You prefer comfort over bikes - we get it. But bicycling is not "uncivilized madness". Its common way of transportation in most of the world (with exception of majority of the US). Healthy as well (much more healthy than gym).
Now that I live in Sydney I don't ride at all - I just don't feel safe.
I live in the third largest city in Australia. Much of it is ridiculously hilly, the weather is usually stinking hot (apart from a few weeks of 'winter'), but we have plenty of cyclists... Not as many as the average European country but definitely enough to be annoying when you're driving!
Living in France for a couple of years, and visiting London, Rome, and various other parts in that direction, I didn't see any more bicycle traffic than I see in the US. The one place where I have seen a lot of bicycles is Beijing, but that has completely disappeared in the past few years.
I wish we could discuss these things without turning it into a "the US is strange and stupid" whinefest.
I haven't been to France but have you been to Amsterdam, Berlin or Copenhagen?
It is perfectly valid to criticize US without it being "the US is strange and stupid"
I have no problem with stuff like "the US should...." Where I have a problem is with "everybody else does it another way" when it's just not true.
Aside from adopting the metric system, I can't think of any legitimate criticism that fits that mold. Bicycles certainly don't seem to.
Edit: keep down voting in spite of your own ignorance. I've been lots of places the world over, and not seen lots of bikes outside of very very few areas with near perfect conditions for them.
But as we all know, driving in major cities is no longer optimal.
Any city that chooses driving over all other modes of transportation has deliberately decided it is closed for further growth at some point. Once you reach that critical population point, car-dependent life just becomes hell.
Unfortunately, for millions and millions of people, the city is viewed as a work location, not a living location. Building bike friendly infrastructure ends at the city limits and needs inter-government coordination and cooperation to achieve door-to-door biking. If you've ever dipped your toes in cross-county or other inter-government initiatives, you'll know that this is an extremely difficult proposition.
Oh I'm sorry, this is apparently a religious issue and faith with get me over all practical issues.
Nobody ever made this claim, so there's no way to illuminate you about it. Same goes for the part about the idiots and morons.
Which part exactly doesn't make sense
For instance the part where you say Is an inconvenient, slow, tiring way to travel in anyplace without a good climate or near perfect. That is merely a generalized opinion.
I'm sorry if I offended your religion.
Why change now? It's assertions all the way down.
Either you're being sarcastic or you have never spent time in London.
Also because is followup reference to "all the bikers there" is straight-up true, there are loads of bikers in London, really, though it doesn't follow from the statement before. Is that an attempt at sarcasm that fails because of a failed attempt at a false statement? Who knows. Why can't funkyy just say what they mean? Who knows.
Never been to Tokyo or Singapore, but if they're anything like Seoul, where I've spent months, riding a bike in the streets is both playing Russian Roulette and virtually impossible on account of the bad terrain (and for pretty much all the same reasons I brought up earlier). You also have almost no place to store them given the size of the average apartment. Outside of dedicated parks, I've almost never seen a person on a bike their either.
I've been to dozens of countries on almost every continent, and bikes are a very uncommon mode of transportation. That's why places like the Netherlands, where it is common, are so notable. If it was common, we wouldn't care.
Rather than being snarky, what's your suggestion for overcoming these practical and social issues?
I also don't buy the "small apartments" thing. We live in a 650sq ft apartment and have 4 bikes hung up on our wall. Where there's a will, there's a way.
650 sq ft is a pretty large place by Korean standards. I expect by Tokyo or Singapore as well.
I'd dare say we could fit 4 bikes in a much smaller place too. It's not the size of the place that's at debate here though.
The article discussed in this thread brings up one suggestion for overcoming practical issues. There are many, many more (proven) solutions to choose from -- when you make bicycle transportation pleasant enough, people will start using it.
If the "social issues" you talk about are because there's a group of people who thinks transportation by bicycle is uncivilized, I think it is a matter of education and tolerance. Once using bikes is common in a country, you will see that the only social issues are about people having unjustified fears (about the implications of considering bicycles as a method of transportation during city planning) and there are no real social issues other than people being dicks.
Social issues refer to body odor my bike riding colleagues carry around with them all day because our workplace doesn't have a shower.
So all and all, I agree with you, it's common in these places because the combination of these things makes riding very practical and they're noteworthy because of it.
-edit- I forgot to mention that most apartment buildings will have stacked locking bike racks. This combined with the generally low rate of theft, easily available recycled (read: cheap) bicycles makes them very affordable and low risk.