Pandemic sparked European cycling revolution
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
They got bike counters at major routes, but sadly haven't released stats for 2020 yet. Number of bikers have been at a stand still for the last 8 years, looking forward to see the effect of COVID + sponsored ebikes when the new numbers are out.
Mine snapped within the first 9 month of daily driving (1200km), when I bought it first. Now I just replace it every checkup (800km)
That said they might indeed have a heavy-duty chain for all I know.
The front chain ring needs replacing with the chain although I think that is a quirk of the Bosch CX. I can get away with reversing it to extend the life.
I haven't needed to replace the cassette yet.
This is on a well maintained bike, I don't see any difference between summer and winter riding.
https://www.parktool.com/product/chain-wear-indicator-cc-3-2
My e-bike _really_ likes to eat chains. I've had it for 2 years and I'm on my third chain now. I don't do anything fancy, just ride it for 7km on pretty flat bike paths twice a day for around half the working year (so I'd estimate I've done ~2100km on it so far).
There's also a big increase in poorly maintained bikes- a squeaking chain is not just wearing itself out faster than usual, but also wearing out expensive drivetrain parts. Lubricate and clean your chains (and WD-40 is not lube)!
The ultra-expensive stuff remains more available, though not necessarily service for it. That's the stuff we hardcore roadies buy anyway, but now it's pretty much the only thing sure to be in stock, and even then, far from assured in all cases.
As a cyclist i am super annoyed by cars. As a pedestrian i am super annoyed by cyclists on the side walk, ignoring all the rules. And as a car user, well, we all know how traffic jams are and how cyclists come out of nowhere. It is all being politicized at the moment.
And in winter only a few hardcore bikers put the effort to dress up to get to the office, which, in corona times, are anyways not the best place to be.
I really dislike how they created those popup bikelanes. And will redirect my vote to parties, which put jobs and recovery first. I rather walk than to support this uncoordinated nonsense. But hey, thats me. :)
Fewer people ride in Winter than Summer, but it's not a hardcore thing to do. Berlin is only really cold for 2-3 weeks per year and it doesn't rain much.
Why do you think the popup lanes are nonsense?
It's also meant to encourage biking instead of public transportation, which is what the majority uses to get around.
I live in a very bike friendly city, so new infrastructures is not the reason why people bought bikes. I still don't get what convinced people to buy bikes during the pandemic.
I was a mountain biker before the pandemic, but this spring I realized "I'm going to have a LOT of time to mountain bike this summer, so I'll get that $3k bike I've been thinking of getting for years now". I was super lucky to get my hands on one in 2020, and I had to go up to a more expensive $3.5k bike to even find one at all.
Meanwhile,
> "Most people who are cycling used public transport before. But now they need an alternative," Mr Maran says.
On one of our crazier COVID adventures we drove from Atlanta to a suburb of Chattanooga to pickup a bike there that would fit my kid and was of the quality we wanted.
Not saying that it _should_ cause them to reconsider, just that it might, and we won't really know until we see what happens in December-January.
The coldest month is January, and by that point, you only see the die-hards. It's not just psychological, but also requires being prepared to deal with the cold, ice, and road salt. For instance I have a dedicated winter bike with studded tires, and a pre-rusted chain. ;-) Oddly enough, the people who are out in the worst weather always seem to have the biggest grins on their faces.
So while I feel smug about being one of the die-hards, I also don't even try to encourage people to ride through the winter until they've at least acclimatized themselves to riding regularly in normal weather.
Part of it is that I'm just addicted to cycling. But I'm also not strong enough to be a competitive cyclist, and don't live in an area with extensive mountain biking. So I have to look for ways to make it more interesting. I also love being outdoors during the winter, so I also go cross country skiing, or just take long walks.
Surely, folks who have engaged in real survival sports would laugh at me, but still, arriving at work on my bike at -20 F feels like I've been on some kind of an adventure. My friends think I'm crazy, but I remind them that regular people go to work, outdoors, in colder temperatures, and they survive. The old saying is: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing."
On the other hand, my spouse has a job where you have to pay extra for parking, so she either rides her bike or takes the bus depending on schedule. Right now during the COVID, the bus service has been cut way back, so it's 100% bike for her. My kids are both college students, and don't have cars, so a bike is their only option.
I can't imagine -20F though! (I have done +46C in the shade and that was quite an experience)
I remember Sydney had some fairly decent cycling routes when I was there. Perhaps not when compared to Copenhagen and Amsterdam, but they always got me from Alexandria to the CBD without riding on the road (this was in 2010).
I'm a bit late to the party, and not the person you asked, but I have bicycled through a few winters in the past. The winter road conditions where I live can be anything from dry and clear to wet to slushy to snowy to icy, and various things in between.
