Enables people with mobility issues
Allows people to move about farther than just a few miles or so
Allows people to transport a lot of goods (and/or heavy goods) easily
Doesn’t make you exhausted if you have to go up hills
AIR CONDITIONING/HEATER
Fuck your walkable/bike nightmare “utopia”.
I agree with your points, trains are fucking awesome too.
Someone can probably do the math, but i have a hunch that humans are technically not very fuel efficient if you look at calories burned pr the total mass being moved along.
But whatever it is biking is awesome, but being technically correct is even better.
Quick math shows I am quite a bit more efficient than a Nissan Juke traveling 150 miles at 19mph. About 50kcal/pound for the car and 8kcal/pound for me+bike to travel the distance.
Humans are actually unusually energy efficient for mammals when walking and even more so when cycling. Here’s a little info graphic showing a breakdown.
One thing to keep in mind if you have a dog is they’re less energy efficient than humans. While dogs can run faster, a reasonably fit human can easily out distance an equally fit dog when walking or distance running.
Nice graphic.
But it seems like it doesn’t factor in kg of mass moved. A human and a bike is a lot lighter than a car or a horse. You could also argue that the vehicle weigh should be ignored but then again you could easily argue back that weight of goods move can possibly be a lot higher with a car if you load it up to capacity. Ignore that. I did not see it said 5 riders for the car
“Just leave it anywhere there is a secure structure” - Yes, I see this regularly when I have to maneuver around bikes carelessly “parked” in the middle of the pedestrian walkway…
The one downside is that a lot of people I know have had some nasty accidents and broke a bone or something. Sure, in cars you are also at the risk of kissing a tree at highway speed, but bike accidents feel a lot more common and have a lot less protective metal involved
I’ve known a few people killed in car accidents. I know lots of people who have had bike accidents, but none of them died, and the only ones with serious injuries were when they got hit by a car.
They might be inexpensive where you live. I’ve paid more than half of my paycheck for my bicycle, and it’s one of cheaper ones.
Gift a man a bike, and he will ride for a year. Gift him bolt cutters, and he will ride forever.
Jokes aside, where are you? Here, good new bikes are ridiculously expensive, but if you know where to look and what to look for, used ones are cheap. You don’t even have to deal with a shady dude in a back alley, a lot of municipalities etc. auction off bikes they confiscate, which are often a few hours of work away from being pretty okay
I’m disabled in a way that means I can’t use one, but can use a car, which kinda sucks.
Fortunately bike infrastructure usually helps me in my chair, so I’m all in favor of wider bike adoption.
I don’t know your limitations, but you’d be surprised at the number of ways cycling can be made accessible.
For example, there are handbikes that attach to a wheelchair. As with all assistive tech it depends on your specific situation what is possible.
That blows. Glad the infrastructure helps your chair get around, though. Also, every biker not using a car gives you more space, so that’s an additional plus
Welcome to the Netherlands. If there’s anything that fills me with pride it’s our cycling culture. Most people have a car too, but I don’t, and I do everything by bike and public transport.
Arrive to work soaked in sweat because it’s been 100+ degrees every day for the past 8 weeks.
Well, that is largely caused by cars.
You lose the benefits of it being cheap, but an ebike is a decent solution
Being cheap is the entire benefit. Everything else is just a plus. If you lose the cost it’s not worth it at that point.
But somehow 20k plus for a vehicle with the added maintenance, gas, inspection, and registration is. Gotcha.
I rode one for a while in college.
Didn’t really help with the sweat problem between April and October in Texas. Or was less work than pedaling, but nothing aside from air conditioning helps with the sweat issue in Texas summer heat.
Workplaces that require employees to be presentable then offer locker rooms, showers, and enough reasonable time to get ready to accommodate the fact that everyone who works a service job arrives soaked in sweat.
I used to love to bike but I moved to an area with steep hills and it’s too high effort. Maybe fine for exercise but I always used them for transport and you can’t arrive at work or a music lesson drenched in sweat. Wish they would install those hill lifts some countries have. I walk now. Would love an electric but the expense makes it much more painful when it’s stolen (and every one of my regular bikes has eventually been stolen).
Because there’s no Microcenter in my city.
Cool let me just bike 30 miles to my job and back everyday sounds good
You’d be surprised how much easier that is with a battery and electric motor.
Who the fuck takes a job that far from home?
Maybe you do what you can to survive, fuckwit. Have you thought of that?
Also make sure you get groceries as well, I’m sure a weeks worth you’ll be good to carry back.
Why would you need to buy a weeks worth of groceries? Just buy for 1 or 2 days. Make additional grocery trips as needed.
Yes because everyone loves to go grocery shopping every other day, and with a bike, who cares if you gotta do another 5 miles out of the way.
Where do you live that you are 5 miles from a grocery store? If I ride my bike 5 miles in any direction I will pass half a dozen grocery stores.
I had a quick look at Google Maps and there are at least 50 supermarkets within a 5 mile radius of my home. That radius covers the whole of the city I live in, which has 38 supermarkets, plus a sizable portion of the neighboring city, which has 24, plus a few smaller villages which all have at least one.
I went grocery shopping twice today. Once this morning to pick up some breakfast stuff and another visit in the evening to get some things for dinner. It’s a 3 minute bike ride. A grocery trip takes less than 15 minutes including the time spent in the store. I don’t think it’s possible to live farther than that from a supermarket in this city, I lived 1 minute farther away I would be closer to another supermarket.
if entire cities were designed around these the way they are with cars, everyone would be fine with it
I live in rural Norway up in the mountain side. We have wind, snow, ice and rain like hell, and I have ~150 elevation to get to the main road to get anywhere.
… I’m still considering getting a bike for all the mentioned benefits.
Cold, rain etc… And moving heavy things (like heavy groceries)
But what if i need to commute 600 miles to work and back every day and on top of that once a year I drive a million miles to my vacation home? Checkmate!
Sorry, a car can’t take me across the ocean. From now on, all of my trips will be made by airplane as this is the only vehicle that can cover all of my needs.
I would get another job. :D
Inb4 they just remove regulations so it becomes the vehicle of freedom
