I basically have a teensy weak motorcycle that I can “fuel up” at home or bring a spare battery for long rides. I’m bothered the used cars are so expensive, not the bike
I also ain’t looking at $12k frames, (mine was $700) so it’s got that going for it too.
Can this argument just disappear from discourse? People don’t always drive around with their partner, dog and 2.5 kids AND groceries AND spare tires AND grandparents.
The majority of people in car-centric areas use their car only to haul around themselves, which could be done with public transport or bikes.
That, and the nearest grocery store being 15 miles (25 km) away is highly unusual even by US standards. In the US alone, over 80% of people live in what the Census Bureau calls a city, defined as “encompass[ing] at least 2,000 housing units or hav[ing] a population of at least 5,000 people.” The fact that someone chooses to live in bumfuck nowhere shouldn’t mean that the other people who live in a town with population > 5 shouldn’t get to have safe, affordable, well-kept walking/micromobility/public transit infrastructure.
People don’t suddenly stop driving cars when not-cars becomes the predominant form of transportation. Like I said, “main form of transportation”. That cars are by far the main form is the problem because, among other huge problems, it induces reliance on cars and creates expensive, unmaintainable sprawl that makes other forms of transit completely impractical. Hell, even bumfuck nowhere towns used to have passenger rail that came through them before the tracks were ripped out. I think people who worry that good not-car infrastructure will destroy their ability to drive are projecting, because in reality, it’s always been car infrastructure that eats up everything else around it, not vice-versa.
“What do you mean ‘boats shouldn’t be the primary form of transportation’? Did you ever consider that I chose to live on an island off the coast of Michigan??”
Legit. If my wife wants to come on a trip I’m driving on, she can hop on her bike. The two of our bikes together cost a fifth what our car cost, and the “fuel” expenses are negligible with solar.
Honestly thinking of a way to solar recharge the bikes while we’re camping. Like, an umbrella to shade the battery, with a solar panel on top and an extension cord up connect the battery under the damn thing. Maybe solar panels on the bike too and some active cooling for the batteries idk
Oh yes, the grocery store commute. You can clearly see in traffic that every car is full of groceries and people everyday at all times, and is rarely one person alone
Most Americans are used to very spread out cities. It causes a lot of problems with groceries since you have to make far fewer grocery trips, which then means fresh foods are rare. Probably a huge contributor to America’s obesity problem
Yeah many of our cities in statesia have tiny urban centers and sprawling suburbs.
There’s a “town” suburb of a nearby city that has the waterfront zoned for multi-use property. Businesses (including my favorite restaurant ever) are on the first floor, residences on the second. I really want to rent/buy the apartment above my favorite restaurant and eat there every day, but the restaurant owner’s daughter lives there right now. It’s almost ideal for a walkable community
The closest grocery store is literally in the same building I currently live in. It takes me ~30 seconds from my apartment door to grocery store door… This (<3 mins to the nearest grocery store) is the norm in a lot of places.
When I lived in my own house in the woods (literally no neighbors), I could bike ~10 minutes to the nearest small farmer’s shop, or ~20 minutes and get to a bigger grocery store. The fact that you must drive to buy groceries is, frankly, insane.
When I lived in my own house in the woods (literally no neighbors), I could bike ~10 minutes to the nearest small farmer’s shop, or ~20 minutes and get to a bigger grocery store. The fact that you must drive to buy groceries is, frankly, insane.
I live in Russia, dachas are common enough here (mostly summertime and not heated houses on small plots of land, used for gardening and sometimes growing food). So, we have one. When I’m there, I only bike for fun. I can literally walk to the neighboring town with a cinema and a mall and plenty of conveniences in 40 minutes on foot. I mean, people who have cars do drive to that kind of distances, but it’s not necessary. It’s the kind of place where in like 1 in 20 houses people live most of the time. And still.
