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Why are there so many stop signs on American streets?
(kbin.social)
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this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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Biking infrastructure is only useful in big cities where your distance to work could be quite short (within 5 miles or so). The average American commute distance is 41 miles. It just doesn't make sense to build out bike infrastructure very many places in the US.
Trains and changing the roads to make it easier for cars to drive themselves make a lot more sense.
The majority of trips taken in the US in cars is 3 miles or less, completely walkable/cycleable/public-transportation-able. I don't think anyone would say no one should drive 41 miles in order to go to work, but it doesn't mean regional and local infrastructure especially in urban areas shouldn't aim towards these goals because that is where the bulk of ALL general vehicle traffic is.
These two things are not incompatible. In fact, it would benefit those who do drive because everyone doesn't need to drive for many of their trips, and won't because there are accessible and attractive alternatives.
This statistic is true but incredibly misleading. Firstly, a huge chunk of those trips are trips to the supermarket or other shopping which is not something you're going to do on a bike. You can only fit so many groceries in a bike trip... Even with a trailer. (Aside: I wonder if frozen foods would even make it safely all the way home in the South if you loaded up a bike with a trailer and had to travel 3 miles?)
The second reason why it's misleading is that it includes trips after you've gone to work. So you commute to work: 41 miles. Actually, you stop at Starbucks on the way and that's only two miles from your house so that counts as a single-destination car trip. Then for lunch you take a short trip from the office to a restaurant/fast food place. That's a single-destination car trip.
You go out to dinner some nights at a restaurant 3 miles away. That's a short trip that certainly could've been done on bike but are you really going to get the whole family on their bikes to show up at the restaurant all hot & sweaty for dinner? In the South you'd be so sweaty it'd be worthy of taking a shower and in the North you'd be trudging through snow, freezing your face off.
Then there's the fact that the weather doesn't matter when it comes to cars. Rain or snow is no issue: You're still going to the supermarket but you would not make that same trip on a bike unless it was an emergency and you had no other option.
The reality is that while the majority of trips are 3 miles are less it's also true that the majority of trips are not trips you'd want to make on a bike.
There's another problem with that statistic: The majority of people in the US live in big cities! I wonder how much that statistic would change if you removed big cities/metro areas from the data. My guess: "<3 miles" would jump to "<10 miles".
I live in Jacksonville, FL and we have two supermarkets that are ~5 miles away (in different directions) and we have bike lanes! Nobody uses them. It's just too fucking hot! For about 9 months out of the year it's >90°F with ~90% relative humidity (in the morning; late afternoon it can drop to a mere ~60% when it's not summer! haha). The only time of the year it would be comfortable to do something like ride your bike to get something done (as opposed to just for exercise) is December through February. Any other time it's just not realistic unless you plan (and have the time) to take a shower afterwards.
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Florida/humidity-annual.php
It also rains pretty much every single day in the afternoon during the summer and sometimes off/on all throughout the day. Rarely rains at all in winter though so that's a plus I guess.