> Here lies the danger of arguing from a position of zero knowledge.
> 30 miles is my warm up/recovery distance
That's absurd and you know it. Possibly spoken from someone that doesn't actually cycle, or is greatly exaggerating. You ride 1-2 hours for a warm-up/cool-down? You expect regular people to ride 1-2 hours to work each day?
You expect to maintain 20-30mph pacing with stop signs, street lights, riding on regular city streets? Completely absurd and out of touch with reality. That's insane pacing - that's race pacing.
Most cyclists will do 20-30 miles for an entire ride. Sometimes exceeding that, but certainly not doing 60 miles a day (3-4 hours a day) 5 days a week. That is, unless, you're training for something... which a daily commuter going to an office job isn't.
Not to mention if you're someone doing that kind of mileage, you likely own a bike that costs as much as a car, but is far harder to "park" securely, doesn't work well in the rain, and requires you to carry work clothing, laptops, paperwork, groceries, and more on your back.
> 80% of the US population lives within an urban area.
Source? If you're citing the WaPo article which cites Census data - they're lumping Suburban and Urban together and calling it just Urban - that's super disingenuous.
Most people live in suburban areas. There are certainly dense population areas in true urban areas (SF, NY, Seattle, LA, etc), but that's not 80% of the nation. Not even close.
> I live in the suburbs. When I have an early meeting, I ride to the train station.
You probably work at an area near the train station then - perhaps a Downtown location or similar. What if this commute required multiple trains hops, with distance between the train stations because you're commuting 3 cities over for work each day? Feasible? Sure... but now you've taken an hour long commute and turned it into 3 hours each way. That's not feasible for most people.
This narrative falls flat when faced with actual working circumstances for many people... outside the ideal "just take the train" scenario. What if there's not even a train?