You know that your family can ride too? In cities which aren’t car-centric hell-holes, it’s normal for kids of very young ages (6-8 years old) to walk/bike everywhere on their own. It also tends to help a lot with their independence and development.
Also, if you build your cities correctly, your grocery store will be a <3 minute walk. Your spouse or kids can just walk there.
And when they are close, you don’t need to hoard 2 weeks or a whole month worth of groceries per trip, you can just get them more frequently and enjoy fresher produce
This is precisely how the real world works, unless you live in under a dictatorship of capital so brazen they have even taken the concept of a livable city away from you.
This is precisely how parts of the real world work, but guess what? There’s a fuck ton of places that are not like that, so why just pretend that isn’t the case?
I mean, this is the premise of the original comment here. That there still are backwards-ass places where people have to own a car and drive, when much better forms of transportation exist.
Step one: leave the family (especially toddlers and infants) at home with a trusted caretaker or dog. Step two, ride about 15mph so you don’t drain the battery too fast. Step three, wake up
Some people are completely unable to understand that not everybody lives in a city with everything on their doorstep, some people have children, and some people need to be able to transport more than a few small items at a time.
Therefore the majority that do live in a city must use cars too?
No one is coming to your rural community to build a bike lane. These discussions are never about the rural folk. Y’all are going to be left alone. Bikes and transit don’t make sense in low-density rural areas
Now please stop fighting the change the rest of us want in our cities
Big city people: Boy, it’d sure be nice if there were fewer cars in the center of this big city right here, and more people would use the public infrastructure already at their disposal.
Country people: Some people don’t live in cities, therefore this statement is also about me! There tryin ta tek muh cur!
I find the opposite to be true. Taking a train is so much more convenient. Don’t have to find a place to park, don’t have to do any work to get there. Just sit down and wait
Bikes are nice because I don’t have to worry about traffic much, and generally parking isn’t an issue
Cars are really inconvenient. You have a gigantic vehicle that you have to navigate around many other vehicles, then find a parking spot, usually not close to where you’re actually going
And you must live within walking distance of a train.
Or they just take a bus? It’s crazy to think about, but not all buses are US and Canadian ones that come every hour and take two hours and five connections to get you to the station.
Also, locking up a bike is comparatively very easy to parking a car. The only reason car parking is often easy in North American cities is because of ridiculous, overinflated parking minimums that subsidize car ownership through free storage for giant metal boxes, blanket the landscape in otherwise-useless asphalt, and vastly increase the distances between locations for the people not using cars (including from, say, your house to the train station).
It’s not because I’m not out there risking my life on a bike trying to commute 40 miles because some idiot on the internet thinks they know everything, that’s for sure.
Do we need better infrastructure? Yes.
Are bikes the solution to everything like some dummies in this thread think? Fuck no.
People in much more extreme climates bike at rates an order of magnitude higher than the US and Canada.
People physiologically adapt to the climates they live in by being outdoors.
North Americans who complain about the cold use the wind chill rather than ambient temperature when that’s not actually the temperature they’re feeling with clothes on that block the wind. They also take the coldest data points and just say “that was the whole winter”.
Poor weather magnifies the US and Canada’s unsafe bike infrastructure. If we had safe, well-maintained bike infrastructure, it would not be nearly as much of a problem (shown by the Nordic countries biking all the time in the snowy dead of winter).
Car infrastructure makes hot weather much worse by creating a heat island.
In extreme weather, you can still delay your trip, take public transit, take a car, etc. Commuting via micromobility isn’t a binary yes/no thing; if you can’t on some days, then don’t.
You know that clothes exist? Like, put on a raincoat, it’s fine.
And look at all these single non-parents trying to tell everyone they should only use a bike…
Your partner can just ride on a second bike. That’s how me and my gf mostly get around. What a concept, I know!
If your kids are younger than 6 yo, they can probably fit in a cart behind your bike. If they are older, they can ride a bike themselves. This is the norm in many places in europe now.
