 50 km/h is survivable, even being seriously injured is rare. With a bike you just need one mistake to die.
      - tim333 3y ago
        Not sure with ebikes but with regular bikes the overall death rate is lower for cyclists than drivers in my demographic (oldish bloke). Cyclists may crash but drivers get fat and heart attacks.
nerdbert 3y ago
There are few things in the world that I love more than riding a bike in a seriously dense megacity. Zipping past everyone is such an exhilarating feeling. Everywhere I go I rent a bike.
tim333 3y ago
It probably depends on the city but it can be surprisingly relaxing in London these days. They've build a lot of cycle ways. With the concentrations of pedestrians you just have to slow down a fair bit.

baxuz 3y ago

See, the problem you have is a large concentration of cars.

constantcrying 3y ago
And pedestrians, who are easily as reckless and uncaring.
- batiudrami 3y ago
  They don’t kill me if they’re reckless or careless, though.

sharkweek 3y ago

Alternative take: I LOVE riding in a dense city. It’s exhilarating and gives me the wildest rush akin to downhill skiing on mountain biking, it puts me in a flow state requiring extreme focus. No doubt it can be dangerous and no matter how honed my instincts are with regard to predicting how cars and pedestrians are going to act there’s always unpredictable risk, so I understand not loving that. In another life I wish I had done a few years as a bike courier, I would have loved it.

constantcrying 3y ago
A life or death obstacle course is absolutely not something I want to experience every day while going to work. And I am pretty sure that the same thing goes for most other people.

swader999 3y ago

Building a custom ebike that can do 50km/HR and then you can pace cars and it's s lot more harmonious. I spent a lot of time planning routes to work, preferred side streets and bike paths. Your not constrained to the shortest route when you have a bit of per power helping you out.

constantcrying 3y ago
>Building a custom ebike that can do 50km/HR Illegal. And suicidal.
- Chilko 3y ago
  Not a particularly nuanced take there - my road legal '250W' e-bike in New Zealand provides electric assist up to 45 km/h, which lets me keep-up with & over/undertake traffic in my dense city. Definitely doesn't feel suicidal, rather practical actually (especially compared to my 60+ km/h hill bomb commute on my previous vintage non-electric bike).
  - constantcrying 3y ago
    Where I live it is illegal. In a car, basically any accident at 50 km/h is survivable, even being seriously injured is rare. With a bike you just need one mistake to die.
    - tim333 3y ago
      Not sure with ebikes but with regular bikes the overall death rate is lower for cyclists than drivers in my demographic (oldish bloke). Cyclists may crash but drivers get fat and heart attacks.

nerdbert 3y ago

There are few things in the world that I love more than riding a bike in a seriously dense megacity. Zipping past everyone is such an exhilarating feeling. Everywhere I go I rent a bike.

tim333 3y ago

It probably depends on the city but it can be surprisingly relaxing in London these days. They've build a lot of cycle ways. With the concentrations of pedestrians you just have to slow down a fair bit.