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Longer distances make it a bit harder, but they can work if there's an integrated cycle-path network, and ideally some integration with transit. For example, Pa

Longer distances make it a bit harder, but they can work if there's an integrated cycle-path network, and ideally some integration with transit. For example, Palo Alto to Mountain View is only 6 miles (10 km), a distance that's very common to bike in Copenhagen, and yet nobody bikes it in the Valley. Part of the issue might be that there aren't great routes. You either bike down El Camino, a rather intimidating proposition, or else you have to piece together a complex route by weaving through residential neighborhoods. The bike->train->bike option can also increase the practical bike-commuting area, but it's hampered by Caltrain not running often enough or to enough places.

Periodic 13y ago
I made the Palo Alto <-> Mountain View ride 4/week for four years. My ride was bout 9 miles, which is longer than I'd expect most people to ride, but I couldn't afford to be closer. Biking on the same roads as cars is generally not fun. I first used Middlefield most of the way, but that meant biking in with the cars. It wasn't until much later that I discovered Bryant street, which prohibits through motor traffic but allows bike traffic through. It's pleasant enough, but you are still sharing a road with cars and I've seen many simply blow through the stop signs on those residential streets (there are rarely any other people around anyway). Even with Bryant, half my ride was on a major auto thoroughfare. The position of bike lanes on American streets is stressful for bicyclists. You basically have cars on either side. On one side you have cars driving and who want to make right turns across your lane. On the other side you have parked cars with drivers-side doors that completely block the bike path when open. These people also want to cut across your lane to enter traffic. In my roughly eight years of bicycling around the bay area I've only been hit once by an auto, and that was one where he was fully at fault for making a left turn into me when he acknowledged he saw me in the opposing lane and thought I was slowing for him (I slowed because it looked like he was going to turn without having right of way). It was low speed and I wasn't injured. However, bicycling around the bay is not fun, despite having a few decent bike paths. I've also biked in Amsterdam and I can attest that we have a long way to go. I believe we need to change our cultural attitude towards bicycling first, then the rest will follow.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

Periodic 13y ago

I made the Palo Alto <-> Mountain View ride 4/week for four years. My ride was bout 9 miles, which is longer than I'd expect most people to ride, but I couldn't afford to be closer. Biking on the same roads as cars is generally not fun. I first used Middlefield most of the way, but that meant biking in with the cars. It wasn't until much later that I discovered Bryant street, which prohibits through motor traffic but allows bike traffic through. It's pleasant enough, but you are still sharing a road with cars and I've seen many simply blow through the stop signs on those residential streets (there are rarely any other people around anyway). Even with Bryant, half my ride was on a major auto thoroughfare. The position of bike lanes on American streets is stressful for bicyclists. You basically have cars on either side. On one side you have cars driving and who want to make right turns across your lane. On the other side you have parked cars with drivers-side doors that completely block the bike path when open. These people also want to cut across your lane to enter traffic. In my roughly eight years of bicycling around the bay area I've only been hit once by an auto, and that was one where he was fully at fault for making a left turn into me when he acknowledged he saw me in the opposing lane and thought I was slowing for him (I slowed because it looked like he was going to turn without having right of way). It was low speed and I wasn't injured. However, bicycling around the bay is not fun, despite having a few decent bike paths. I've also biked in Amsterdam and I can attest that we have a long way to go. I believe we need to change our cultural attitude towards bicycling first, then the rest will follow.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]