I have to admit that part of the reason was "because I can". As a kid, I was given (or at least somehow got) the impression that bicycling in winter was dangerous, and that it was a summertime activity. Once I realized sometime in my early 20's that that's not how it has to be, I liked to show myself that it could be done. (I fully realize that it can, in fact, be dangerous especially if the infrastructure for cycling isn't supportive or if you don't realize that you have to approach things differently than in dry weather, but I found I was able to do it safely where I live. You just need to keep your wits with you. There's still something nice about knowing that (or if and when) it can be done; it gives a feeling of freedom, and you also become quite mindful of your physical environment while riding.)
A second reason would be that, living in a city with good public transport and decent walking/cycling infrastructure, I've never owned a car. I like it that way, largely due to the ecological costs of private driving. And while public transport is a fine option, there was something nice about riding in crisp air to start the day rather than being stuck in a packed bus or a train. Not being dependent on public transport schedules is a plus, as is the exercise.
Riding in some winter conditions (even snowy or icy) is a lot easier than in others. Plowed or packed snow is fine, as are slightly icy surfaces, as long as the ice is even; studded tires help a lot. Fresh snow that hasn't been plowed, even if it's just an inch or two thick, is a lot harder to ride in unless you have pretty wide tires with good tread, but it becomes possible if you do. Packed and frozen slush are the worst because they're both slippery and uneven. I'd generally not ride (at least with the bike and equipment I had back then) for significant distances if the conditions were like that.
In some sense you could say that grasping the nuances of the conditions could be a hobby in itself.
One of the obvious downsides is that appropriate clothing is more difficult when you have to account for the physical exertion and the cold weather.
Riding is almost inevitably slower than in dry conditions, both because of safety and because any snow makes the riding physically more strenuous. It might easily also became significantly slower than other modes of transportation, and the travel time on longer commutes might become less predictable due to variable conditions, so you might not want to commute by bike for longer distances in snowy/icy conditions unless you're pretty dedicated for some other reason.
I'm also not sure I'd do it in a location where the infrastructure is bad enough to make it seriously risky.
Now I live in the UK and you have to be a true believer to cycle during winter when it's not as cold but it's damp, raining, and dark (with poor public lighting). I walk, which is already a commitment.
One further problem in the UK, in my opinion, is that roads have always been built, and, worse, continue to be built, the absolute narrowest possible. Very often it is already tight for cars, so cycle lanes are out of the question and cycling is very dangerous. Ideally, all new roads (at least urban and in residential areas) should be wide enough in order to include a good size bike lane segregated from cars... Once again, though, there is no long term plan, at best they're just winging it with a quite paint job on the road.
And once you have a car, it's often a lot more convenient than a bike, because you don't end up all sweaty at the end of the day.
[1] https://www.bicycling.com/rides/a20039883/9-ways-to-make-bik...
[2] https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23508352/netherlands-cellpho...
I’m sure roadies dress that way in the Netherlands.
The difference is that US cyclists are mostly roadies because you need to really want to bike to do so, which in the Netherlands roadies are a minority of cyclists because it’s just the normal way to move around.
I'm fortunate that I don't sweat very much, my commute is only 4 miles each way, and I can tailor my schedule around the weather. So I start out early before the sun has cleared the trees, and ride slowly. As a result I'm not particularly sweaty when I arrive at work. Also, I have a casual-dress job with no public interaction.
I live on a street that happens to be a preferred route for cyclists commuting to and from the downtown area. So I see a lot of people on bikes. Most of the commuters are in fact just wearing normal street clothes. I don't even own any cycling-specific clothing.
People in online cycle commuting discussions often have... ideas about speed that don't match mine.
I use "being sweaty" as shorthand for "I don't care if you claim a ??? mile commute should take 10-15 minutes, it takes me 40 minutes, and I'll thank you not to insult me by calling me inexperienced or lazy"
And on anything longer (again, with hills), it's definitely a "damn, I hope I won't start smelling too bad until I get back home".
Also sweat never was an issue for me, when I bike to work I go at commute speed, not exercise levels.
- 3-4 lane boulevards where motorists drive at 60-70km/h and pass close to you;
- giant malls where cars turn into and out of parking lots without paying too much attention;
- lots of right turn only lanes that force you to stay on the middle lane between two lanes of cars (which makes some motorists very angry) or to stay close to the curb and cross with the pedestrians (which forces you to get on the sidewalk, disembark to hit the button and wait 1-2 minutes at _every_ intersection);
- intersections where cars can turn right on a red light;
- motorists not being used to driving around cyclists;
A mode shift towards bikes won't happen in most of the US because most of the US doesn't have viable public transit, and therefore, there's no need for Americans to switch transport modes.
