apparently my city literally literally banned public rail funding, and people online love jerking off about how good biking is, so i figured might as well try. I have come up with:
pros:
- good for mental health / exercise / endorphins
- arguably quaint
- feel like an old timey guy taking his wares to market
- feel european
- can annoy others
- less of a police state around them vs cars
- more flexible parking, routes
- capacity to be peaceful
- nice in summer
cons:
- look like an annoying dork (esp w neon - which also hurts the quaint factor)
- have to wear a helmet (^)
- getting sweaty, potentially “unpresentable” for work
- still have to find safe parking
- still takes a while
- have to find new routes to places
- can’t listen to music or might die
- little meaningful protection against severe injury
- can only carry so many groceries/etc
- sucks in winter
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pros:
- I don’t sit in a cage in the middle of a traffic jam 2+ hours a day
- When I get to work, I’m awake and in a good mood, when I get back home, I’ve left the work stress behind
- I’m actually faster door to door than in a car in rush hour traffic on my 8 mile commute
- It keeps me fit even if I don’t do any other sports
- It’s fun
- I can fix everything myself with a toolbox I bought for 40€
- My bike cost 1000€, 4 years ago, and I think I spent another … 30€ on it in all that time, for lube and tubes
cons:
- It can’t fully replace a car. Around once a week I need public transit for longer routes. Around once a month I have to rent a car, too.
- Bike lanes don’t exist or aren’t usable everywhere. In places without them you need some thick skin to deal with the incoherent rage of strangers who feel like your choice of vehicle threatens their entire lifestyle.
- Biking has become a political statement for some reason
From your con list, the only one that is actually true in my opinion is:
- little meaningful protection against severe injury
(which is mostly a problem due to cars on the road)
All the other ones either simply aren’t true, or are only an issue if you’re starting out and haven’t figured out what’s important yet.
The sweat thing is important imo. I don’t want to show up to work or school or whatever drenched in sweat. Sometimes it’s too hot outside, or you have to ride against too strong a wind, or the terrain on your route is difficult. Either way you can easily arrive at your destination soaking wet. Unless you have an e-bike, there is no easy or convenient solution for that ç. A very real consideration that most certainly has made me not choose my bike on many occasions.
While we’re on the topic of wet, weather is also an important consideration. Keeping yourself protected against the rain on a bike is not easy.
Somehow I’ve managed to commute to work on a bike year round for 10 years now, and I’m in a customer-facing role.
When it rains I wear rain clothes (jacket, rain pants and over-shoes). I also have full fenders and a chainguard on my bike.
If necessary, I ride in cycling clothes, carry my work clothes and some deodorant in a pannier, and quickly dry off and change in the bathroom when I arrive. It takes 5 minutes.
Second this. The inconvenience of winter weather in particular. Dutch people are used to say that there is no bad weather to ride a bike, only inadequate gear.
That’s nice for the Dutch but I’m not riding a bike in 15+ cm of snow and ice while it’s -30c lol
I do and it’s honesty much better than those 33+ c days. When it’s below freezing, I wear thermal high tops, snow pants, down jacket, face mask and ski goggles. Its perfectly comfortable.
Try that in Canada though, it’s not going to work out. 15cm of fresh snow with ice underneath and it’s still coming down, while the sidewalks haven’t been cleared yet? Good luck biking to work then…
You would have to use transit for about half the year here
It’s an issue of political will, because it’s perfectly possible to keep cycling possible even in those conditions, but yea as long as that isn’t there you can’t always.
Realistically it’s only those 1-2 days after snowing when things are still being cleared that it’s an issue. I bike commute 52 weeks a year in Minnesota and there were only 3 days this year I regretted biking. 2 snow days and one heavy cold rain. I can always supplement another option on those days.
Would skiing be an option?
In Austria I’ve already seen people cross country skiing through the city in extreme conditions (but usually streets are cleared quickly so it isn’t needed)
Can confirm. Especially wet snow/sleet can make bicycling completely impossible. A few centimeters is only a minor annoyance, but 10 cm is a serious problem. Fortunately, it doesn’t last long where I live, since the streets get cleared fairly quickly. During one of those mornings you better take a bus/train/subway instead. It also really depends on how well your town takes care of the streets and what public transport options are available.
My city plows the bike paths at the same time it plows the emergency routes. We’re in Wisconsin, but a startling number of people still commute by bike all year long.
It’s true that it’s possible to ride all year, even in places with harsh winters.
It’s going to be decidedly less fun, though.
This was enough to tip the balance in favour of taking transit during the months of snow and slush here in Sweden, but I’m also spoiled for choice here. Now I’ve moved and have less of a ride to work, so I think I’m probably going to shoot for biking all year now.
I wear the same clothing when I am biking and not biking. The clothing is by no means a requirement.
If you were trying to get to work that could be problematic, especially business attire in a hot place.
I used to bike to work occasionally. It was maybe a 5 minute drive, 15 minute bike ride. I would bring a backpack with a change of clothes and change in the bathroom once I got to the office.
