Crossing my fingers hoping this happens in the US, then I look at how many places that don't even have sidewalks (let alone bike lanes) and remember why cars are the only way to get anywhere here...
If we can take the dearth of bikes for sale during the pandemic as an indicator of growth in popularity, I would say the US is experiencing a biking boom. I've been trying to buy a mountain bike for my kid for the past four months unsuccessfully. Local shops are just out of stock at least for bikes below $1k.
While I think that the COVID has triggered a genuine level of interest in cycling, I also think it has been compounded by supply chain disruptions. Bikes are low margin items, which means they probably ship by container, are also shipped seasonally, so even possibly the delay of one or two ship loads in early Spring could disrupt the entire industry.
I live in Canada in a bike friendly city but I dread having to bike through the US-style suburbs for many reasons:
- 3-4 lane boulevards where motorists drive at 60-70km/h and pass close to you;
- giant malls where cars turn into and out of parking lots without paying too much attention;
- lots of right turn only lanes that force you to stay on the middle lane between two lanes of cars (which makes some motorists very angry) or to stay close to the curb and cross with the pedestrians (which forces you to get on the sidewalk, disembark to hit the button and wait 1-2 minutes at _every_ intersection);
- intersections where cars can turn right on a red light;
- motorists not being used to driving around cyclists;
Pandemic-induced growth in bike use for commuting is mostly at the expense of public transit ridership. People aren't trading their cars for bikes, they're trading the risk of dying from a transit-related COVID-19 superspreader event for the risk of dying in a vehicle vs. bike crash.
A mode shift towards bikes won't happen in most of the US because most of the US doesn't have viable public transit, and therefore, there's no need for Americans to switch transport modes.
I believe bike use has increased in relation to public transit ridership in greater New York, but this is absolutely the exception to the rule as NYC was (prior to COVID-19) a transit-dependent city.
Here in New York City I’m noticing the use of CitiBike, our bike share program, really taking off. Many more people in the bike lanes than a few months ago. It’s getting to the point that the volume of bikes is beginning to exceed the system’s ability to rebalance itself (or be rebalanced by people whose job it is to do so); popular destination bike stations have no empty bike docks and popular source locations are nearly entirely empty.
It’s the US too. I was in a car accident with 2 bikes on the back that were unrepairable. Trying to find replacement bikes are close to impossible. Just yesterday I went to 2 local bike shops who had no stock and the bikes they do get in are pre sold, so there’s never any inventory. All manufacturers I’ve checked also don’t have anything available online. I guess they prioritize their dealers who can deal with the customer facing stuff so they can focus on more manufacturing. Even finding basic parts like a tube can be difficult! I found that the service levels at my local shop also went way way down, as they just can’t keep up with the volume. When I asked one of the bike store people about it yesterday, he just shrugged and said that it’s probably being used as a social distancing safe sport and replaced a lot of gym memberships and other sports.
Yeah, here in Denver there has been a huge amount of novel cyclists. Lots of old bikes dug out of storage and brand new bikes with slightly wobbly riders. Also, more diverse riders. I think it's great.
There's also a big increase in poorly maintained bikes- a squeaking chain is not just wearing itself out faster than usual, but also wearing out expensive drivetrain parts. Lubricate and clean your chains (and WD-40 is not lube)!
In my view, it will be what always happens. I'm a year round commuting cyclist in the upper Midwest, so I see bike traffic go up and down with the seasons and the weather. In addition to the cold, there's also the darkness.
The coldest month is January, and by that point, you only see the die-hards. It's not just psychological, but also requires being prepared to deal with the cold, ice, and road salt. For instance I have a dedicated winter bike with studded tires, and a pre-rusted chain. ;-) Oddly enough, the people who are out in the worst weather always seem to have the biggest grins on their faces.
So while I feel smug about being one of the die-hards, I also don't even try to encourage people to ride through the winter until they've at least acclimatized themselves to riding regularly in normal weather.
I doubt I'll ever ride a bike to work in the winter. I say this because there's a backwoods road on my commute which I cannot avoid and which gets skinnier and skinnier as the storms add up. It reaches a point where two lanes become something closer to one and a half, and where I suspect a difference in vehicle height is occasionally the only thing preventing side-view mirrors from clipping. Drivers remain unfazed, or at the very least they do not slow down.
Admittedly, it can't be justified on purely utilitarian grounds. I do own a car after all.
Part of it is that I'm just addicted to cycling. But I'm also not strong enough to be a competitive cyclist, and don't live in an area with extensive mountain biking. So I have to look for ways to make it more interesting. I also love being outdoors during the winter, so I also go cross country skiing, or just take long walks.
Surely, folks who have engaged in real survival sports would laugh at me, but still, arriving at work on my bike at -20 F feels like I've been on some kind of an adventure. My friends think I'm crazy, but I remind them that regular people go to work, outdoors, in colder temperatures, and they survive. The old saying is: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing."
On the other hand, my spouse has a job where you have to pay extra for parking, so she either rides her bike or takes the bus depending on schedule. Right now during the COVID, the bus service has been cut way back, so it's 100% bike for her. My kids are both college students, and don't have cars, so a bike is their only option.
I live in a much milder climate than OP, and haven't done it for a while but I can confirm that cycling in cold - when properly prepared for it - is a very meditative experience. Make sure your hands and feet are warm!
I can't imagine -20F though! (I have done +46C in the shade and that was quite an experience)
I remember Sydney had some fairly decent cycling routes when I was there. Perhaps not when compared to Copenhagen and Amsterdam, but they always got me from Alexandria to the CBD without riding on the road (this was in 2010).
I ride in the pouring rain (it rarely snows where I love) because I don’t own a car and it takes half the time to get to work by bike than by public transport. It’s also much more pleasant despite the rain because public transport is crowded. You stand for an hour squeezed between other people in their wet coats. For me that’s sensory overload which makes my morning far too stressful. Biking, even in bad weather, is much less stressful than that.
> Why do you ride in ice and snow? Sincere question.
I'm a bit late to the party, and not the person you asked, but I have bicycled through a few winters in the past. The winter road conditions where I live can be anything from dry and clear to wet to slushy to snowy to icy, and various things in between.
I have to admit that part of the reason was "because I can". As a kid, I was given (or at least somehow got) the impression that bicycling in winter was dangerous, and that it was a summertime activity. Once I realized sometime in my early 20's that that's not how it has to be, I liked to show myself that it could be done. (I fully realize that it can, in fact, be dangerous especially if the infrastructure for cycling isn't supportive or if you don't realize that you have to approach things differently than in dry weather, but I found I was able to do it safely where I live. You just need to keep your wits with you. There's still something nice about knowing that (or if and when) it can be done; it gives a feeling of freedom, and you also become quite mindful of your physical environment while riding.)
A second reason would be that, living in a city with good public transport and decent walking/cycling infrastructure, I've never owned a car. I like it that way, largely due to the ecological costs of private driving. And while public transport is a fine option, there was something nice about riding in crisp air to start the day rather than being stuck in a packed bus or a train. Not being dependent on public transport schedules is a plus, as is the exercise.
