You say that as if they have a choice. You can't at the same time mourn walkable cities and criticize the fact that everything NEEDS a car and then turn around and make fun of the driver.
Would YOU share a road with cars on your bike?
I live in a very walkable and bikable city and yet plenty of people choose to drive here most every chance they get. They think biking is for poor people.
I love in a mid walkable city and don't even own a car, but every time I arrive at the gym (which is one block away from a transit hub), the parking lot is jam packed
That is quite sad. It's a self perpetuating thing. People think biking is too hard or unsafe (or for poor people), and so they drive. Because so many keep driving, it doesn't get much safer and the progress toward better bike infrastructure can be quite a slow roll. And sometimes that progress gets reversed :'(
I used to try and bike everywhere I could but I had a few scary situations happen. Close calls, getting screamed at, and threats, one guy jumped out of his car even...it was discouraging and so now I prefer walking or public transportation honestly.
I live in a small Australian city designed by an American when America was first embracing highways. It has a city centre which had until recently only a thousand single family homes within walking distance*, then there are suburbs accessed by small highways (typically 2 lanes each way)
But it has reasonable public transport, and good bike paths between suburbia and the city away from the highways (or if you prefer, on painted lanes on some of the highways)
*Now we have mixed use towers in town
My part of suburbia to town is 20 minutes by car, 40 in peak, 45 minutes by express bus in peak, 55mins to 1hr 15 by off peak bus, and about an hour by the isolated bike path, 45 mins by the painted bike lanes (and sometimes nothing)
they think biking is for poor people
You genuinely believe this is the reason people choose to drive when they have the option to bike?
Is it seriously so unfathomable to consider some people just prefer to drive?
It often is said out loud so yes I believe it's often the case
I wish I knew why they prefer to drive. It is obvious, that they do, but the reason is hard to understand for me. Going by bike is faster, healthier, cheaper, helps reduce emissions of all sorts and sets you up for a happier mindset.
A seemingly absurd reason like "people think biking is for poor people" doesn't seem to be so absurd after all, considering the enormous amount of people deciding to take the car instead of the bike. It at least has to be one of the reasons, it's just a matter of probability.
I ride my bike to the gym like 9 months out of the year. I always try and put more miles on the bikes than the ODO.
Exactly! People who have a better option will take that. It's not like they like sitting in traffic.
I'm trying to find a good odometer for my next bike. I don't want to track rides as workouts, but I wanna prove that I bike more than I drive. Garmin makes one that I'm looking at that goes on your wheel hub and can be intermittently synced to a phone
I've always just tagged everything as a ride. Garmin lets you make new profiles so you can have any number of activities outside the normal bunch.
Nice, I just did some research and what I did was add a new "gear" for my bike and set that to automatically be added to cycle activities. I ordered the Garmin Speed Sensor 2, it doesn't need a bike computer, just syncs to your phone. Then I just have to remember this summer when I mountain bike to manually change the gear for each activity to my other bike. Wish you could specify gear for each activity type instead of each general type
I do and therefore can. fuck cars
The pictured city chose to spend a hundred million per mile on the pictured road, that could have bought a reasonable amount of fast mass transit
Yeah but then I'd have to sit next to a Poor, instead of just driving past them sleeping on the ground in serene comfort.
Oh, MAMILS are anything but poor.
Or climate, many people don’t have the luxury to live in 10-25 deg range.
...there are cities in northern europe where it's freezing half the year and people still go by bike. Below 10 isn't even particularly cold. And as much as I die in those temps above 25 also isn't all that hot. Dangerous temps are still quite a bit above that.
You have an argument at below -10 or above 30 (latter depending on humidity) maybe
Climate is not a valid reason outside of places like Arizona that get dangerously hot outside.
If only we had more foresight and built that one extra lane...
Sadly bike lanes become unusable at times. The ones that run parallel with roads often get all the debris from the road thrown onto them. In autumn the leaves gather there making it very dangerous as they can hide holes and even large objects like bricks. Not to mention leaves are very slippery when wet.
As a road cyclist, it pains me to say this but cars actually clear the roads from debris due to the sheer volume of cars and their much wider tyres.
I live in quite a rural area now and the back roads are full of mud, stones and sand from farms fields and trackers.
Too bad the bike lanes here are swarmed with motorcycles. I will literally die riding a bike on the streets where I live.
I could get a stationary bicycle at home but I like to be around people when I exercise.
I could take a train to the gym, but I don't like to be around other people.
I could get a regular bicycle, but I don't have anywhere to go.
I could bicycle to the gym but when I get there I'm too tired to exercise.
, but I don’t have anywhere to go.
..the gym maybe?
but when I get there I’m too tired to exercise.
I don't see how that's a problem? Two problems solved. You've exercised and saved money on the gym.
Its a joke.
A big part of the problem is the same people tasked with modelling traffic are well paid to design roads. Funnily they find that more road is always the solution
Where I live (major UK City) they're removing roads and traffic lanes to widen pavement and add in bicycle lanes.
Some places are definitely going in the right direction
I've always hated the gym. The whole concept is anathema to me. I LOVE exrcise though so I'll try to do it in other ways. Walk places instead of drive. Run instead of walk. Bike. Do martial arts (learning a skill!).
I'll do anything except work out in a sweat box.
Bro, I'm the opposite to you. I cannot adhere to exercise that's done outside in an uncontrolled environment. I feel like a neanderthal. I also can't exercise if I'm not logging it, so it might not be an indoors vs outdoors thing.
Maybe it's the weather where I live. I also prefer to drive places, or take public transport. Anything with air conditioning. Anyway, nice to meet my fitness ideology nemesis.
I cycle to the gym, which is a great warmup to lift weights, which I do not have at home.
Gyms are depressing to me. They also stink.
I suppose I'm glad I have a low sensitivity nose. I think growing up with siblings might have had some blunting effect on my olfactory senses.
I agree in general but, living in a cold climate, gyms are necessary for me in the winter if I want to get exercise. It lowers the barrier for me to get exercise since it means I don't need to try to go running in full winter gear.
Same here, I love taking the stairs instead of the lift! Highly recommend.
bulldoze some urban blocks to build more lanes?
We'll start with yours and your families home
Could have left it at stuck in traffic ngl
The traffic backup is because a cyclist was run over.
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