Daily? Because they get trapped in a situation that doesn’t give them options. I live near the bus/light rail in my city, but the best job opportunity I got is 20 miles further out towards the exurbs. Its a 30 minute drive vs a 90 min bus/bike trip. Looking for something much nearer as the commute sucks, but when we build our cities like we do it really limits our citizens’ options sometimes
Yeah I’m all too aware of North American style city design. The title was more along the lines of “why do we as a society still center our communities around cars when better options such as bikes exist?” and not trying to assign blame to any individual car driver, just to be clear.
I personally refuse to participate in the folly that is “the commute” but I realize that not everyone has the same flexibility, nor the same priorities. I live 10 minutes walk from my work, but I have a couple of coworkers who drive over 30 minutes to get to work. It’s remarkable how much stress their commute causes them compared to my little stroll.
The commute is brutal. I constantly reference it as my least favorite part of the job. While they have done some accommodation by doing a 4/10 week and permissible WFH, it still is something I’m looking to change
I really hope you figure out a solution soon! I had to do a similar commute when I worked at a tourist attraction 30 minutes outside town. It really saps your mental energy, not to mention that’s an hour of your day down the drain. I barely did anything except work and drive that summer.
It’s a 30 minute bike commute to my work, and less than 10 minutes to various parks, stores, and resturants but there Zero cycling or even pedestrian infrastructure in my medium sized city, even though i frequently see people walking and biking on the side of busy streets or through grass. It’s so risky with all the giant trucks and SUVs speeding around with murderous intent. So sick of this regressive, segregationist city planning. It’s further wrecking our already poor mental and physical health
The past few years I’ve really come to notice the embiggening of personal vehicles. I’m a 4-5 inches taller than the average height in my country, and I still see so many vehicles come up to above my shoulders. I feel like I’m gonna die every time I walk down my local stroad to go get groceries, they’re literally bigger than tanks and they can hit over 200km/h.
I’m convinced that everyone hates driving, but they don’t understand why. They are innundated by ads showing people who love driving, but those people are always alone on the road. It builds the illusion that it is traffic that is bad, not driving.
Driving is really exciting the first several times you do it as a teenager. But I’m unconvinced that anyone could continue to enjoy it if they did it for an hour a day for decades. Even if there was no traffic at all.
Couple reasons: Zoning, fire code, capitalism
Zoning and capitalism I’m with you, but I’m racking my brain trying to figure out how fire codes contribute to car-centricity.
Firetrucks need access everywhere
Sure, but most people who drive aren’t firefighters at the helm of fire engines.
Yes and the requirements often impact infrastructure decisions. For example:
Years ago there was a bike path that was proposed to be added onto the Verrazano bridge in NYC. NYFD required it be wide and strong enough for a firetruck to traverse it and the project died. The only way to get a bicycle across the bridge without a car nowadays is once a year when they shut it down for an hour for a cycling event or on an MTA bus.
I find these reasons unconvincing, fire code requirements have not stopped cycling development in others part of the world despite them very much having fires to fight.
This Streetsblog NYC article reflects my initial instinct; it’s not so much fire code requirements as it is an unwillingness to prioritize cycling and pedestrian accessibility. “Fire codes” is mostly just a convenient excuse. Quoting the most relevant part of the article here:
[…] the MTA never considered the most obvious solution to the problem: simply taking away one of the existing car lanes and converting it into a bike and pedestrian path. The 1997 report said it could be done — though no cost analysis was made — but by 2015, the MTA didn’t even mention that possibility in its report.
The MTA said its 2015 plan was based on the requirement that the lanes be sturdy enough to carry emergency vehicles, specifically fire trucks — a requirement that the MTA has said came from city fire and emergency response officials. Yet when Streetsblog asked to see “all correspondence between MTA divisions and the FDNY and NYPD about design requirements that those emergency agencies might have said they need for such a path,” the transit agency said, “After a diligent search, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority does not have any responsive records.”
