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> Bike riders forget that a large percentage of the population can't safely operate a bicycle in all weather conditions.

1. What percentage?

2. I feel like we don't need to worry about that until bike use is on track to well over 50%.

You don't want to worry about people who can't ride bikes until more people ride bikes?

Not everyone can walk, for one thing. What percentage? I dunno. Should we ask the ADA to stop pestering us about those damn people who keep complaining about not being able to go up stairs?

There's a lot of overweight people in this country. Over 40% are obese. Should we just not give a shit if they can get around? Again, it seems that, unfortunately, the government actually does care, a bit.

There's the elderly. Your grandma may be racing around town in her 90s, but my grandma cannot use a bike.

And there's families / single mothers who don't have child care and can't go run errands without bringing their kids with them. There are bike-things that sort of work for bringing kids on bikes, but many find it dangerous, they're expensive, bulky, and just not convenient when you need to also bring home groceries.

These are real people with real problems that should be considered when we're building the future of cities.

Those are not significant problems in an environment that encourages merely 50% bike use. They should be "considered", but avoiding harm to those people is something that would require minimal impact to the plans at that stage.

So I stand by not worrying about it at this point.

"Don't worry until we're on track to 50%" and "Don't worry ever" are very different suggestions.

I’m a former Mormon missionary who rode a bike in very snowy, rural areas of northern Hokkaido, Japan in the dead of winter. Snow really doesn’t pose much of an issue for biking. People assume it’s a non-starter but it’s very feasible.

"vehicles people can sit inside of, that can carry things, in the rain, sleet, snow" sounds ~= cars to me.

Could small, electric cars fit this problem?

There are ebikes with three or four wheels and enclosed to protect from the elements. Examples are the Organic Transit ELF and the BetterBikes PEBL.

Yeah in my Michigan city we deal with sleet and snow every day for 4 months.

You also bring up other valid concerns. Where are people supposed to park their bikes for work, or going into a grocery store? We have a big enough problem with regular manual powered bicycles getting stolen, what makes you think an e-bike that is 2-5x more expensive is going to be more secure?

Well in a place with shitty infrastructure you lock it to a pole. In a better place, there will be a bike rack which is 100x cheaper than a car parking spot.

"Why Canadians Can't Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU

I used to live in a village of rural 4000 people and somehow that village managed to clear the snow in a timely matter. But I guess huge cities are unable to do so.

> Where are people supposed to park their bikes for work, or going into a grocery store?

You are joking right? American cities are full of car parking. Like literally absurdly full, to a point where most American cities are like 30% parking. Removing a single car parking space allows like 20 bikes. And even without that, finding 1 parking space worth of space to put up bikes isn't really much of an issue.

If any fucking place in the world shouldn't ask 'where will people park' its the US.

> most American cities are like 30% parking

IIRC it's more like 5% surface parking lots, and 20% if you include street parking.

Beyond that there are also lots of parking garages in many cities that you also need to count. And some underground parking as well, just in case there wasn't enough parking.

This also implies that there are lots of cities are far higher then 20%.

And if you add street lanes (usually far, far to much) you have an absurdly absurd amount of space where you can put bike-lanes.

Again, beyond a few very old cities, US cities can all easily accommodate waste bike lanes.

I agree, there's plenty of room for bike lanes. I've no interest in commuting by bike myself, but I 1000% support plenty of bike lanes and they need to be physically separated from the car lane. For everyone's sanity.

Me too. I dislike biking, I prefer walking and for longer distances public transit. But if I lived in Netherlands I would still use my bike quite a bit.

But as a society biking is just a no-brainer any way you look at it.

2 parking spots is space for like what 20 bikes?

In theory, yes, but it doesn't do you any good if no one's installed bike racks near your destination. I live in a pretty bike friendly suburb but I still have to drive to a destination and scope out the bike parking situation before I'll bike instead of drive

> scope out the bike parking situation before I'll bike instead of drive

Yet another thing to consider when I theorize rather than practice riding a bike in the city instead of driving.

Grand Rapids?

Yes, if we look to places like Finland that have a high percentage of bikers, we'll find a very temperate climate. This clearly only works in places without snow. I'm not sure why people ignore this argument in every single comment thread about bikes.

Finland, very temperate climate—you're joking, right?