Back in office I remember a few people who did that, they were definitely a bit sweat smelly lmao, I live in a very warm place though, probably much more viable in a more temperate place
You have the elitist weekend cyclists on 15-20k bikes and the casual commuter folks all rolled up in one list. Not the same crowd.
I have many friends in the Seattle area, which is supposedly relatively bike friendly compared to other places in the US. Of those friends, only 2 bike to commute. In the last year, both of them have gotten hit by a car and hospitalized.
I know that’s just anecdotal, but I don’t see bikes as a safe way of travel US unless there is significant change in infrastructure for them.
Bikes are popular in Seattle, but I’m not sure I’d call it a bike-friendly city. Tons of rain, tons of hills, tons of bridges, tons of crappy roads. We put bike lanes in a bunch of places, but a lot of them still have to go through confusing intersections or only cover part of your commute. Add on the new trend of no-hands driving, it’s still pretty dangerous.
Tons of rain, tons of hills, tons of bridges, tons of crappy roads.
Have you ever been to the Alps? That’s cycling heaven for most people apparently
Not really for casual cycling and commuting.
Surprisingly yes it is, cause big cities are in valleys which are flat (valleys were flattened by massive glaciers), and there is a lovely bike infrastructure.
Have a look into E-Bikes, theres a great Micromobility community on Lemmy.
My dad has one with saddlebags and says its more like owning a small motorbike. Sure he has to pedal but he never has to pedal hard. If you’re worried about looking like a dork Mercedes make ones that look cool AF.
cargo bikes are getting really practical if thats your bigger worry.
Buy a good lock and put an air tag on it though.
theres a great Micromobility community on Lemmy.
Thanks! It’s !micromobility@lemmy.world if anyone was interested btw
I like the idea of an E-bike but it just wouldnt be practical in my life at the moment. But its a pretty good community, generally stays on topic and doesnt degenerate into arguments.
Music: use bone conduction headphones
are there like gold standard ones I can start looking at?
Shokz ig? Idk if they’re the absolute best but generally up there
I use Shokz also.
The bone conducting ones make me nauseous so I got a pair of Bose open earbuds. They’re not as good in loud environments but that’s kinda the point. I ride and listen to music with them daily
I’ve been using Shokz for a decade now. They’ve replaced a couple sets at no cost. I wear mine every day. Even for the occasional swim.
Listening to podcasts definitely gives longer battery life than listening to music. Though even the odd time I’ve drained the battery in a day, I charge it with a battery pack for fifteen minutes and it’s charged again.
Not many products I’d say are worth every cent, but from the quality to the customer service, Shokz are great.
From a European perspective (I use car/bicycle/train/longboard), a few pointers rather than a pro-con/list
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The more people use a bicycle, even casually, The more it put pressures on local politician to do something
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For short distances (<5km) in town, it’s faster than the car
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Gloves are more important than helmet, on the couple of fall I got, gloves protected my hands, while my head didn’t hit. However, if you’re in a severe accident a helmet can make the difference so I still recommend one.
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Beware of your clothe, if you wear black, at night, without lights, you call for problem, and I can see how even good faith motorists can hit you.
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Paint isn’t infrastructure but at least remind the motorists that you have the right to be there. I can see how the mayor call the infrastructure director and ask them for bike lane without any budget, but it sucks
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Be a bit agressive, and look for eye-contact before passing between car, keep distance from parked car, they can open a door, If you don’t think a car can pass you with a safe distance (small urban streets) stay in the middle of the road, and stop to the side when you can to let the car pass you.
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A backpack, or bike pack helps a lot carrying groceries, not really an excuse
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The problem isn’t that much the winter (unless you live on a really cold place) but the rain, good clothe can help, but still.
What kind of gloves do you use?
In Summer, I use “weight lifting fingerless gloves”, it’s very similar from “cycling fingerless gloves” but half of the price. In winter, I use “light” outdoor gloves.
Upvote because longboard
Just wanted to comment on this bit.
- Gloves are more important than helmet, on the couple of fall I got, gloves protected my hands, while my head didn’t hit. However, if you’re in a severe accident a helmet can make the difference so I still recommend one.
Gloves will save you from very annoying and painful scratches on your hands, but helmet can save you from becoming vegetable or dead. I don’t think there’s any competition for which is more important, helmet any day.
Still, definitely recommend both but at very least a helmet
Wanted to reply to OP. Moving my post.
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little meaningful protection against severe injury
This is why I’m an advocate for seatbelts for bicycles.
Electric bicycles are much less tiring to use and go faster / further. Quite a game changer.
With pannier bags and a backpack you can carry quite a lot of groceries.
If you’re going moderate or short distances in a city, odds are it will literally be faster to bike, even at a no sweat/leisurely pace.
Average speed of commuter traffic in cities is sub 20 kph.
In my city cycling is faster even if you’re not stuck in traffic because you can take one way streets and shortcuts. During rush hour it’s not even comparable.