Riding in some winter conditions (even snowy or icy) is a lot easier than in others. Plowed or packed snow is fine, as are slightly icy surfaces, as long as the ice is even; studded tires help a lot. Fresh snow that hasn't been plowed, even if it's just an inch or two thick, is a lot harder to ride in unless you have pretty wide tires with good tread, but it becomes possible if you do. Packed and frozen slush are the worst because they're both slippery and uneven. I'd generally not ride (at least with the bike and equipment I had back then) for significant distances if the conditions were like that.
In some sense you could say that grasping the nuances of the conditions could be a hobby in itself.
One of the obvious downsides is that appropriate clothing is more difficult when you have to account for the physical exertion and the cold weather.
Riding is almost inevitably slower than in dry conditions, both because of safety and because any snow makes the riding physically more strenuous. It might easily also became significantly slower than other modes of transportation, and the travel time on longer commutes might become less predictable due to variable conditions, so you might not want to commute by bike for longer distances in snowy/icy conditions unless you're pretty dedicated for some other reason.
I'm also not sure I'd do it in a location where the infrastructure is bad enough to make it seriously risky.
And what happens to those pop up bike lanes when the furlough money runs out, the tube is still unusable and the cars return with a vengeance? The Beeb are too quick to praise the weak actions of local governments here. Given a generation of people who care about the environment, the availability of practical e-bikes, and the very clear model shown by the Netherlands, this really was the chance of a lifetime and they blew it. This was the summer when central governments should have introduced bike friendly legislation and locked in the long term budgets needed to gradually rebuild the permanent infrastructure in every town and city.
I previously lived in city where it was -10/-15C during winter and it was fine to cycle because it was dry and bright (inc. strong lighting).
Now I live in the UK and you have to be a true believer to cycle during winter when it's not as cold but it's damp, raining, and dark (with poor public lighting). I walk, which is already a commitment.
One further problem in the UK, in my opinion, is that roads have always been built, and, worse, continue to be built, the absolute narrowest possible. Very often it is already tight for cars, so cycle lanes are out of the question and cycling is very dangerous. Ideally, all new roads (at least urban and in residential areas) should be wide enough in order to include a good size bike lane segregated from cars... Once again, though, there is no long term plan, at best they're just winging it with a quite paint job on the road.
Depends on where you are but in most of Europe winters are pretty okay. I've never owned a car and used a bike for all my life and the few days where it's actually icy or snowy (Germany in my case) you just switch to public transport. And if anything it seems like the winters keep getting milder.
One of the reasons people use bikes during the pandemic is to avoid public transport. When the bike option doesn't become available, it will push a lot of people to cars.
And once you have a car, it's often a lot more convenient than a bike, because you don't end up all sweaty at the end of the day.
I always see "being sweaty" being mentioned here when talking about commuting via bike, why? Is it the hills? I live in a flat area and this has never been a problem for me.
The American or British mental image of a cyclist commuter[1] is very different than the Dutch or Danish one[2].
In the Netherlands cycling is just a faster and less strenuous version of walking. In America many cyclists dress like they're training for a sport event.
> In America many cyclists dress like they're training for a sport event.
I’m sure roadies dress that way in the Netherlands.
The difference is that US cyclists are mostly roadies because you need to really want to bike to do so, which in the Netherlands roadies are a minority of cyclists because it’s just the normal way to move around.
Sure, for every individual American cyclist that may be sensible and rational. But I'm afraid that collectively it could trap them in a bad equilibrium, where bike-infrastructure improvement are seen by the larger public as benefits for a narrow interest group.
The American climate is also different from the Dutch one. The Wisconsin city that I live in has temperatures that are both 15 F hotter and colder than typical northern European cities. And we commute roughly twice as far because our cities are more spread out.
I'm fortunate that I don't sweat very much, my commute is only 4 miles each way, and I can tailor my schedule around the weather. So I start out early before the sun has cleared the trees, and ride slowly. As a result I'm not particularly sweaty when I arrive at work. Also, I have a casual-dress job with no public interaction.
I live on a street that happens to be a preferred route for cyclists commuting to and from the downtown area. So I see a lot of people on bikes. Most of the commuters are in fact just wearing normal street clothes. I don't even own any cycling-specific clothing.
People in online cycle commuting discussions often have... ideas about speed that don't match mine.
I use "being sweaty" as shorthand for "I don't care if you claim a ??? mile commute should take 10-15 minutes, it takes me 40 minutes, and I'll thank you not to insult me by calling me inexperienced or lazy"
I think it's mostly the hills. It's not "completely drenched in sweat so I need a shower immediately" but "going to take a second shower before going to bed for sure" even on a relatively short trip.
And on anything longer (again, with hills), it's definitely a "damn, I hope I won't start smelling too bad until I get back home".
driving a car through a packed European city is hell, they weren't made for cars, parking alone can be impossible to find. European cities don't have the same parking space allocations that US cities have (thank god). Smaller electric cars like the Zoe are gaining ground but the vehicle market in Europe is not going to grow overall, and hasn't grown in ages. Covid isn't even changing it right now, and won't be a permanent issue.
Also sweat never was an issue for me, when I bike to work I go at commute speed, not exercise levels.
I have started to see the start of it where I am. The barely used bikes from the summer are starting to appear on second-hand sites (think craigslist) as people try to offload them. The problem being that traffic is back to normal and people return to taking the car everywhere.
I also notice a cooldown in people buying used bikes too
I live in a hilly city, and the green part of the city council here ran a campaign this year were they cover 25% of the cost of an ebike (up to ~$550 for bikes and ~$1100 for cargo-ebikes). Now I see Tern GSDs and Riese & Müllers all over the place. Bought one myself, and it really removes the hills from the equation when deciding to bike or not.
They got bike counters at major routes, but sadly haven't released stats for 2020 yet. Number of bikers have been at a stand still for the last 8 years, looking forward to see the effect of COVID + sponsored ebikes when the new numbers are out.
It’s also a very heavy bike, with a extra long chain, able to carry two kids and a load of groceries. The chain is probably under some serious strain when going uphill, even when correctly geared and well maintained.
Mid-drive bikes will go through them quicker than hub-drive. Mine will last about 1250 miles with a 250W Bosch CX motor. If I run it unrestricted then it's even worse.
The front chain ring needs replacing with the chain although I think that is a quirk of the Bosch CX. I can get away with reversing it to extend the life.
I haven't needed to replace the cassette yet.
This is on a well maintained bike, I don't see any difference between summer and winter riding.
I carry a "missing link" and small chain link removal tool with me in a little pouch attached to my bike so that I can be ready for a chain break (also a spare tyre tube and tyre removal tools).
My e-bike _really_ likes to eat chains. I've had it for 2 years and I'm on my third chain now. I don't do anything fancy, just ride it for 7km on pretty flat bike paths twice a day for around half the working year (so I'd estimate I've done ~2100km on it so far).