Don’t forget that most of them live in dense urban areas as well, and to say they “look down” on those who don’t would be an absurd understatement.
Like, I moved to a place that is aiming to be an entirely walkable town, but it’s not there yet. The pandemic put a lot of the development on hold and things are finally getting back up to speed now. My closest grocery store was going to be two blocks away, but that was scrapped. There’s one being built that will be 3 miles away, so bike-able when it’s finally fucking opened. Currently, the closest one(s) are ~10 miles away. I work a job that is entirely possible to do remotely, but the execs have forced us all back into the office, ~20 miles away. I drive a hybrid because I can’t afford a full EV right now. My home’s power is nuclear and solar.
Some of the chucklefucks in these comment sections act like I’m personally clear cutting the rainforests because I dare to say that I require a car in my current life situation. Motherfuckers, I’m doing all I personally can. So go sabotage some private jets, or locally campaign for more bike lanes and public transit solutions, and get off my balls.
they “look down” on those who don’t would be an absurd understatement.
These discussions are never about rural areas. No one is going to a rural town and installing bike lanes. No one is suggesting 20 miles of bike lanes go in where you live. It’s always about putting in bike lanes and transit where it makes sense
Some of the chucklefucks in these comment sections act like I’m personally clear cutting the rainforests because I dare to say that I require a car in my current life situation
People are chastising you for arguing people in cities that could easily bike need to drive a car. That’s what you’re doing. People say we should have bikes and transit in cities and you come out arguing against it
Keep driving your car. No one is taking it away from you, no matter where you live. We just want the option to bike or take transit in our communities. We don’t currently have that option because suburban and rural people constantly fight urban transit tooth and nail
These discussions are never about rural areas. No one is going to a rural town and installing[…]
That’s… not what I’m talking about at all in regards to people talking down about people who live outside of urban centers. There are people out here actively calling people maga chuds based entirely on the environment they live in.
People are chastising you for arguing people in cities that could easily bike need to drive a car. That’s what you’re doing.
Oh fuck off, I’ve done no such thing.
You’re only feeding my point and getting all bent up about shit I didn’t say. Thank you for at least explicitly stating the strawman you’ve imagined me to be.
suburban and rural people constantly fight urban transit tooth and nail
Citation fucking needed. How would someone outside one of the cities in question have any influence on those decisions, and more importantly, why in the fuck would they even care?
I personally have the displeasure of knowing plenty of god awful nimbys, and they’re all upper class urbanites worried that their little nest egg(s) in the wealthy parts of my local city will lose value.
Like, I moved to a place that is aiming to be an entirely walkable town, but it’s not there yet. The pandemic put a lot of the development on hold and things are finally getting back up to speed now. My closest grocery store was going to be two blocks away, but that was scrapped. There’s one being built that will be 3 miles away, so bike-able when it’s finally fucking opened.
That sounds like it’s not a walkable town then, not even close. Even my shithole city has multiple grocery stores and cafes on every block, and nobody calls it particularly walkable.
I can’t speak to trains (our rail system is a joke here) but I’ve been having more fun traveling and saving money by using my bike. Since I’m on the ground floor, it’s very convenient.
> setting has bikes and trains
> still using cars as main form of transportation
You do know steam powered locomotives started appearing in the early 19th century, long before than cars?
Cars are much more advanced tech than bikes. Hell we have partly self driving electric cars now. That’s some sci-fi shit
huh, now i want to slap some sensors on my ebike so it can do ACC
That’s why I can’t understand how some bikes can cost as much as a small used car.
And some watches cost far more than both.
Price isn’t always perfectly aligned with complexity or utility 🤷♀️
Yeah, some watches, but you can buy perfectly competent watches for very low prices.
You can’t buy a perfectly competent electric bike for a low price, at least not where I am.
Is that true for used e-bikes, too?