Just to add, if you go with a bicycle, you do not need to forgoe cars altogether. For those days you need to haul around a bunch of items, you can rent a car through a car sharing service. You can rent them for a few hours.
I tried biking in a city awhile back, and someone actually tried to hit me with their door.
Any city that thinks its a great idea to share the road on a bike has never personally tried it.
I’ve done it for almost 2 decades and confirm people are assholes.
Thats why cities should build seperated lanes so cars and bikes mingle as little as possible
If we’re talking infrastructure buildouts I’d rather just go the extra step and build a few tram/train lines vs adding a bike lane to every road
I sorta agree and sorta don’t, all streets should be 30km/h or less and shared traffic, everything else should be with bike lanes. Streets meaning a piece of infrastructure that provides access to places lining it, not a piece of infrastructure for longer distance travel.
The Netherlands is good not because there is a bike lane on every street but because all the streets with destinations (private homes, business, schools)are connected by bike lanes as well as roads, often more and more direct bike lanes.
There are a lot of areas where cars bikes and sometimes pedestrians share the same space both in inner cities and in residential neighborhoods, it’s just that they aren’t through roads for cars or at least very very slow ones, while they are often through roads for bikes and peds.
I see where you are coming from there. My comment is mostly concerned with north america and our street/road design and layout is awful. There are many school zones where cars could easily exceed 100km/h if the driver wanted to. Because of these deisgns I think it is best we keep cyclists and pedestrains as seperated from cars until better street design and traffic calming can be massively implemented. The scale of the street redesign is massive and would have to be city wide to be truly effective.
An easier and cheaper start to pitch politically would be proper bike lanes along major corridors. A few years down the line streets along those lanes would improve and the city could slowly redevelop.
I wish I could just snap my fingers and have safe streets but stroads and the attitude of driving is so bad in much of north america we are going to have to fix it in stages. We can’t just convert our stroads overnight unfortunately.
Yeah I’m in Germany so my context is somewhere in between and here the projects that improve my life the most is when cars don’t get to/need to travel on the streets as much, this can either be through modal filters, removing car lanes or just banning cars (with the usual delivery window in the morning and such). And they are starting to get to the kind of streets where you could go 100km/h (in terms of size) that are in practice 50km/h, and are now getting them down to 30 (taking 1 of 2 car lanes and giving it to bikes as well as adding obstacles to indicate slower speeds). So it’s doable and of course it takes time, but with a bit of luck it might be faster than some Americans imagine it could be.
So of course bike lanes along mayor roads (corridors) make sense, and it can be a good starting point to get a skeleton network in place, which then can Kickstart intersection redesigns and traffic calming, wherever it’s reasonable around it. To me the best bike paths don’t go along roads though, they are the “recreational” paths that still connect things. Cutting through a patch of Forrest or a park, going along the waterfront, parallel to a tramway or rail corridor or just along/through the fields. These are probably also politically cheaper than some other measures, but you run the risk of building a thing that just connects nothing because there is no real infrastructure on either end.
I feel like Americans think they are 60+ years behind when they are probably only 30-40, if the attitude turns somewhat sharply, either just in your local area or more generally, maybe just 15-25.
A lot of this stuff is monetarily very cheap, depending on how desperately you wanted change the actual infrastructure you’d need, would boil down to planters, bollards, cones, maybe hay bails or large stones/concrete pieces. The problem with that stuff is that it’s only possible with the right opportunity politically, otherwise your traffic calming might get bulldozed by police or something.
I agree, everyone thinks cars, bikes, buses, and people all should follow the same line along the same corridor. Having bike lanes seperated more can be very benefecial and helps seperation without need for physical barriers. For example a road could run down the center of a commercial area, with a dedicated BRT lane, and bike/ped pnaes closer to the businesses or even a seperate enterance/laneway behind the businesses dedicated to people.
But most of North America thinks a painted bicycle gutter along a busy road, crossing many car intersections and entrances is the best we can build.
Yeah, in an ideal bubble, I would like to see trams replace cars for dense sectors that see a lot of traffic.
There are plenty of protected lanes in my city, but they just hide bicycles behind parked cars, making it less safe at every intersection.
The only way I can think that might work better would be to convert a 3-lane road (with suicide/turn lane in center), into a 2-lane road. The center lane gets converted into a two-way bicycle road - raised up like a sidewalk with curved curb. No left turns allowed for cars, only right turns. This way bicycles are visible and protected.
A better option is to make seperate intersections for cars and bikes. Bike lanes do not exclussively have to run right next to the car lanes.
Pro:
- Look this shitload of money you don’t have to pay for insurance, parking and gaz
Con:
- Look this shitload of time you’ve spent to “fix just this another thing”
Bone conduction earphones will let you listen to music without occluding external sound.
look like a dork
Just dress like a BMXer and not those dorks that do the Tour De France. 🤷🏻♂️
Even their helmets are cooler.