It is terrible that people equate bike lanes to cycling. Bike lanes are built to kick cyclists off the roads that motorist believe belong to them. It is very ironic that because of the pandemic so many defenders of bike lanes are coming out like mushrooms. I find it ironic, because to me, the pandemic has shown precisely that there is no need at all for bike specific infrastructure. In Madrid, the city where I live, during the worst months of the pandemic, I would go out with my bike and there would be a ratio of like 20 bikes to 1 car. The cyclists that I saw used the traffic lanes as they needed. It was quite something. You would think that proponents of bike lanes would have to shut up. But no, now they say that bike lanes are the solution to the pandemic!
This depends on relative numbers and local culture; if there's not many cyclists and drivers behave aggressively or recklessly towards them, cycle lanes encourage people to try it in comparative safety.
Cycle lanes are a trap for those who do not know. What exactly are the skills that you need to ride your bike in the normal road that are not needed when you ride on a bike lane?
You need mainly velocity and acceleration. Unless you have a powerful ebike, most bikers accelerate 5x slower than usual car, even slower than scooters, and max speed around 25-30kmh on flat road. So they become obstacle that is often difficult to avoid safely in the car.
There are +-2 countries that I've seen implement bikes seriously - Netherlands and Denmark. Both have more bikes than residents AFAIK. The magic is to have dedicated bike lanes that nobody else uses. You only slow down/stop on intersections with car roads or pedestrian paths, otherwise its all for you, wide enough to overtake slower biker.
So are you saying that when a driver of car encounters slower traffic they collide with it? I don't think that's the case. In fact I've been driving my bike daily to work for 13 years, and never been hit from behind by a car. I've had a few close calls and they've always been on intersections with cars coming from the front turning left or from the sides. So velocity and acceleration are not important when sharing the road. Vehicles of different kinds have always shared the road without any problem. If you encounter a vehicle slower than you, you just need to slow down, adapt your speed and pass if safely to do so. It's that easy. By the way, those countries already had cyclists before they kicked them off the roads. Do they have more now or less? Also how do cyclists interact with other cyclists? don't they have to follow any rules either? don't they need any skills?
From my experience, as a cyclist speed and acceleration helps with avoiding car-related danger. If you're fast enough, cars won't needlessly overtake you (in rush hour, most car traffic may not exeed 30 km/h for example due to roads being packed too full, that's easy to match for a trained cyclist).
Also at intersections, being really quick at acceleration allows you to get out of the danger zone of cars crossing your path before there's a conflict. Think about right-turning trucks starting after a red traffic light.
I think fitness (and maybe reaction time) is some reason why severe cycling accidents seem to happen to older cyclist at a higher rate. In Berlin out of 15 cycling deaths this year, more than half of them are age 60 and higher [1], 3 are beyond 80 years of age.
It’s absolutely untrue to say that cyclists are ‘difficult to avoid safely’.
Every time I drive I encounter cyclists. Sometimes I have to drive more slowly than I might want to for a short time, while I’m waiting for a safe opportunity to overtake. Not once, ever, have I found it difficult to avoid the cyclist safely. Anyone who finds this difficult would not be fit to operate a motor vehicle.
> What exactly are the skills that you need to ride your bike in the normal road that are not needed when you ride on a bike lane?
There should not be a set of skills to acquire to be on a road with cars. Roads in city centers should be safe enough for children to cycle to school.
For bigger arteries, this is achieved with segregated traffic in bicycle lanes. For smaller roads, this is achieved with sane city centre speed limits and respectful driving. That is the way it is implemented in countries like the Netherlands and they are in no way achieving this with extraordinarily skilled drivers or cyclists.
Your skills on a bicycle should be as basic as keeping safety distances and signaling your intentions. If I am putting 3 tonnes of metal in motion, it is ny duty to not act recklessly. This is the mindset that needs to change (on top of the infrastructure change).
So do you mean to say that bicycles do not collide with each other and therefore there is no need for them to have rules to share the road/bike lane or whatever? So, for example If I am being passed by another cyclist, can I just turn left without looking behind? I think you may wish that there was no need for skills, but that's just not reality. You need to know how to keep riding on a straight line for example, because other drivers of bicycles, cars, or whatever, expect that you won't suddenly cross their trajectory without warning. Since you also need to change your lateral position, regardless if you are riding on a bike lane or a normal road you need to be able to ride a straight line while looking behind, for yielding or lane negotiation. Also you need to do the same things when on a curve trajectory. Of course you need to be able to calculate the speed of other vehicles. For example, when entering a roadway, bike path, or whatever, you need again to be able to yield properly. I mean, we are talking about vehicles, I am not talking about fooling around in the park. In fact, it turns out that bike paths require additional skills. It requires additional skills because you need to figure out when its design contradicts the rules of the road. For example, when you have a right turning lane, that is exterior to a bike lane that just goes straight. That's a very dangerous situation where cyclists and motorists have to outsmart the engineer to avoid the right hook type of accident. Again, the bike lane discourse that bike lanes are easier to use is just false.
> So do you mean to say that bicycles do not collide with each other and therefore there is no need for them to have rules to share the road/bike lane or whatever?
Not to be rude, but is the worst example I've ever seen of arguing against the weakest possible reading of something the comment you are replying to didn't say.
I've raced bikes and been in bike-on-bike crashes at 70km/h, and I've been hit by a car when I was riding at about 20km/h. Give me the bike-on-bike crash any day.
I'm not a huge fan of bike lanes, but OTOH I have to admit I've basically stopped riding most roads after being hit and having constant near misses.
That's not a necessary skill. You know, there is a principle of traffic engineering that says: First to come first to be served. That means, if you are using the road, and you find a slower vehicle in front of you you are not allowed to run over him or kick him out of the way in any way. You are allowed to pass if safe to do so or just wait behind if not safe.
There is a principal in motorcycling that says: it doesn't matter if you had the right of way, you are the one who will wind up in the hospital, and the car driver will be fine.
I'm an avid cyclist & ex-motorcyclist. Self preservation & being a courteous road user tops what I might technically be entitled to do.
Also I find that drivers behave more aggressive towards me precisely after they build a bike lane. Because of course they expect you to use it, that's why the built it, so that you get out of their way.
If there is a dedicated cycle lane and a cyclist disturbs cars traffic (which bikes usually do simply because they tend to go much slower than cars) by insisting on cycling on the road I can understand that drivers do not appreciate it, though it of course does not excuse dangerous maneuvers.
The problem with this is that car drivers usually just assume that the cyclists could just safely use the bike lane, while in reality many bike-lanes are statistically more dangerous than just driving on the road.
In Germany there used to be a a general obligation to use bike-lanes when present, which was overturned by court, because of the safety argument.
As a cyclist I'm harassed at least once a weak by drivers who think I should use the non-obligatory bike-lane. This makes it very difficult to consciously chose the safer road instead of the (too narrow, too badly lit, too close to foot-traffic, too damaged, full of glass shards) bike-lane.