“That speaks volumes. A much-lower-cost lane on the lower level could be accessed by emergency vehicles from the outside traffic lanes,” Gertner said. “The main benefit to the MTA for having a bike lane capable of supporting trucks is for emergency access in case of vehicle crashes and to assist in general bridge maintenance. ‘Charging’ the full cost to cyclists is a false narrative that predictably elicited feedback that cyclists and pedestrians are not worthy of so much expense. The MTA should be honest and explain that most of the $320-plus million cost would benefit vehicles. Or, better yet, give us a $60-million ‘normal’ path without further delay.”
It’s also worth pointing out that bike and pedestrian paths on other MTA bridges — most notably the Triboro and Gil Hodges bridges — are too narrow for emergency vehicles yet operate just fine.
That’s not an article, its a blogpost/opinon piece.
If you don’t think car culture is enshined in out communities’ codes generally and fire code specifically… then I am sure there is nothing I can say that would convince you otherwise. We don’t have to agree.
Despite the name, Streetblog has a staff of six journalists.
I never said car culture isn’t massively enshrined in our codes and laws, it obviously is and I agree with you there! I’m just saying these laws are not some universal rule of our world, humans decided these laws. As evidenced by the fact that fire codes haven’t been a particularly notable barrier to developing cycling infrastructure in other parts of the world, we can and should have harmony between access for emergency vehicles, and safe cycling/pedestrian infrastructure.
Bikes are wonderful and amazing and awesome but I was a full-time bike commuter in my southeastern US city for two years and I can’t blame anyone here who doesn’t.
In the summer you get so hot that you need to expect to have somewhere to change or ideally shower wherever you go if you’re gonna be there for a long time. There’s very few dedicated bike lanes and a lot of roads may not even have sidewalks so you need to be able to bike on the open road sharing space with cars, which means you need to have an athletic ability to be able to maintain a decent pace on the road.
Even still you’ll end up having dozens of close calls from reckless cars and maybe even an accident or two which if you’ll be lucky are minor. I got hit by a Jeep that blew through a stop sign ironically on a bike path. I was okay but my bike had considerable damage. Another time I almost got sideswiped by a car that pulled through to parking on the other side of a bike lane without looking.
In short unless very significant infrastructure improvements are made (which are not expensive and are not really difficult to implement technically), biking is inaccessible as a regular form of transportation for most people in most parts of the United States. Which is very unfortunate, because biking is awesome.
Distance and effort are the big ones. That’s why e-bikes are a game changer.
Reasons I don’t currently:
- Broken arm (was commuting daily by ebike right before that happened).
- Its supposed to get up to like 105-110F this week, with feels-like temps over 115F and I’m not suicidal
- No shower at work
- Ride is about 50 minutes/15miles each way.
If there was a reasonable bus option, I’d take that, but there’s not. So I’m driving.
In places with good bike infrastructure like amsterdam and copenhagen, lots of people do! Still too many drive there as well, but winning a war takes many battles
I had a really bad anal fissure years back. Ended up having to have 2 separate surgeries. Now if I do any type of sitting down activity, biking, rowing, etc. I get hugely swollen and sore in the entire area around my taint. Would love to bike again, but it’s just not going to happen for me.
Hang in there! I had my entire rectum removed and couldn’t fathum the thought of riding a bike.
But 10 years later I decided to give it a shot and now I bike all the time… Thousands of kilometers this past year!
Healing did take years, so don’t give up. In the interim, I did get an e-scooter so I didn’t have to sit 👌
I’ve thought about getting an e-scooter. I have a regular (well adult-sized) push scooter that I use just about daily, but it’s not great for longish trips.
I have a regular (well adult-sized) push scooter that I use just about daily, but it’s not great for longish trips.
You might even want to consider a “kick bike”, which is a kick scooter with larger (bike-sized) tires. I had one several years ago and it was awesome! Should be easier to get around on compared to the one you have now, and I know a guy who went across Canada on one!
That’s impressive. I’ll take a look.
Try an EUC
They look fun, but I’m getting a bit long in the tooth to chance falling off one.
Escooter my man, they’re still fun and a good entry level performance model (vsett 9+) claps in around 1k instead of 3k for an EUC (veteran patton)
I don’t know about yours, but mine clicks and clanks.
