People’s transportation needs have been built around the existence of the car. The actual needs — commuting, running errands, visiting friends — can be accomplished just as easily on an e bike, if only we built cities without cars in mind.
Also, there is an absurd notion that you can't bike in the snow... you absolutely can. You wouldn't want to be doing much more than 5 miles unless you are in great shape, I'll grant you that, because it's much harder going. But extremely doable, you just need some basic snow-appropriate tires and gear just like you would want for your vehicle. Anyway, over half the city shuts down when we get bad snow but Trimet keeps running. Can always throw your bike on a bus (or skip the bus entirely) if the snow days happen to fall midweek, and your work needs you in. If Trimet actually shuts down that means like 90% of the city or more is also shut down, and that happens maybe once a decade.
The city has never been bike friendly like Europe, with a significant percentage of routes fully physically separated from cars (eg concrete barriers). But the city is as bike friendly today as it has ever been. Potholes notwithstanding. At least that's how it seems to me, and I do get around. It's easier than ever to chart a route that avoids major arterials but has decent roads that aren't full of constant stop signs and bad infrastructure for riding quick and easy.
The proliferation of greenways in the past 5-10 years has been great, and in more recent years they've created some one-ways, concrete barriers, and other impediments for drivers who try to beat traffic by blowing through the intended bike routes. I get it, traffic is terrible and getting worse all the time, but the city certainly is making an effort to make things safer for bikers and peds despite the awful commute situation and seemingly ever-shortening tempers.
I'd argue the speed limit reduction to 20mph in residential areas and liberal use of speed bumps and other measures on the few remaining 25mph residential streets has done wonders for bike-friendliness that probably doesn't get as much attention as it should. They are even slowly changing stop-sign positioning on residential streets to better inhibit cars trying to cut through going parallel to major arterials and facilitate better bike-routes where you can keep the right of way for most of the route between major intersections.
Sure, traffic keeps getting worse and drivers keep getting more impatient and careless. But the city keeps investing in reasonably bike-friendly infrastructure, despite the vocal minority who always complain about it. There are more safe-ish bike routes than ever. If only more drivers would look carefully both ways while doing their rolling stop at the stop sign to get across the greenway I'm riding down with the right of way...
If we lost our "bike friendliest city" title I imagine that just means somewhere else is doing way better, not that we are doing particularly worse. Don't get me wrong, we could and should do MUCH better. I just don't expect much from city hall these days. We've never really recovered from the popularity and and growth that came in the early-mid 2000's.
Lived here 35 years, never owned a car.
That's kind of like saying that the needs of the people who traversed the Oregon Trail were built around wagons. The wagon didn't come first. First came the need to transport goods.
But then I went on vacation to Copenhagen and found I could safely get anywhere in the city in under 30 minutes on a bike. And I was constantly getting passed by people of all ages including many 80+ year olds. People were so fit! It was shockingly liberating to get around this way! I assumed it was a fluke, but no, Amsterdam, Oslo, and Rotterdam were all equally great to bike in.
You should experience it. You won't be able to see how superior that transit mode is until you experience it.
It's really cool, but Singapore isn't exactly a model for the world.
Similarly - you should consider that Copenhagens all bike infrastructure both supports and is supported by the society around it, and a lot more would have to change than just the surface level things that you find good to make it happen.
So let's start doing that and maybe our kids will have awesome cities.
You need transit to be safe and clean so you get ridership from people who are middle class and up, and urban living to be a safe, clean, desirable experience.
This is very challenging, because the combination of increased policing and social programs needed to get there would not be plausible under either Democrat or Republican administrations.
I’ve been visiting Copenhagen long enough to see the same transition over a couple of decades there too.
Start now, and even in US urban areas you’ll see the payoff in the next couple of decades, which is an absurdly short timeframe for urban planning outcomes.
Biking shouldn’t be only for those wearing lycra!
The most magical part of Copenhagen was that its bike infrastructure was so incredibly attainable. Over ~30 years, they built ~350km of curbed off bike paths, ~25km of on-street bike paths, and put out consistent bike traffic light signals [1]. None of the things were hard, and roads have to get redone every 10-20 years anyway, so it's super easy to start updating a city. And it doesn't just make the city more pleasant to live it, it also saves many lives and adds years to biker's lives.
I definitely believe you, but I live in Texas. It was 103 degrees Fahrenheit today. Riding a bike to work in Texas in the summertime is decidedly not superior than driving to work in an air conditioned car, I can assure you.
Always check the wet bulb temperature before going out in conditions like that.
I love being outdoors, but I am very careful in conditions like we’ve had recently with 100+ temperatures and high humidity. Even fit persons can get heat stroke very easily. The UV index has also been incredibly high lately, I have to soak sunscreen on or I burn and my skin type is normally easily tans rarely burns.
What the parent poster just described is a very serious and real affliction that is capable of extinguishing human life. Believe it or not.