I think that the solution, as I mentioned in another comment, is to build 'proper' bike lanes instead of painting a 1m wide corridor on the side of the road and calling that a "bike lane". Obviously this usually can only be done when building a new road.
Yeah, for Berlin at least it's a very difficult question trying to find out how to move forward from the current half-assed state of affairs.
There is some sort of new law/policy that defines how proper bike infrastructure should look like [1] defining minimum width and stating that bike-lines should not be put onto foot-walks. However not many actions where performed based on that law which was also drafted in a way that prevents bringing forward proper legal action when not adhered to.
Maybe also something needs to be done WRT driving school, where bike-related issues are not really taught as far as I'm aware of. Most drivers (and maybe most teachers at driving school) still believe that cyclists do not belong onto the road and do not understand how driver behaviour endangers them. Minimum car<->bike overtaking distance (1.5 m) for example is generally ignored by more than half of cars.
It is funny, in those places I never got any harassment before. Car drivers never had a problem with me, It seems that I never disturbed the apparently so important car traffic, they just passed and went their way. So what exactly was the purpose of the bike lane? Clearly, to kick me and other cyclists out of the way because they didn't like us. That is just plain discrimination. And I am not saying that I don't facilitate passing when safe for me to do so. I think we cyclists have to do that. But the bike lane is just obnoxious.
I'm a keen cyclist and I prefer to ride on the road rather than on bike lanes. It tends to be a faster way to get around, especially since roads don't have the same habit of ending abruptly that bike lanes do, and it is rarer that one has to slow down for slower traffic ahead. However, not everyone is capable of cycling fast enough to move safely in the flow of traffic on the road, and not everyone is confident enough to ride in and among cars. I expect, given the demographics of this website, that you (like me) are a reasonably fit and confident young man - perhaps the subset of the population most likely to be undaunted by road cycling. For people like us, it is likely that the road will always be the preferred way to travel. But a cycling culture must be all-inclusive.
Fitness and confidence is easily overtaken by stupidity and resentment by car drivers on the road, at least around here. The white spray painted bicycles you see along the road can attest to that.
Yet, the people who want bike specific infrastructure are perfectly happy with bike lanes that require that car drivers see you and react in 20ms when you suddenly cross their path. Instead of being in front of them with plenty of time, like you would if you were using the same road. For example, in Madrid there is such a white painted bike next to an intersection between the regular road and a bike path. The cyclist riding the bike path was killed when he crossed the road. Such a road design is just criminal: https://elpais.com/ccaa/2017/08/28/madrid/1503932795_982370....
As if bikes aren't suddenly appearing out of nowhere when they use the same road as cars? When there's a cycling path you'll at least know where they will be coming from.
The solution to that problem is not putting cyclist and cars on the same road, we've tried that and it's worse. The solution is separating bike and car infrastructure so that there are as less as possible crossings between roads and cycling paths.
I think that most people can learn. Why do you think you are so special?
I think that bicycle specific infrastructure actually sends the wrong message and prevents people from learning. It is a crutch, it creates a vicious circle from which people never get out, never become confident. They do not know what to do when the bike lane ends.
I'm too and I think you're crazy, or maybe where you live bike paths are especially crappy and roads really wide. I don't like cars driving slowly behind me waiting to take over, busses nearly hitting me, and having to choose between being stuck in car traffic and slowly manœuvring between cars stuck in traffic and parked cars. Just give me a reasonable decent biking lane.
> especially since roads don't have the same habit of ending abruptly that bike lanes do
Nobody wants bad bike lanes. Imagine your bike lane were straight, as wide as a regular road lane and had smooth tarmac. Would you still ride amongst the cars?
Not sure how roads are paid for where you are, but where I live half the cost of roads is funded by gasoline taxes and various other fees on vehicles and drivers.
Where I live, the local roads are paid for by property taxes. County and state roads are funded by a mixture of tax sources, and bikes are forbidden on expressways.
But money is fungible, meaning it's hard to pin down what money is used for what. A lot of what consumes road funding is the damage to roads caused by heavy trucking. Also, cyclists largely avoid roads that carry a lot of motor vehicle traffic.
In Sweden until very recently it was _illegal_ to ride your bike in the street, if there was a parallel bike-lane. Then again, this country is virulently anti-cyclist. Some town councils give lip-service to the whole green-biking movement, because they feel it makes them look good. But the infrastructure is terrible, drivers are aggressive and confrontational, and the entire media-debate is based on an unstated understanding that cyclists are ‘stealing’ space from cars.
well, in my neck of the woods there is a fight going on between bicycles and pedestrians. The wave of commuter bikes are taking over paths that used to be reserved for people on foot. It is the same debate: two wildly dissimilar vehicles trying to share the same narrow bit of pavement. If bikes win out over cars for the right of way on roads, what then will the bikes say to pedestrians? Pre-car, pedestrians owned the roads. So too did horses. So why should i not walk my dog in the bike lane?
(Edit: we probably mean the same, but you’re only talking of relatively low-speed streets in Madrid, not roads, where car speed is higher) “Bike lanes are built to kick cyclists off the roads that motorist believe belong to them”
No, they’re built to make cycling safer and more comfortable.
We have motorways for cars (or are you suggesting those should be used by cyclists, too? How do people cycle from Barcelona to Toledo, for example?), sidewalks for pedestrians (at least in many parts of the world), why not have dedicated infrastructure for cyclists?
If they are built to make cycling safer and more comfortable then why do they care if you use it or not? shouldn't it be your choice? No, what happens is, of course, that you get a lot of harassment if you don't use it. Imagine that you drive a car on a road that you like, then they build another road and people get mad at you because you don't use the new one. That makes no sense right? That's what happens with bike infrastructure, of course it happens because they don't want you to use the regular roads, the motorists want to keep them all for themselves. And obviously, when this happens, security, comfort and convenience are less than an afterthought, in fact they are not thought at all. So, no I do not want special infrastructure when I ride my bike, because then you immediately become a second class citizen. I actively avoid it when I ride.
Because, following your argument, “it is terrible that people equate sidewalks to walking. Sidewalks are built to kick pedestrians off the roads that motorist believe belong to them.”
For inner city streets that historically is correct, but if you ignore that and just look at the end result, you can describe that equally well as parts of the road set apart for pedestrians.
> So, no I do not want special infrastructure when I ride my bike, because then you immediately become a second class citizen.
When you treat cycling as second class, you get bad infrastructure for sure.
Like I said in my other comment. The Netherlands treats bikes as a priority mode of transportation. As such, cyling infrastructure is continously made with comfort and safety in mind.
Hell, cars tend to be inconviencienced in order to provide safer infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.
Naturally, conditions and attitudes vary from one country and locale to another. I live in the US, which has a fairly high rate of motor vehicle crashes. My view is that our streets are hardly safe enough for cars, and if a car can crash into a car, then it can crash into a bike. In addition to a higher rate of crashes, our cars are bigger, meaning that they can do more damage.
