Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

What are so quickly forgotten are the class disparities around bikes. Not everyone has a job where they can arrive drenched in perspiration. Not everyone has a place to lock up a bike at work. Not everyone works at a single location for which they can plan a regular commute. Some people are on call 24/7 across wide areas. Many have to carry tools with them. And lots of people are simply too poor to live withing reasonable biking distance of work.

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."

I don’t understand your comment because bike commuting advocates advocate for biking by demanding implementation of solutions to the precise problems you’re talking about.

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.

30 minutes from the gate. Nobody lives beside the gate. We all live in town about another 10km away. I cannot say what my current recall time is, but a 30/60min ride in on a pushbike is unacceptable.

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.

> An average biking speed for a fairly average beginner is something like 13-14 mph [...] And you’re military. It’s likely you could go 50-75% faster without breaking a sweat.

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.

Are these conflicting interests? Better bike infrastructure would mean that those who can bike would be off the road, which would mean less congested streets and highways for those who need to drive.

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.

Well let me assure you it's not the lower classes driving a car in London..

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