I believe bike use has increased in relation to public transit ridership in greater New York, but this is absolutely the exception to the rule as NYC was (prior to COVID-19) a transit-dependent city.
There are +-2 countries that I've seen implement bikes seriously - Netherlands and Denmark. Both have more bikes than residents AFAIK. The magic is to have dedicated bike lanes that nobody else uses. You only slow down/stop on intersections with car roads or pedestrian paths, otherwise its all for you, wide enough to overtake slower biker.
Also at intersections, being really quick at acceleration allows you to get out of the danger zone of cars crossing your path before there's a conflict. Think about right-turning trucks starting after a red traffic light.
I think fitness (and maybe reaction time) is some reason why severe cycling accidents seem to happen to older cyclist at a higher rate. In Berlin out of 15 cycling deaths this year, more than half of them are age 60 and higher [1], 3 are beyond 80 years of age.
[1] https://adfc-berlin.de/radverkehr/sicherheit/information-und...
Every time I drive I encounter cyclists. Sometimes I have to drive more slowly than I might want to for a short time, while I’m waiting for a safe opportunity to overtake. Not once, ever, have I found it difficult to avoid the cyclist safely. Anyone who finds this difficult would not be fit to operate a motor vehicle.
There should not be a set of skills to acquire to be on a road with cars. Roads in city centers should be safe enough for children to cycle to school.
For bigger arteries, this is achieved with segregated traffic in bicycle lanes. For smaller roads, this is achieved with sane city centre speed limits and respectful driving. That is the way it is implemented in countries like the Netherlands and they are in no way achieving this with extraordinarily skilled drivers or cyclists.
Your skills on a bicycle should be as basic as keeping safety distances and signaling your intentions. If I am putting 3 tonnes of metal in motion, it is ny duty to not act recklessly. This is the mindset that needs to change (on top of the infrastructure change).
Not to be rude, but is the worst example I've ever seen of arguing against the weakest possible reading of something the comment you are replying to didn't say.
I've raced bikes and been in bike-on-bike crashes at 70km/h, and I've been hit by a car when I was riding at about 20km/h. Give me the bike-on-bike crash any day.
I'm not a huge fan of bike lanes, but OTOH I have to admit I've basically stopped riding most roads after being hit and having constant near misses.
I'm an avid cyclist & ex-motorcyclist. Self preservation & being a courteous road user tops what I might technically be entitled to do.
If there is a dedicated cycle lane and a cyclist disturbs cars traffic (which bikes usually do simply because they tend to go much slower than cars) by insisting on cycling on the road I can understand that drivers do not appreciate it, though it of course does not excuse dangerous maneuvers.
In Germany there used to be a a general obligation to use bike-lanes when present, which was overturned by court, because of the safety argument.
As a cyclist I'm harassed at least once a weak by drivers who think I should use the non-obligatory bike-lane. This makes it very difficult to consciously chose the safer road instead of the (too narrow, too badly lit, too close to foot-traffic, too damaged, full of glass shards) bike-lane.
I think that the solution, as I mentioned in another comment, is to build 'proper' bike lanes instead of painting a 1m wide corridor on the side of the road and calling that a "bike lane". Obviously this usually can only be done when building a new road.
Yeah, for Berlin at least it's a very difficult question trying to find out how to move forward from the current half-assed state of affairs.
There is some sort of new law/policy that defines how proper bike infrastructure should look like [1] defining minimum width and stating that bike-lines should not be put onto foot-walks. However not many actions where performed based on that law which was also drafted in a way that prevents bringing forward proper legal action when not adhered to.
Maybe also something needs to be done WRT driving school, where bike-related issues are not really taught as far as I'm aware of. Most drivers (and maybe most teachers at driving school) still believe that cyclists do not belong onto the road and do not understand how driver behaviour endangers them. Minimum car<->bike overtaking distance (1.5 m) for example is generally ignored by more than half of cars.
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_Mobilit%C3%A4tsgesetz
Berlin just got 15 more of those bikes this year already (which is more than usual, maybe due to corona).
The solution to that problem is not putting cyclist and cars on the same road, we've tried that and it's worse. The solution is separating bike and car infrastructure so that there are as less as possible crossings between roads and cycling paths.
Nobody wants bad bike lanes. Imagine your bike lane were straight, as wide as a regular road lane and had smooth tarmac. Would you still ride amongst the cars?
Not sure how roads are paid for where you are, but where I live half the cost of roads is funded by gasoline taxes and various other fees on vehicles and drivers.
But money is fungible, meaning it's hard to pin down what money is used for what. A lot of what consumes road funding is the damage to roads caused by heavy trucking. Also, cyclists largely avoid roads that carry a lot of motor vehicle traffic.