Long before we started adding bike lanes in my locale, cyclists and motorists tended to choose different routes through town. Motorists chose the main streets, which have higher speed limits but also more congestion. Cyclists usually preferred threading our way along residential streets and isolated bike paths. Bike lanes in areas where there are no ways to avoid the high traffic streets seems to simply accommodate how most cyclists prefer to ride anyway.
In practical terms, avoiding cars means that cars are not part of the safety equation. It's also more pleasant. I'm an experienced urban cyclist, yet I still prefer riding in the absence of cars.
Drivers have always been taught to share the road with cyclists, and there are always a few who don't believe it. I don't think construction of bike lanes changes this very much. I have noticed that during the 20 years I've lived in this town, cycling has gotten more popular, there are more bike lanes, but also, drivers have become more aware and friendly towards cyclists on the regular roads.
There are cyclists on both sides of the debate about bike lanes. And surely, if roads can be designed badly, bike lanes can be too. I've seen pictures of some pretty ridiculous examples.
Having experienced Dutch segregated bike lanes, I'm not sure how you can argue against these.
The key though, is to treat bicycles as a priority, rather than as an afterthought. One important provision in Dutch law is that if a car driver crashes into a cyclist, it is assumed that the car driver has been negligent.
In the Netherlands it's the other way around. We're removing full roads in cities in favour of bigger cycling paths and more walking area.
We've also got cycling roads where cars may drive as a "guest". So really slow driving speeds and only short distance until they go back up to the main road again.
The big difference here is that the bike is a priority vehichle here, instead of a nuisance for cars.
Cycling paths/roads aren't just for city infrastructure. It also is a way of providing safe intercity traffic for cyclists. You can cycle between major cities here without having to share the road with any cars.
As a semi-serious road cyclist (5000 - 8000 mi/year), I can attest to the shortages and the general backlog in the industry that has made it very difficult to get a bike, but more especially to get bikes serviced. Everyone's digging out the rust-bucket under their porch and trying to get it overhauled, when they're not snapping up entry-level road bikes and casual cruisers/hybrids/commuter bikes...
The ultra-expensive stuff remains more available, though not necessarily service for it. That's the stuff we hardcore roadies buy anyway, but now it's pretty much the only thing sure to be in stock, and even then, far from assured in all cases.
Seeing what has happened to the parts and service market makes me fervently glad that I restored my long-neglected recumbent back to operating condition last year. Sadly, I haven't ridden it nearly enough this year, but at least it's ready to go.
Mountain biking is super popular now in Ontario. The local trails are way busier, and bike shops are low on parts and bikes. Everything in the midrange (3k or so) is pretty well sold out.
The article doesn't explain why bike sales took off. It really startled me to learn how hard it became to buy a bike or spare parts.
I live in a very bike friendly city, so new infrastructures is not the reason why people bought bikes. I still don't get what convinced people to buy bikes during the pandemic.
Probably the same reason VR has been on the rise. For the privileged who are stuck at home, they’re just sick of seeing the same four walls and breathing stagnant air, and they want something faster than walking
People don't want to go to the gym or on the bus. So instead of the gym you take up mountain biking, and instead of the bus you bike commute. That's potentially two bikes just for one person. Once you start though, you realize the required number of bikes is N+1 where N is the number you already have.
I was a mountain biker before the pandemic, but this spring I realized "I'm going to have a LOT of time to mountain bike this summer, so I'll get that $3k bike I've been thinking of getting for years now". I was super lucky to get my hands on one in 2020, and I had to go up to a more expensive $3.5k bike to even find one at all.
In my neck of the woods, people were looking for outdoor activities when businesses shut down. In some cases it was because they were out of work, in others it was because they couldn't go to the places they would traditionally go to. Cycling was one of those things people latched on to, but it wasn't the only thing. I wouldn't not be surprised if most outdoor sporting goods saw a surge in sales. Since the pandemic has been beaten out of my region (at least for the time being), even team sports are very common.
What are so quickly forgotten are the class disparities around bikes. Not everyone has a job where they can arrive drenched in perspiration. Not everyone has a place to lock up a bike at work. Not everyone works at a single location for which they can plan a regular commute. Some people are on call 24/7 across wide areas. Many have to carry tools with them. And lots of people are simply too poor to live withing reasonable biking distance of work.
Personally, im in the military and on call 24/7. Unless i lived on the base, in barracks, a private vehicle is the only way i can possibly get to work in a reasonable time (the base is 10+km across, and uber isnt allowed past the guards).
"Too few women and people from ethnic minority groups cycle in London and more must be done to promote diversity among a largely white, male and middle class biking community, the city’s walking and cycling commissioner has said."
I don’t understand your comment because bike commuting advocates advocate for biking by demanding implementation of solutions to the precise problems you’re talking about.
1) If you have a reasonable bike lane network, you can reach significant distances while biking at a comfortable pace at which point you won’t really have any visible sweat. It actually requires effort to run up a visible sweat while biking (other than where you’re seated).
2) If you have a reasonable bike network, everywhere in a city should be easily accessible via bike no matter where you need to go. It’s far easier and cheaper to build new bike access than new car access. And converting a lane is a matter of signs and a few cones.
3) If a place has a reasonable bike network you can actually use the several hundred dollars a month on gas and car insurance and the depreciated value of your car to probably move in closer to where you work.
4) An average biking speed for a fairly average beginner is something like 13-14 mph. That’s about 20kmh. So your 10km distance is about 30 mins. And you’re military. It’s likely you could go 50-75% faster without breaking a sweat.
5) The discrepancy between men and women (and likely ethnic minorities) is entirely due to a lack of infrastructure. Everywhere there is good bike commuting infrastructure the disparity diminishes. Making biking safe eliminates gender disparities at least.
There are many countries that are doing this successfully. It’s not a unique or novel concept. There may be American cities that are so sprawled out that it doesn’t make sense, but even there there’s value within city downtowns.
And all of the above is for regular normal bicycles. Add ebike and pedal assist to the mix and the argument becomes way stronger.
30 minutes from the gate. Nobody lives beside the gate. We all live in town about another 10km away. I cannot say what my current recall time is, but a 30/60min ride in on a pushbike is unacceptable.
It started snowing today. Soon it will be very cold. Dont see many bikes at -20 with a fresh 10cm covering the bike routes. Snowmobles would be a good not-a-car option. I have seen people come to work on those. They are very dangerous/loud/polluting but at least they dont impinge on bike lanes.
> An average biking speed for a fairly average beginner is something like 13-14 mph [...] And you’re military. It’s likely you could go 50-75% faster without breaking a sweat.
75% faster than 14mph is 24.5 mph.
Not sure I agree someone can go at that speed for 10km without sweating - unless perhaps they're a pro cyclist.
Are these conflicting interests? Better bike infrastructure would mean that those who can bike would be off the road, which would mean less congested streets and highways for those who need to drive.
