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Why don't more people ride bikes for commuting?

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Why don't more people ride bikes for commuting?

Old 10-19-22, 07:00 AM
  #101  
pdlamb
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Originally Posted by tFUnK
Does "spouse does not think it's safe" fall under "safety" or "personal factors"?
Personal factor. Unless spouse is trained in statistics and is doing/has done an epidemiological study on how lifespan and quality of life are impacted by commuting by bicycle vs. a controlled population (i.e., sedentary), it's an emotional response by said spouse unrelated to actual safety.
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Old 10-19-22, 07:51 AM
  #102  
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Originally Posted by Daniel4
Unless you make the ultimate decision to go car-free living, some of these expenses will remain even if you cycle or take the bus to work and leave the car at home. And then some people have free parking at work.

When someone asked me how much money I saved by cycling to work instead of driving, I estimated $200 per year. That's because I lived so close so my gas consumption wasn't that high.
OK, I was trying to point out why I should not own a car, not how I save money by not using it. But if you insist: if I ride my bike to work every day instead of take the bus, which is what I would do, I will save over $1000 a year in bus fares.
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Old 10-20-22, 04:21 AM
  #103  
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
Not necessarily. The largest population centers…New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, etc…have had cars grafted into them rather than being built for cars. New York City and Boston, in particular, are constrained by their geography and ...
Indeed, in tight urban centers, that's probably a better description. But the point was that roadways that got put into such places were placed there specifically with cars in mind, NOT with cyclists or horses or pedestrians in mind. Call it "grafting onto" or "built for/around" or whatever, the end result is the same: a network of major throughways that simply aren't conducive (let alone safe) for anything other than motor vehicles. The label applied isn't the issue. The resulting effective requirement for a car is.

(That said, I'm all for taking a bike and becoming just another vehicle in a lane. However, in practice, it ends up just ticking-off the many of the nearby car drivers who falsely imagine a cyclist has "no business" being out there ... to the point of some taking steps to shove the cyclist in the hole. (Have seen it; have had it attempted.) This, on roadways through a dense urban center where the speed's not going above 25mph anyway, hence no particularly inappropriateness exists.

A good example is actual highways going through certain spots, where that highway is quite simply the sole way to get from A to B. Yet, such highways almost always are designed for the car, and most expressly disallow (and criminalize) presence of anything other than cars. When the only way from A to B other than such a highway is via 10+ miles on dirt trails and paths over yonder, and when that primary throughway criminalizes access to anything but cars, it's hard to not see it for what it is.

Am simply saying that, at least in the U.S., it's the extremely rare city that has a good percentage of its major throughways being designed for safe transit of occupants other than cars. Some do. And that's great. Lucky folks who live there. The rest of folks across the nation have to suffer with less, far fewer options, a vastly increased number of dangerous choices (due to not being designed to consider bikes and other small vehicles as valid).

It's the rare town (let alone city) that has a great portion (let alone all) of its key throughways crafted to be at least accommodating for all modes of travel. I hope we get there, at least in newer towns and cities. Though, somehow I doubt it'll happen. At least so long as the culture is vehicle-centric in its design, layout, distances between spots where the only viable means of transport in any reasonable amount of time is a car.

Would love to see a set of rings and spokes with a light-rail system, something along the lines of, say, Disneyland's monorail system. With cars large enough, designed that way, to accommodate wheelchairs, bicycles. Imagine a large town five miles in diameter that had three or four rings (or loops) of a rail circumnavigating the town. Round and round. And one could easily exit at the next stop to get onto a rail car at a "spoke" stop, to head into or away from the town's center. Make it so a person wouldn't have to walk more than a half mile or so from a stop to the destination. Then it'd be simple for someone who's not in a car to quickly make a transit from A to B, even if that destination were on the opposite side of the town or city. Point being, it's so rare that today's layouts are hard to show as being for anything other than cars.

