Now, the idea of constraining motor vehicles, that I'm all in favor of, as a sometime cyclist and pedestrian who hates needing to own a car at all. Carless CBDs. Streets bollarded off. Time-of-day restrictions. Mass transit that actually works - yes, yes, yes, and please-for-the-love-of-God.
Argue that motor vehicles should serve where they suit best and not be allowed to pose a hazard otherwise. Don't argue that motor vehicles should cease to exist entirely - they won't, but your audience will.
The argument is against individual motor vehicles at current sizes, because they are simply incompatible with this goal:
> Mass transit that actually works - yes, yes, yes, and please-for-the-love-of-God.
You simply cannot design an environment to where everyone can have their own F150 and still have things be within walking/cycling distance and still have public transit operating at sufficient frequency to make it “work”.
You're already well outside the received precepts of the culture you seek to improve, which means you are necessarily beginning under a cloud of suspicion and doubt. Take it from a gay man old enough to remember the 80s: You help yourself not at all by doing anything to further complicate your delivery of the message.
You've just summed up the entire American ethos, sadly.
> You've just summed up the entire American ethos, sadly.
That summation is just tendentious framing of the concept of tradeoffs. If the situation were changed so "pedestrian[s] or cyclist[s]" don't have to make "concessions" to cars, that could also be framed as and "expression of freedom[...]based in denying freedom to everyone else." And that framing would be less tendentious than the OP's, because in America the pedestrians and cyclists are a vocal minority.
Now electric scooters and eBikes will change the equation a bit, but there are plenty of purists who hate on them too. They seem to feel they're sort of like lite versions of cars.
A more reasonable criticism is the danger to bikes from neeedlessly massive cars and pickup trucks. Or the danger from bike lanes that are not cleared of snow.
It’s not even a safety issue, it’s simply uncomfortable and expensive to get outfitted with appropriate gear. Not everyone lives in San Diego.
That doesn’t mean that robust bicycle infrastructure shouldn’t exist.
The only gear I’ve bought specifically for winter cycling as opposed to the rest of the year are glasses and a headband. I’d probably recommend a balaclava for someone without a beard. I bought fancy biking glasses, but $5 safety glasses would be passable.
Other than that I just wear the clothes fit for wherever I’m going. (Ie jeans, maybe long underwear, a couple layers, and a puffy coat).
The comfort part is subjective and I can’t invalidate your experience of course, but I personally find it at worst comparable to the first five to ten minutes of being in a car on a cold day before the car warms up. And on anything but the coldest days I often find I’m a quite comfortable temperature. Though it’s possible to over/under dress and then be hot or cold during the commute.
Not that people can’t drive in the winter if they want, but it often feels where I am that people just can’t conceive of the idea that biking in winter is a thing anyone would do. But there’s plenty of evidence that some percentage of people will choose to bike in winter if it’s viable (ie there’s good bike infrastructure).
All the other stuff? Shrug
Face it: many people don't want to commute by bike because they have good reasons to believe the ride will be dangerous and maybe even deadly.
Next time you're bicycling down the sidewalk, remember that this is how pedestrians feel about _you_.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE-IMaegzQ [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXzObryNvxk
I've ridden thousands of miles, and the only bit of infrastructure that ever helped was wide shoulders, preferably with a bright white line demarcating.
Yes self centric view that staying alive is preferable to being dead. If only they were more altruistic and gave their lives, more people would like them. But no, their selfish desire to stay alive yet again destroyed everything.
It's not. Bicyclists regularly terrorize pedestrians on sidewalks, even when there are excellent purpose-built bike paths mere meters away. At intersections, they regularly flip back and forth between being "like bicycles" and "like pedestrians", making them dangerously unpredictable. They pound on cars when they feel they should have the right of way (they don't). Even when they are in the bike lane, a quarter of the time they're riding against the flow of traffic. No lights, no reflectors, dressed in black at night. The most bicycle-sympathetic drivers struggle to avoid hitting these knuckleheads.
It's a sad situation.
But that's probably because my area has decent cycling infrastructure, so that means I have a place to cycle without fearing for my life besides the sidewalk.