Commuting is also only one occasion you need transportation for. Many local errands (like grocery shopping) could be done on bike and would be cheaper than using your vehicle.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Where I am bike shops practically ran out of S/M/L bikes in Mountain bikes, road bikes and commuters. Second hand bike market has been insane as well. Most bike shops in my city also hired extra staff just to keep up with demand, and one of the boutique mountain-bike shops near me had to put up signs letting people know that their services are 100% booked out until March next year.
Did bike since the pandemic. When you have large and long bike lanes, it's bliss. City driving by car is horribly inefficient. Now with partial thin bike lanes.. you end up like a car, stopping and starting constantly, low speed.
Traffic is low that's why they opened the whole road instead of just a small space on the sides of it. More space between the bikers means more protection...
I think it's more about public transport. In the UK at least everything would grind to a halt in cities if everybody moved from buses and trains to cars. There just isn't enough capcity so local government are doing whatever they can to avoid that.
Many people cannot afford to drive and cities cannot afford to provide infrastructure for everyone to drive. That means alternative modes of transportation must be available. Traditionally, that has been mass transit. Mass transit is not the most desirable mode of transportation during a pandemic.
They do not. And many of us hope, that they will go away. And i hope, the city can afford to invest in a separate bike infrastructure. Maybe with quicker e-bikes and scooters even.
As a cyclist i am super annoyed by cars. As a pedestrian i am super annoyed by cyclists on the side walk, ignoring all the rules. And as a car user, well, we all know how traffic jams are and how cyclists come out of nowhere. It is all being politicized at the moment.
And in winter only a few hardcore bikers put the effort to dress up to get to the office, which, in corona times, are anyways not the best place to be.
I really dislike how they created those popup bikelanes. And will redirect my vote to parties, which put jobs and recovery first. I rather walk than to support this uncoordinated nonsense. But hey, thats me. :)
> And in winter only a few hardcore bikers put the effort to dress up to get to the office
Fewer people ride in Winter than Summer, but it's not a hardcore thing to do. Berlin is only really cold for 2-3 weeks per year and it doesn't rain much.
Same in US, 26in bikes were (are?) very hard to find since they fit so many people.
On one of our crazier COVID adventures we drove from Atlanta to a suburb of Chattanooga to pickup a bike there that would fit my kid and was of the quality we wanted.
117 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 191 ms ] thread- 3-4 lane boulevards where motorists drive at 60-70km/h and pass close to you;
- giant malls where cars turn into and out of parking lots without paying too much attention;
- lots of right turn only lanes that force you to stay on the middle lane between two lanes of cars (which makes some motorists very angry) or to stay close to the curb and cross with the pedestrians (which forces you to get on the sidewalk, disembark to hit the button and wait 1-2 minutes at _every_ intersection);
- intersections where cars can turn right on a red light;
- motorists not being used to driving around cyclists;
A mode shift towards bikes won't happen in most of the US because most of the US doesn't have viable public transit, and therefore, there's no need for Americans to switch transport modes.
I believe bike use has increased in relation to public transit ridership in greater New York, but this is absolutely the exception to the rule as NYC was (prior to COVID-19) a transit-dependent city.
There's also a big increase in poorly maintained bikes- a squeaking chain is not just wearing itself out faster than usual, but also wearing out expensive drivetrain parts. Lubricate and clean your chains (and WD-40 is not lube)!
Not saying that it _should_ cause them to reconsider, just that it might, and we won't really know until we see what happens in December-January.
The coldest month is January, and by that point, you only see the die-hards. It's not just psychological, but also requires being prepared to deal with the cold, ice, and road salt. For instance I have a dedicated winter bike with studded tires, and a pre-rusted chain. ;-) Oddly enough, the people who are out in the worst weather always seem to have the biggest grins on their faces.
So while I feel smug about being one of the die-hards, I also don't even try to encourage people to ride through the winter until they've at least acclimatized themselves to riding regularly in normal weather.
Part of it is that I'm just addicted to cycling. But I'm also not strong enough to be a competitive cyclist, and don't live in an area with extensive mountain biking. So I have to look for ways to make it more interesting. I also love being outdoors during the winter, so I also go cross country skiing, or just take long walks.
Surely, folks who have engaged in real survival sports would laugh at me, but still, arriving at work on my bike at -20 F feels like I've been on some kind of an adventure. My friends think I'm crazy, but I remind them that regular people go to work, outdoors, in colder temperatures, and they survive. The old saying is: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing."
On the other hand, my spouse has a job where you have to pay extra for parking, so she either rides her bike or takes the bus depending on schedule. Right now during the COVID, the bus service has been cut way back, so it's 100% bike for her. My kids are both college students, and don't have cars, so a bike is their only option.
I can't imagine -20F though! (I have done +46C in the shade and that was quite an experience)
I remember Sydney had some fairly decent cycling routes when I was there. Perhaps not when compared to Copenhagen and Amsterdam, but they always got me from Alexandria to the CBD without riding on the road (this was in 2010).
I'm a bit late to the party, and not the person you asked, but I have bicycled through a few winters in the past. The winter road conditions where I live can be anything from dry and clear to wet to slushy to snowy to icy, and various things in between.
I have to admit that part of the reason was "because I can". As a kid, I was given (or at least somehow got) the impression that bicycling in winter was dangerous, and that it was a summertime activity. Once I realized sometime in my early 20's that that's not how it has to be, I liked to show myself that it could be done. (I fully realize that it can, in fact, be dangerous especially if the infrastructure for cycling isn't supportive or if you don't realize that you have to approach things differently than in dry weather, but I found I was able to do it safely where I live. You just need to keep your wits with you. There's still something nice about knowing that (or if and when) it can be done; it gives a feeling of freedom, and you also become quite mindful of your physical environment while riding.)
A second reason would be that, living in a city with good public transport and decent walking/cycling infrastructure, I've never owned a car. I like it that way, largely due to the ecological costs of private driving. And while public transport is a fine option, there was something nice about riding in crisp air to start the day rather than being stuck in a packed bus or a train. Not being dependent on public transport schedules is a plus, as is the exercise.
Riding in some winter conditions (even snowy or icy) is a lot easier than in others. Plowed or packed snow is fine, as are slightly icy surfaces, as long as the ice is even; studded tires help a lot. Fresh snow that hasn't been plowed, even if it's just an inch or two thick, is a lot harder to ride in unless you have pretty wide tires with good tread, but it becomes possible if you do. Packed and frozen slush are the worst because they're both slippery and uneven. I'd generally not ride (at least with the bike and equipment I had back then) for significant distances if the conditions were like that.
In some sense you could say that grasping the nuances of the conditions could be a hobby in itself.
One of the obvious downsides is that appropriate clothing is more difficult when you have to account for the physical exertion and the cold weather.
Riding is almost inevitably slower than in dry conditions, both because of safety and because any snow makes the riding physically more strenuous. It might easily also became significantly slower than other modes of transportation, and the travel time on longer commutes might become less predictable due to variable conditions, so you might not want to commute by bike for longer distances in snowy/icy conditions unless you're pretty dedicated for some other reason.