The used market for pretty much anything is shit here in Italy, idk why
Weird. That’s definitely not a problem here in Germany.
I’ve been looking to buy a new router, I can’t understand who’s buying used routers at the price of new ones.
Buying something at the beginning of its usefulness vs the end where it’s practically falling apart and worth only what you can sell its parts for…
I basically have a teensy weak motorcycle that I can “fuel up” at home or bring a spare battery for long rides. I’m bothered the used cars are so expensive, not the bike
I also ain’t looking at $12k frames, (mine was $700) so it’s got that going for it too.
Economies of scale and subsidies
Hold on, let me just load up the family onto my bicycle and ride the 15 miles to the grocery store.
Can this argument just disappear from discourse? People don’t always drive around with their partner, dog and 2.5 kids AND groceries AND spare tires AND grandparents.
The majority of people in car-centric areas use their car only to haul around themselves, which could be done with public transport or bikes.
That, and the nearest grocery store being 15 miles (25 km) away is highly unusual even by US standards. In the US alone, over 80% of people live in what the Census Bureau calls a city, defined as “encompass[ing] at least 2,000 housing units or hav[ing] a population of at least 5,000 people.” The fact that someone chooses to live in bumfuck nowhere shouldn’t mean that the other people who live in a town with population > 5 shouldn’t get to have safe, affordable, well-kept walking/micromobility/public transit infrastructure.
People don’t suddenly stop driving cars when not-cars becomes the predominant form of transportation. Like I said, “main form of transportation”. That cars are by far the main form is the problem because, among other huge problems, it induces reliance on cars and creates expensive, unmaintainable sprawl that makes other forms of transit completely impractical. Hell, even bumfuck nowhere towns used to have passenger rail that came through them before the tracks were ripped out. I think people who worry that good not-car infrastructure will destroy their ability to drive are projecting, because in reality, it’s always been car infrastructure that eats up everything else around it, not vice-versa.
“What do you mean ‘boats shouldn’t be the primary form of transportation’? Did you ever consider that I chose to live on an island off the coast of Michigan??”
True. However “food deserts” do exist in some US cities. Though that’s another consequence of unfettered capitalism.
Im surprised everytime I see a car with more than 2 people, just 1 is the norm
Legit. If my wife wants to come on a trip I’m driving on, she can hop on her bike. The two of our bikes together cost a fifth what our car cost, and the “fuel” expenses are negligible with solar.
Honestly thinking of a way to solar recharge the bikes while we’re camping. Like, an umbrella to shade the battery, with a solar panel on top and an extension cord up connect the battery under the damn thing. Maybe solar panels on the bike too and some active cooling for the batteries idk
Oh yes, the grocery store commute. You can clearly see in traffic that every car is full of groceries and people everyday at all times, and is rarely one person alone
I leave the 8-story building (with an elevator), walk 5-10 minutes (one road crossing with lights), buy groceries, in 30 minutes I’m back home.
Something is wrong with that murrka thing.
Most Americans are used to very spread out cities. It causes a lot of problems with groceries since you have to make far fewer grocery trips, which then means fresh foods are rare. Probably a huge contributor to America’s obesity problem
Yeah many of our cities in statesia have tiny urban centers and sprawling suburbs.
There’s a “town” suburb of a nearby city that has the waterfront zoned for multi-use property. Businesses (including my favorite restaurant ever) are on the first floor, residences on the second. I really want to rent/buy the apartment above my favorite restaurant and eat there every day, but the restaurant owner’s daughter lives there right now. It’s almost ideal for a walkable community
The closest grocery store is literally in the same building I currently live in. It takes me ~30 seconds from my apartment door to grocery store door… This (<3 mins to the nearest grocery store) is the norm in a lot of places.
When I lived in my own house in the woods (literally no neighbors), I could bike ~10 minutes to the nearest small farmer’s shop, or ~20 minutes and get to a bigger grocery store. The fact that you must drive to buy groceries is, frankly, insane.
