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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

Cycling is rare because Americans live too far away from things to cycle anywhere. I’m about to do some last minute Christmas shopping. It’ll take me 1:10 minutes to get to Target by bus. It’ll take me 8 minutes driving. Cycling would be 18 minutes, but that’s just the first stop. (Also, I’d have to carry a bunch of stuff back on a bike, and it’s very cold and icy outside.) Biking to work or even the closest train station would be a multi-hour trip.

Biking is for childless yuppies and people in third world countries. It’s inconvenient, inflexible, and uncomfortable. We have cars in the first world and they make life immeasurably better. To the extent pollution is a problem, we can and already are addressing those problems with electric vehicles.

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Cycling takes some planning, but so does driving (think parking, maintenance, and fueling). As a cyclist you'd change your habits to consolidate and avoid trips. And for more difficult (and rarer) trips, there's nothing wrong with taking a car.

As for the comfort, I find the short discomfort spent in cold weather is well worth the more long term comfort of being in better shape. But to each their own.

And I'm not convinced that electric vehicles alone will necessarily solve the pollution problem. I find most people are blind to the issues with the chemicals involved in the production of batteries and solar panels, but I'm hopeful those issues will be resolved with future technologies. (Until recently I worked in a lab that does fire safety tests on batteries, though I was not involved in that project. But it became much harder for me to ignore those problems even only on the sidelines.)

Electric personal cars also have exactly the same problems as gasoline cars when it comes to congestion, they are just as deadly to pedestrians, they also spend 98% of their time unused, etc.

You have the option not to do all your errands on 1 day. You choose to live in communities where car travel seems necessary. Your city has failed you by not providing alternatives to driving such as properly maintained bike infrastructure year round.

Does your city provide you with heated bike infrastructure?

A brine solution and snow clearing equipment with brushes does the trick.

To be honest the discomfort from the cold when cycling is not a big deal. Wear appropriate clothing and take off a layer if you get hot.

I've spent multiple summers in Texas cycling and I'd say that was much worse, though still manageable.

If you have frequent winter precipitation that is more of a safety issue. Studded bike tires work well from what I've heard from someone who lives in Minnesota.

I have a dedicated winter bike with studded tires, and dress warm. I don't realistically expect very many people to bike year-round, at least when they're just getting into it. But the bike paths are certainly not empty during the winter in Madison WI.

I agree with the first paragraph, not with the second, specially this:

>Biking is for childless yuppies and people in third world countries

In well maintained cities you have metro everywhere. There are many european places where biking is not only the fastest way to work but the most comfortable. Also, lot's of trains allow you to put you bike in. In my dailly commute I see plenty of people doing just that, biking to train and then to work. A monthly pass that costs 30€ usually it's equivalent of 200€ expenses with cars (tolls and parking and fuel), not to mention the stress of dealing with the chaotic traffic that you can avoid with the train.

Children are not a big factor when your area has transport for children.

Cylcling is very popular in many Western European cities.

Even in Western Europe it’s uncommon. The average German commute is 10 miles: https://www.dw.com/en/record-number-of-germans-commute-to-wo.... 80% of Germans don’t even bike weekly, much less daily.

Indeed, this article suggests that distance is a key factor:

https://peopleforbikes.org/blog/best-kept-secret-dutch-bikin...

Now do Amsterdam

What does "1:10 minutes" mean? Somewhere between one and ten minutes? One minute and ten seconds?

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