No, they’re built to make cycling safer and more comfortable.
We have motorways for cars (or are you suggesting those should be used by cyclists, too? How do people cycle from Barcelona to Toledo, for example?), sidewalks for pedestrians (at least in many parts of the world), why not have dedicated infrastructure for cyclists?
If what you say is true, the Netherlands is doing it wrong with their “Separate where needed, mix where possible” policy (https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/separate-where...)
That may be true, but (IMO) requires more proof than a comment on HN.
For inner city streets that historically is correct, but if you ignore that and just look at the end result, you can describe that equally well as parts of the road set apart for pedestrians.
When you treat cycling as second class, you get bad infrastructure for sure.
Like I said in my other comment. The Netherlands treats bikes as a priority mode of transportation. As such, cyling infrastructure is continously made with comfort and safety in mind.
Hell, cars tend to be inconviencienced in order to provide safer infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.
Long before we started adding bike lanes in my locale, cyclists and motorists tended to choose different routes through town. Motorists chose the main streets, which have higher speed limits but also more congestion. Cyclists usually preferred threading our way along residential streets and isolated bike paths. Bike lanes in areas where there are no ways to avoid the high traffic streets seems to simply accommodate how most cyclists prefer to ride anyway.
In practical terms, avoiding cars means that cars are not part of the safety equation. It's also more pleasant. I'm an experienced urban cyclist, yet I still prefer riding in the absence of cars.
Drivers have always been taught to share the road with cyclists, and there are always a few who don't believe it. I don't think construction of bike lanes changes this very much. I have noticed that during the 20 years I've lived in this town, cycling has gotten more popular, there are more bike lanes, but also, drivers have become more aware and friendly towards cyclists on the regular roads.
There are cyclists on both sides of the debate about bike lanes. And surely, if roads can be designed badly, bike lanes can be too. I've seen pictures of some pretty ridiculous examples.
The key though, is to treat bicycles as a priority, rather than as an afterthought. One important provision in Dutch law is that if a car driver crashes into a cyclist, it is assumed that the car driver has been negligent.
We've also got cycling roads where cars may drive as a "guest". So really slow driving speeds and only short distance until they go back up to the main road again.
The big difference here is that the bike is a priority vehichle here, instead of a nuisance for cars.
Cycling paths/roads aren't just for city infrastructure. It also is a way of providing safe intercity traffic for cyclists. You can cycle between major cities here without having to share the road with any cars.
Personally, im in the military and on call 24/7. Unless i lived on the base, in barracks, a private vehicle is the only way i can possibly get to work in a reasonable time (the base is 10+km across, and uber isnt allowed past the guards).
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycling-lond...
"Too few women and people from ethnic minority groups cycle in London and more must be done to promote diversity among a largely white, male and middle class biking community, the city’s walking and cycling commissioner has said."
1) If you have a reasonable bike lane network, you can reach significant distances while biking at a comfortable pace at which point you won’t really have any visible sweat. It actually requires effort to run up a visible sweat while biking (other than where you’re seated).
2) If you have a reasonable bike network, everywhere in a city should be easily accessible via bike no matter where you need to go. It’s far easier and cheaper to build new bike access than new car access. And converting a lane is a matter of signs and a few cones.
3) If a place has a reasonable bike network you can actually use the several hundred dollars a month on gas and car insurance and the depreciated value of your car to probably move in closer to where you work.
4) An average biking speed for a fairly average beginner is something like 13-14 mph. That’s about 20kmh. So your 10km distance is about 30 mins. And you’re military. It’s likely you could go 50-75% faster without breaking a sweat.
5) The discrepancy between men and women (and likely ethnic minorities) is entirely due to a lack of infrastructure. Everywhere there is good bike commuting infrastructure the disparity diminishes. Making biking safe eliminates gender disparities at least.
There are many countries that are doing this successfully. It’s not a unique or novel concept. There may be American cities that are so sprawled out that it doesn’t make sense, but even there there’s value within city downtowns.
And all of the above is for regular normal bicycles. Add ebike and pedal assist to the mix and the argument becomes way stronger.
It started snowing today. Soon it will be very cold. Dont see many bikes at -20 with a fresh 10cm covering the bike routes. Snowmobles would be a good not-a-car option. I have seen people come to work on those. They are very dangerous/loud/polluting but at least they dont impinge on bike lanes.
75% faster than 14mph is 24.5 mph.
Not sure I agree someone can go at that speed for 10km without sweating - unless perhaps they're a pro cyclist.
Commuting is also only one occasion you need transportation for. Many local errands (like grocery shopping) could be done on bike and would be cheaper than using your vehicle.