MUPs and unpaved trail networks are fabulous. But they don't exist in a majority of cities. Not in sufficient numbers or directions to obviate the need for a car or bus. Lucky, if a person does happen to live in such a spot and there are sufficient number of such pathways to support a great portion of the town or city being rapidly accessible without cars or bus.

Anyway. More-accommodating future roadway design and implementation would be nice. Everywhere a "major" throughway gets placed. Designed from the outset without just cars/buses in mind, designed with explicit, well-considered elements that make non-car presence safe and practicable. If only.

Myself, I live in a spot near a major urban area where most spots in the city cannot be easily reached via bicycle. No matter that a number of throughways are somewhat accommodating, and a paltry few roadways have actual separated, painted lane lines for cyclists and non-cars. There simply aren't good networks of MUPs, trails, and other paths, nor is it easy to hop from street to street as a cyclist, since within three or four miles there's a highway or dense zone blocking easy transit. A vehicle trip that takes me ~20mins currently is one that'd take me many hours on a bike. Few bike lanes, no purpose-designed bike-accommodating main streets, and no network or MUPs/paths/trails between many of the spots I'm thinking of. I suspect many people across the U.S. are faced with much the same thing, with the town or city not having been designed with non-car transit at least considered. We're left with non-car access being grafted onto landscapes, and very little of that done.

Would love to have been a fly on the wall of city "planning" meetings in the past 75 years for each of the U.S.'s major twenty cities, listening to exactly what was said about how a road or network or roads should be designed. I suspect that non-car transit modes got the short end of the stick after fairly little discussion, in most cases, whether due to claims of being "too costly" or "not enough usage to justify" or whatever.
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Old 10-21-22, 05:59 AM
  #104  
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Circadian Rhythms. I naturally sleep too late in the morning to get out the door on time to cycle. Occasionally I do and on those days I ride. I have been working on that goal (getting up and organized earlier) and the goal of becoming a stronger cyclist (reducing the time I need to commute. On the one end I am now 15 min away from CONSISTENTLY hitting goal and on the other I have shaved 2 min off m time.
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Old 10-21-22, 06:15 AM
  #105  
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I work in NYC and i see tons if people commuting via bike but the problem is its so dangerous with the volume of cars on the road. Also you cant just leave your bike locked just any old place..theifs know what bikes are expensive and theyll cut the lock to steal it 😡

Was in Munich, Germany recently and they lvoe their bikes..but youll also notice bike racks at every transit hub which makes it easy for people to commute via bike..i think this has a lot to do with it. If it was easier more people would do it
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Old 10-21-22, 03:34 PM
  #106  
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Because 68% of Americans are overweight. Nation of piggies.
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Old 10-23-22, 08:48 AM
  #107  
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Mostly because people live in fear. I ride motorcycles, motorscooters, and bicycles. Everyone tells me I'm nuts or how many bad drivers they're. I ask those same people are you a bad driver and they say no. I've been rear ended once on my motorcycle and I've been carless since 2005. Weak minds, too much TV. When you ride a bicycle for awhile you get the endorphin rush, you feel great everyday and have time with nature. You also don't get sick as much. People like being on the Automobile debt cycle of car payments, maintenance, and being broke. The safest form a transportation in commuting is the bus and rail.
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Old 10-23-22, 09:37 AM
  #108  
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I've always been impressed by bike messengers. I've read that 2-3 get killed per year in the US. That seems either incorrect or just plain wrong statistically.
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Old 10-23-22, 03:45 PM
  #109  
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Originally Posted by alloo
.... Everyone tells me I'm nuts or how many bad drivers they're. I ask those same people are you a bad driver and they say no. . ..
Expedia Road Rage Report 2015

"Nearly all Americans (97%) rate themselves as “careful” drivers, but feel that only 29% of fellow drivers merit the description."
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Old 10-23-22, 03:47 PM
  #110  
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Originally Posted by Chuck Naill
I've always been impressed by bike messengers. I've read that 2-3 get killed per year in the US. That seems either incorrect or just plain wrong statistically.

That's a really good statistic.

The number of cycle deaths in Toronto each year is between 1 and 4.
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