I'm also not sure I'd do it in a location where the infrastructure is bad enough to make it seriously risky.
Now I live in the UK and you have to be a true believer to cycle during winter when it's not as cold but it's damp, raining, and dark (with poor public lighting). I walk, which is already a commitment.
One further problem in the UK, in my opinion, is that roads have always been built, and, worse, continue to be built, the absolute narrowest possible. Very often it is already tight for cars, so cycle lanes are out of the question and cycling is very dangerous. Ideally, all new roads (at least urban and in residential areas) should be wide enough in order to include a good size bike lane segregated from cars... Once again, though, there is no long term plan, at best they're just winging it with a quite paint job on the road.
And once you have a car, it's often a lot more convenient than a bike, because you don't end up all sweaty at the end of the day.
[1] https://www.bicycling.com/rides/a20039883/9-ways-to-make-bik...
[2] https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23508352/netherlands-cellpho...
I’m sure roadies dress that way in the Netherlands.
The difference is that US cyclists are mostly roadies because you need to really want to bike to do so, which in the Netherlands roadies are a minority of cyclists because it’s just the normal way to move around.
I'm fortunate that I don't sweat very much, my commute is only 4 miles each way, and I can tailor my schedule around the weather. So I start out early before the sun has cleared the trees, and ride slowly. As a result I'm not particularly sweaty when I arrive at work. Also, I have a casual-dress job with no public interaction.
I live on a street that happens to be a preferred route for cyclists commuting to and from the downtown area. So I see a lot of people on bikes. Most of the commuters are in fact just wearing normal street clothes. I don't even own any cycling-specific clothing.
People in online cycle commuting discussions often have... ideas about speed that don't match mine.
I use "being sweaty" as shorthand for "I don't care if you claim a ??? mile commute should take 10-15 minutes, it takes me 40 minutes, and I'll thank you not to insult me by calling me inexperienced or lazy"
And on anything longer (again, with hills), it's definitely a "damn, I hope I won't start smelling too bad until I get back home".
Also sweat never was an issue for me, when I bike to work I go at commute speed, not exercise levels.
They got bike counters at major routes, but sadly haven't released stats for 2020 yet. Number of bikers have been at a stand still for the last 8 years, looking forward to see the effect of COVID + sponsored ebikes when the new numbers are out.
Mine snapped within the first 9 month of daily driving (1200km), when I bought it first. Now I just replace it every checkup (800km)
That said they might indeed have a heavy-duty chain for all I know.
[1]: https://www.buddybike.no/elsykler/c4/hvit
The front chain ring needs replacing with the chain although I think that is a quirk of the Bosch CX. I can get away with reversing it to extend the life.
I haven't needed to replace the cassette yet.
This is on a well maintained bike, I don't see any difference between summer and winter riding.
https://www.parktool.com/product/chain-wear-indicator-cc-3-2
My e-bike _really_ likes to eat chains. I've had it for 2 years and I'm on my third chain now. I don't do anything fancy, just ride it for 7km on pretty flat bike paths twice a day for around half the working year (so I'd estimate I've done ~2100km on it so far).
There are +-2 countries that I've seen implement bikes seriously - Netherlands and Denmark. Both have more bikes than residents AFAIK. The magic is to have dedicated bike lanes that nobody else uses. You only slow down/stop on intersections with car roads or pedestrian paths, otherwise its all for you, wide enough to overtake slower biker.
Also at intersections, being really quick at acceleration allows you to get out of the danger zone of cars crossing your path before there's a conflict. Think about right-turning trucks starting after a red traffic light.
I think fitness (and maybe reaction time) is some reason why severe cycling accidents seem to happen to older cyclist at a higher rate. In Berlin out of 15 cycling deaths this year, more than half of them are age 60 and higher [1], 3 are beyond 80 years of age.
[1] https://adfc-berlin.de/radverkehr/sicherheit/information-und...
Every time I drive I encounter cyclists. Sometimes I have to drive more slowly than I might want to for a short time, while I’m waiting for a safe opportunity to overtake. Not once, ever, have I found it difficult to avoid the cyclist safely. Anyone who finds this difficult would not be fit to operate a motor vehicle.
There should not be a set of skills to acquire to be on a road with cars. Roads in city centers should be safe enough for children to cycle to school.
For bigger arteries, this is achieved with segregated traffic in bicycle lanes. For smaller roads, this is achieved with sane city centre speed limits and respectful driving. That is the way it is implemented in countries like the Netherlands and they are in no way achieving this with extraordinarily skilled drivers or cyclists.
Your skills on a bicycle should be as basic as keeping safety distances and signaling your intentions. If I am putting 3 tonnes of metal in motion, it is ny duty to not act recklessly. This is the mindset that needs to change (on top of the infrastructure change).
Not to be rude, but is the worst example I've ever seen of arguing against the weakest possible reading of something the comment you are replying to didn't say.
I've raced bikes and been in bike-on-bike crashes at 70km/h, and I've been hit by a car when I was riding at about 20km/h. Give me the bike-on-bike crash any day.
I'm not a huge fan of bike lanes, but OTOH I have to admit I've basically stopped riding most roads after being hit and having constant near misses.
I'm an avid cyclist & ex-motorcyclist. Self preservation & being a courteous road user tops what I might technically be entitled to do.
If there is a dedicated cycle lane and a cyclist disturbs cars traffic (which bikes usually do simply because they tend to go much slower than cars) by insisting on cycling on the road I can understand that drivers do not appreciate it, though it of course does not excuse dangerous maneuvers.
In Germany there used to be a a general obligation to use bike-lanes when present, which was overturned by court, because of the safety argument.
As a cyclist I'm harassed at least once a weak by drivers who think I should use the non-obligatory bike-lane. This makes it very difficult to consciously chose the safer road instead of the (too narrow, too badly lit, too close to foot-traffic, too damaged, full of glass shards) bike-lane.
I think that the solution, as I mentioned in another comment, is to build 'proper' bike lanes instead of painting a 1m wide corridor on the side of the road and calling that a "bike lane". Obviously this usually can only be done when building a new road.
Yeah, for Berlin at least it's a very difficult question trying to find out how to move forward from the current half-assed state of affairs.
There is some sort of new law/policy that defines how proper bike infrastructure should look like [1] defining minimum width and stating that bike-lines should not be put onto foot-walks. However not many actions where performed based on that law which was also drafted in a way that prevents bringing forward proper legal action when not adhered to.
Maybe also something needs to be done WRT driving school, where bike-related issues are not really taught as far as I'm aware of. Most drivers (and maybe most teachers at driving school) still believe that cyclists do not belong onto the road and do not understand how driver behaviour endangers them. Minimum car<->bike overtaking distance (1.5 m) for example is generally ignored by more than half of cars.
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_Mobilit%C3%A4tsgesetz
Berlin just got 15 more of those bikes this year already (which is more than usual, maybe due to corona).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_bike
The solution to that problem is not putting cyclist and cars on the same road, we've tried that and it's worse. The solution is separating bike and car infrastructure so that there are as less as possible crossings between roads and cycling paths.