I live in Russia, dachas are common enough here (mostly summertime and not heated houses on small plots of land, used for gardening and sometimes growing food). So, we have one. When I’m there, I only bike for fun. I can literally walk to the neighboring town with a cinema and a mall and plenty of conveniences in 40 minutes on foot. I mean, people who have cars do drive to that kind of distances, but it’s not necessary. It’s the kind of place where in like 1 in 20 houses people live most of the time. And still.
You know that your family can ride too? In cities which aren’t car-centric hell-holes, it’s normal for kids of very young ages (6-8 years old) to walk/bike everywhere on their own. It also tends to help a lot with their independence and development.
Also, if you build your cities correctly, your grocery store will be a <3 minute walk. Your spouse or kids can just walk there.
And when they are close, you don’t need to hoard 2 weeks or a whole month worth of groceries per trip, you can just get them more frequently and enjoy fresher produce
If, if, if… That’s not how the real world works
I mean, it’s literally already how it works for billions of people.
This is precisely how the real world works, unless you live in under a dictatorship of capital so brazen they have even taken the concept of a livable city away from you.
This is precisely how parts of the real world work, but guess what? There’s a fuck ton of places that are not like that, so why just pretend that isn’t the case?
I mean, this is the premise of the original comment here. That there still are backwards-ass places where people have to own a car and drive, when much better forms of transportation exist.
They didn’t pretend that, they literally just told you exactly why it isn’t the case.
You were the one who said that it isn’t how the world works, when it literally is.
It’s not how the world works though, only select parts. Saying the world works this way implies it does for everyone.
Step one: leave the family (especially toddlers and infants) at home with a trusted caretaker or dog. Step two, ride about 15mph so you don’t drain the battery too fast. Step three, wake up
I’ll be sure to tell my brother (single parent) he can just leave his kid at home with the caretaker he can’t afford
i think you missed step 3
Some people are completely unable to understand that not everybody lives in a city with everything on their doorstep, some people have children, and some people need to be able to transport more than a few small items at a time.
Therefore the majority that do live in a city must use cars too?
No one is coming to your rural community to build a bike lane. These discussions are never about the rural folk. Y’all are going to be left alone. Bikes and transit don’t make sense in low-density rural areas
Now please stop fighting the change the rest of us want in our cities
Big city people: Boy, it’d sure be nice if there were fewer cars in the center of this big city right here, and more people would use the public infrastructure already at their disposal.
Country people: Some people don’t live in cities, therefore this statement is also about me! There tryin ta tek muh cur!
Trains and bikes are much more inconvenient. Though bikes are good for close proximity.
I find the opposite to be true. Taking a train is so much more convenient. Don’t have to find a place to park, don’t have to do any work to get there. Just sit down and wait
Bikes are nice because I don’t have to worry about traffic much, and generally parking isn’t an issue
Cars are really inconvenient. You have a gigantic vehicle that you have to navigate around many other vehicles, then find a parking spot, usually not close to where you’re actually going
Finding a place to park a car is inconvenient, but locking up a bike somewhere isn’t?
And you must live within walking distance of a train.
Or they just take a bus? It’s crazy to think about, but not all buses are US and Canadian ones that come every hour and take two hours and five connections to get you to the station.
Also, locking up a bike is comparatively very easy to parking a car. The only reason car parking is often easy in North American cities is because of ridiculous, overinflated parking minimums that subsidize car ownership through free storage for giant metal boxes, blanket the landscape in otherwise-useless asphalt, and vastly increase the distances between locations for the people not using cars (including from, say, your house to the train station).
There are bikes that have motors, it helps reach further away locations.
Those same vehicles also have a 4-wheel model that’s pretty nice.
Three wheel is lighter and more efficient
Do those motors keep the rain and snow off you?
