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Comment by Grustaf | Hacker News Reader

> Nearly half of all journeys to school and work in Copenhagen take place on bicycles. And people like it that way.

Why wouldn’t they like it that way?

Not too long ago the streets of Beijing and Saigon were the same, but people didn't like it that way and moved first to motorbikes and then cars as soon as they could.

Ah, maybe from the point of view of Americans and people from poor countries people bike because they have to, but in Europe it’s mostly because it’s convenient, healthy and pleasant.

We might also want to look at climate differences between locations. Denmark and Netherlands have a rather enjoyable e with regards to biking. Other places less so. The other factors are possibly geography and the pure size of the location.

On the other hand: https://www.boredpanda.com/students-bicycle-school-winter-sn...

No, Northern Europe most certainly doesn’t have a climate that promotes bicycling. Denmark and Holland are flat, that is true, but so is LA. But SF is not, neither is Portland really, nor do they have very nice weather, and those cities have more far bikes, so I don’t think it’s mostly about geographical factors.

Step back: What would you deem to be good climate for cycling?

When bicycling I prefer when it doesn't rain ice cold rain almost everyday from October to March, and when it's not windy every single day (though as a kitesurfer I don't complain about THAT).

It's also not ideal when the sun both rises and sets while you're at work, so you have to bike in the dark everyday for three months. But that's strictly speaking not about climate...

And that's Copenhagen. Stockholm is worse in every possible way, darker, colder (OK, it's not as windy) and few bike lanes. Still, more people bike there than in LA or Miami.

In developing countries, cars are status symbols. Once everybody can afford one, that stops being the case.

Yeah exactly. The funny thing is that the US still has that developing country mindset about cars and other creature comforts. I wonder why that is.

Because we have fought hard to leave the manual labour of the past.

The death, poverty, rape, famine, violence, sadness, intolerance it brings.

So to have manual labour used for half of all journeys and be consider good is a surprise.

I really don't find this a hard thing to understand?

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