So fix it up! A well maintained silent bike is such a joy to ride.
There’s not much to fix, it’s just an old Dutch bike.
There’s probably plenty of maintenance to be done if it’s old. Bearings get worn out or at least need to be cleaned and greased. Chains stretch and cassettes wear. Brakes fall out of adjustment and pads wear out. I don’t know about you but I find riding a cared for and silent bike to be such a joy. I honestly can’t fathom how people manage to ride squeaky rattly inefficient bikes everywhere.
I had a bearing problem 2 years back, but I changed to new wheel and haven’t encountered any problems since. It has coaster brake and overall has very little moving parts. The pedal squeeks and is bent a little, there’s some clicks and clanks, but it works.
Don’t store it outside and take it to a bike shop for a tune-up once per year.
Bicycles are machines that need maintenance, like cars. But unlike cars, they’re very cheap to maintain :)
Oh same here, but even the loudest bicycle I’ve heard is at least as quiet as the quietest car I’ve heard, if only because of tire noise.
I dream of a bike with a belt drive one day.
Belt and shaft driven bicycles do exist. You just wouldn’t want to ride one, the loss of efficiency over chain requires you to make up for it with your legs and that is not fun.
Enclosed chain bicycles are kind of a reasonable trade-off.
For me the number one reasons is assholes stealing my bike the millisecond i turn away
If bike theft was prosecuted similar as car theft, or even better, horse theft when people relied on horses…
That’s a hangin’ offense.
I think horse theft is still taken more seriously.
Rain.
And heat. Particularly with workplaces with no end of trip facilities. It’s 106 F with the heat index and humid where I live currently. My last workplace had lockers and showers, and so I rode even in the rain and heat, but my current job has no bike facilities whatsoever. I only ride in when the weather is good enough that I can ride in without worrying about changing more than my pants and shoes and freshening up.
Yeah, we definitely need the government to offer grants and tax breaks to companies to build and provide better bicycle-commuting facilities to their workers, including ample indoor bicycle parking and showers
It’s absurd to me how the US’s “Infrastructure Bill” dealt mostly with cars, and the press coverage of this was horrible. Where was the news coverage pointing-out the lack of investment in train and bicycle infrastructure? Fuck cars.
I would even accept outdoor bike parking as long as showers and a changing area was provided.
I won’t. Where I went to Uni the outdoor bicycle parking was placed right next to the sprinklers, and it would water the bicycles 🤦 That’s not acceptable. We need to treat these machines with the respect they deserve.
That’s just the university buildings and grounds dept not adjusting the sprinklers properly/using poor sprinkler design. Bikes should ideally go inside, but they’re beautifully simple to maintain machines and can tolerate the outdoors if maintained.
I saw same grounds department driving a golf cart intentionally smash into a bicycle that was parked in same bicycle parking rack as they passed it.
See also Hostile Architecture:
It takes serious investment and education campaigns to fix cultural bigotry.
Definitely a buildings and grounds dept issue then and these things will only be resolved if complaints are lodged with the university.
yeah i’m sure more tax breaks will fix things
Heat is the real killer. As someone else said with fenders and a raincoat the former is very manageable but there’s nothing you can do when the heat index is in the high 90s/early 100s every day from late May through the end of October.
Counterargument: Fenders and a raincoat
Waiting patiently for a german to say “you’re not made of sugar”
I know this just a meme, but literally the answer is infrastructure.
Where I live there are no separated cycle paths and it is illegal to ride on the footpath. Combine that with a hostile car culture, and it is simply too dangerous at present for me to consider.
They are building a separated cyclepath near me, however, so once that is in place I’ll be doing most commuting by bike.
Mainly because of bad city design. As much as cars suck to drive no one wants to be next to loud, metal, dangerous beasts while riding to the store. We must embrace bikes and make cities more bike friendly.
As someone who doesn’t own a car and does most trips with either a bike or public transit: Because shitty weather (rainy, too cold, too hot), loads larger than are convenient to carry on a bike, and distances impractical to travel with a bike exist.
I never managed to learn to ride a bike due to motor issues :(
But I don’t have a car either, so it doesn’t matter anyway :D