Nobody wants bad bike lanes. Imagine your bike lane were straight, as wide as a regular road lane and had smooth tarmac. Would you still ride amongst the cars?
Not sure how roads are paid for where you are, but where I live half the cost of roads is funded by gasoline taxes and various other fees on vehicles and drivers.
But money is fungible, meaning it's hard to pin down what money is used for what. A lot of what consumes road funding is the damage to roads caused by heavy trucking. Also, cyclists largely avoid roads that carry a lot of motor vehicle traffic.
No, they’re built to make cycling safer and more comfortable.
We have motorways for cars (or are you suggesting those should be used by cyclists, too? How do people cycle from Barcelona to Toledo, for example?), sidewalks for pedestrians (at least in many parts of the world), why not have dedicated infrastructure for cyclists?
If what you say is true, the Netherlands is doing it wrong with their “Separate where needed, mix where possible” policy (https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/separate-where...)
That may be true, but (IMO) requires more proof than a comment on HN.
For inner city streets that historically is correct, but if you ignore that and just look at the end result, you can describe that equally well as parts of the road set apart for pedestrians.
When you treat cycling as second class, you get bad infrastructure for sure.
Like I said in my other comment. The Netherlands treats bikes as a priority mode of transportation. As such, cyling infrastructure is continously made with comfort and safety in mind.
Hell, cars tend to be inconviencienced in order to provide safer infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.
Long before we started adding bike lanes in my locale, cyclists and motorists tended to choose different routes through town. Motorists chose the main streets, which have higher speed limits but also more congestion. Cyclists usually preferred threading our way along residential streets and isolated bike paths. Bike lanes in areas where there are no ways to avoid the high traffic streets seems to simply accommodate how most cyclists prefer to ride anyway.
In practical terms, avoiding cars means that cars are not part of the safety equation. It's also more pleasant. I'm an experienced urban cyclist, yet I still prefer riding in the absence of cars.
Drivers have always been taught to share the road with cyclists, and there are always a few who don't believe it. I don't think construction of bike lanes changes this very much. I have noticed that during the 20 years I've lived in this town, cycling has gotten more popular, there are more bike lanes, but also, drivers have become more aware and friendly towards cyclists on the regular roads.
There are cyclists on both sides of the debate about bike lanes. And surely, if roads can be designed badly, bike lanes can be too. I've seen pictures of some pretty ridiculous examples.
You should see cyclists nearly running over pedestrians on bike lanes that cyclists believe belong to them. :-)
The key though, is to treat bicycles as a priority, rather than as an afterthought. One important provision in Dutch law is that if a car driver crashes into a cyclist, it is assumed that the car driver has been negligent.
We've also got cycling roads where cars may drive as a "guest". So really slow driving speeds and only short distance until they go back up to the main road again.
The big difference here is that the bike is a priority vehichle here, instead of a nuisance for cars.
Cycling paths/roads aren't just for city infrastructure. It also is a way of providing safe intercity traffic for cyclists. You can cycle between major cities here without having to share the road with any cars.
The ultra-expensive stuff remains more available, though not necessarily service for it. That's the stuff we hardcore roadies buy anyway, but now it's pretty much the only thing sure to be in stock, and even then, far from assured in all cases.
I live in a very bike friendly city, so new infrastructures is not the reason why people bought bikes. I still don't get what convinced people to buy bikes during the pandemic.
I was a mountain biker before the pandemic, but this spring I realized "I'm going to have a LOT of time to mountain bike this summer, so I'll get that $3k bike I've been thinking of getting for years now". I was super lucky to get my hands on one in 2020, and I had to go up to a more expensive $3.5k bike to even find one at all.
Meanwhile,
> "Most people who are cycling used public transport before. But now they need an alternative," Mr Maran says.
Personally, im in the military and on call 24/7. Unless i lived on the base, in barracks, a private vehicle is the only way i can possibly get to work in a reasonable time (the base is 10+km across, and uber isnt allowed past the guards).
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycling-lond...
"Too few women and people from ethnic minority groups cycle in London and more must be done to promote diversity among a largely white, male and middle class biking community, the city’s walking and cycling commissioner has said."
1) If you have a reasonable bike lane network, you can reach significant distances while biking at a comfortable pace at which point you won’t really have any visible sweat. It actually requires effort to run up a visible sweat while biking (other than where you’re seated).
2) If you have a reasonable bike network, everywhere in a city should be easily accessible via bike no matter where you need to go. It’s far easier and cheaper to build new bike access than new car access. And converting a lane is a matter of signs and a few cones.
3) If a place has a reasonable bike network you can actually use the several hundred dollars a month on gas and car insurance and the depreciated value of your car to probably move in closer to where you work.
4) An average biking speed for a fairly average beginner is something like 13-14 mph. That’s about 20kmh. So your 10km distance is about 30 mins. And you’re military. It’s likely you could go 50-75% faster without breaking a sweat.
5) The discrepancy between men and women (and likely ethnic minorities) is entirely due to a lack of infrastructure. Everywhere there is good bike commuting infrastructure the disparity diminishes. Making biking safe eliminates gender disparities at least.
There are many countries that are doing this successfully. It’s not a unique or novel concept. There may be American cities that are so sprawled out that it doesn’t make sense, but even there there’s value within city downtowns.
And all of the above is for regular normal bicycles. Add ebike and pedal assist to the mix and the argument becomes way stronger.
It started snowing today. Soon it will be very cold. Dont see many bikes at -20 with a fresh 10cm covering the bike routes. Snowmobles would be a good not-a-car option. I have seen people come to work on those. They are very dangerous/loud/polluting but at least they dont impinge on bike lanes.
75% faster than 14mph is 24.5 mph.
Not sure I agree someone can go at that speed for 10km without sweating - unless perhaps they're a pro cyclist.
Commuting is also only one occasion you need transportation for. Many local errands (like grocery shopping) could be done on bike and would be cheaper than using your vehicle.
As a cyclist i am super annoyed by cars. As a pedestrian i am super annoyed by cyclists on the side walk, ignoring all the rules. And as a car user, well, we all know how traffic jams are and how cyclists come out of nowhere. It is all being politicized at the moment.
And in winter only a few hardcore bikers put the effort to dress up to get to the office, which, in corona times, are anyways not the best place to be.
I really dislike how they created those popup bikelanes. And will redirect my vote to parties, which put jobs and recovery first. I rather walk than to support this uncoordinated nonsense. But hey, thats me. :)
Fewer people ride in Winter than Summer, but it's not a hardcore thing to do. Berlin is only really cold for 2-3 weeks per year and it doesn't rain much.
Why do you think the popup lanes are nonsense?
It's also meant to encourage biking instead of public transportation, which is what the majority uses to get around.
On one of our crazier COVID adventures we drove from Atlanta to a suburb of Chattanooga to pickup a bike there that would fit my kid and was of the quality we wanted.