And look at all these single non-parents trying to tell everyone they should only use a bike…
There are carts you can pull behind your bike that your kids can ride in. Some of them even have up to 4 seats for kids
Also they have fairings for the rider you can buy to be your windshield basically
You haven’t seen American roads, have you? They’re not remotely safe for this shit in most places
Yes, good, and why is that? Keep that thought going.
It’s not because I’m not out there risking my life on a bike trying to commute 40 miles because some idiot on the internet thinks they know everything, that’s for sure.
Do we need better infrastructure? Yes.
Are bikes the solution to everything like some dummies in this thread think? Fuck no.
People in normal countries who have to commute 65 km take the train. Sorry the car lobby has deprived you of that.
Seriously. Last winter here was -25 C. Miserable for bike rides.
Don’t bike that day. Bike the other 364.
Sent to you from the Netherlands where people still cycle in hurricanes.
It’s that way for a good 3 months. At least -10 anyways.
Here is a video about a Finnish city where plenty of people bike with -10 temps: https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU
Thank you, Not Just Bikes, for finally giving us this video when someone pretends that winters are normally -25°C.
Could you summarize I don’t have half an hour right now
thank you!
You know that clothes exist? Like, put on a raincoat, it’s fine.
Your partner can just ride on a second bike. That’s how me and my gf mostly get around. What a concept, I know!
If your kids are younger than 6 yo, they can probably fit in a cart behind your bike. If they are older, they can ride a bike themselves. This is the norm in many places in europe now.
I really want to train my cat to ride in the cart
Don’t forget that most of them live in dense urban areas as well, and to say they “look down” on those who don’t would be an absurd understatement.
Like, I moved to a place that is aiming to be an entirely walkable town, but it’s not there yet. The pandemic put a lot of the development on hold and things are finally getting back up to speed now. My closest grocery store was going to be two blocks away, but that was scrapped. There’s one being built that will be 3 miles away, so bike-able when it’s finally fucking opened. Currently, the closest one(s) are ~10 miles away. I work a job that is entirely possible to do remotely, but the execs have forced us all back into the office, ~20 miles away. I drive a hybrid because I can’t afford a full EV right now. My home’s power is nuclear and solar.
Some of the chucklefucks in these comment sections act like I’m personally clear cutting the rainforests because I dare to say that I require a car in my current life situation. Motherfuckers, I’m doing all I personally can. So go sabotage some private jets, or locally campaign for more bike lanes and public transit solutions, and get off my balls.
These discussions are never about rural areas. No one is going to a rural town and installing bike lanes. No one is suggesting 20 miles of bike lanes go in where you live. It’s always about putting in bike lanes and transit where it makes sense
People are chastising you for arguing people in cities that could easily bike need to drive a car. That’s what you’re doing. People say we should have bikes and transit in cities and you come out arguing against it
Keep driving your car. No one is taking it away from you, no matter where you live. We just want the option to bike or take transit in our communities. We don’t currently have that option because suburban and rural people constantly fight urban transit tooth and nail
That’s… not what I’m talking about at all in regards to people talking down about people who live outside of urban centers. There are people out here actively calling people maga chuds based entirely on the environment they live in.
Oh fuck off, I’ve done no such thing.
You’re only feeding my point and getting all bent up about shit I didn’t say. Thank you for at least explicitly stating the strawman you’ve imagined me to be.
Citation fucking needed. How would someone outside one of the cities in question have any influence on those decisions, and more importantly, why in the fuck would they even care?
I personally have the displeasure of knowing plenty of god awful nimbys, and they’re all upper class urbanites worried that their little nest egg(s) in the wealthy parts of my local city will lose value.
That sounds like it’s not a walkable town then, not even close. Even my shithole city has multiple grocery stores and cafes on every block, and nobody calls it particularly walkable.
I can’t speak to trains (our rail system is a joke here) but I’ve been having more fun traveling and saving money by using my bike. Since I’m on the ground floor, it’s very convenient.