Raincoats work when you are walking, and the rain comes from above, but not when you are cycling, because the rain comes from the sides, and below.
It's really complicated to cycle in the rain, especially in cold winter rain. You have to have specialised clothing that will both keep you warm, and be waterproof. Special gloves, insulated rubber boots? And you still get sweaty underneath at the same time.
How do you cover your helmet? Your face? Have fun taking a shower in freezing water three times a week for 6 months of the year, ice bucket challenge on the way to work. I hope you don't mind those extra sick days.
It's not that complicated, you need a rain jacket, waterproof pants and you are already 90% there. If you want to be more comfortable if you are biking longer than 30-45 minutes in bitter cold before freezing (5C or less) it can be sensible to have insulated shoes but it's not a requirement at all, I usually don't wear any weatherproof shoes during spring/fall in Stockholm, rainy and windy around 5C or less and experienced no issues having a change of socks + shoes after a 45-60 minutes commute on a bike.
It's really not an issue if you just get used to it, every time I read similar comments to this I can only think of a picky child complaining about relatively minor issues, and mostly they are imagined ones by people who never really had to/tried to bike during these conditions...
It is an issue to have your hands, feet, head and face soaked in freezing water for 45 minutes.
> experienced no issues having a change of socks + shoes
Oh so now you have to carry extra shoes and socks all the time, "no problem" lol. You can just go into the subway and all of these issues disappear, and you will get to your destination faster, so cycling is bad in comparison.
It doesn't matter if you can find some person who likes it, the vast majority of people will optimise for practicality and efficiency, because that's what our society revolves around.
Building bike lanes is the easy part, the hard part is coming up with the extra time and patience for people to put up with a longer and more uncomfortable commute.
> Oh so now you have to carry extra shoes and socks all the time, "no problem" lol. You can just go into the subway and all of these issues disappear, and you will get to your destination faster, so cycling is bad in comparison.
I already have a backpack when biking, a change of shoes and socks is a non-issue, I don't know why this would be a problem for you but yes, if you are looking for "maximum convenience" instead of a balance of trade-offs.
Again, it's not faster for me to take the subway, the subway doesn't have infinite capacity, crowding during rush hour is a thing. There are issues with any mode of transportation, fighting against bikes and biking infrastructure is definitely the strangest position I have seen someone take.
I don't understand if you are just a contrarian or if you really believe that investment in biking infrastructure is an issue for transportation in dense cities... If so the only argument I read boils down to "it's not super convenient and hence is bad and no one does it". I don't see reality in that argument.
Yup, you want and can optimise for practicality, biking infrastructure is definitely not holding that up. Now trying to argue that biking is "bad" is way out, biking is bad for your constraints, I know tons of people who bike everyday in northern Europe and have no issues with it.
Not sure exactly what your point is... We shouldn't invest in biking infrastructure? Because... It's "bad" for your convenience constraints?
Biking is not convenient/practical enough therefore not enough people will do it to justify large investment. This is why billions for a subway station make sense while parking spots and bike lanes would be way better utilized as restaurant patios in dense cities.
Most dutch people own a raincoat and -pants for biking, you put it over your clothes and remain dry. They cost maybe €30. No-one wears a helmet, nor do you need to.
> and people also cycle a lot in Finland despite the cold
Yeah and how much is this exactly? Even with perfect cycling infrastructure it's something like 12% of trips. Go to finland or sweden in the middle of the winter, observe the bike lanes and see for yourself how much they are used. Hint, they are largely empty, which comes as no surprise considering how obviously impractical and uncomfortable it is. And they cost a ton of money in maintenance.
A lot less than the roads for automobiles, and I regularly use the bike lanes in Sweden during all seasons and have no issues with that despite being originally from a warm country.
What a weird rant to come after bike lanes because "they are expensive and just virtue signalling", jesus.
It doesn't matter if you regularly do it, most people do not. We live in a democracy and we should not spend tax money and public space to accommodate for a small minority of enthusiasts who like to be inefficient, despite our whole society motivating us to do the opposite.
Bike lanes are like gym memberships, people like the idea and buy into it, but in reality they are too lazy, and don't have the time to actually do it. And it just ends up being a waste of money on duplicated infrastructure, because you still need to cover 100% of the capacity in public transport for the rainy days.
> Bike lanes are like gym memberships, people like the idea and buy into it, but in reality they are too lazy, and don't have the time to actually do it. And it just ends up being a waste of money on duplicated infrastructure, because you still need to cover 100% of the capacity in public transport for the rainy days.
This was me before an ebike. I now use it absolutely every day, when the weather allows.
None of this is fact, and it's funny you think it's the people who are pro-bicycle who are in fact the lazy ones, not the people who choose to drive literally everywhere.
Or too windy. And more importantly, it's too slow and have limited range. Bonus point for also being the most boring mode of transportation since you can't talk to your friends or use your phone.
You want to spend more time being stuck in traffic? Ok then cycling is a great choice.
> The Western European cities that are oftentimes given as positive examples (I’m thinking about Copenhagen and Amsterdam most)
Cycling in these cities are probably related to tourism more than anything else. When you have time and you are flexible, sure cycling works well. If you are pressed for time and you need to be places regardless of weather, not so great.
I'm from a northern european country, have cycled in all weathers, winter etc, and I think it's one of the most pointless wastes of tax money and inducing unnecessary hardships on people with problems that are already solved much better. All for virtue signalling.
> you can't talk to your friends or use your phone
You've obviously never casually biked. In NL you very frequently see teens riding with 3 people next to each other talking, and while you're not allowed to hold phones anymore, you can easily do hands-free phone calls if you wanted. A lot of people have earpods for music or podcasts in.
There's a lot of flexibility in how much living space a person is using also, it's an order of magnitude difference depending on how much money they have.
People used to live a whole family in a one room apartment, and now we have single divorced boomers living in whole houses alone. I think people adjust a lot here depending on the economy
It's interesting that for the past 15 years or so the average household size in NZ has remained at about 2.7 despite a housing crisis with more people living in cars, converted garages, etc. I always assumed that the more crowded households were 'balanced out' by an increase in the number of smaller dwellings with fewer people (specifically apartments) but it could also be an increase in the number of people living just 1-2 in larger dwellings.
Very true. California is an interesting one though with their occupancy rules. Very low density could reduce in a crunch but people who would go to the highest density are prevented from doing so by the landlord owned legal system.
The WHO and it's director has an enormous amount of centralised global power on this matter, which anyone would argue is ridiculously dangerous and disproportionate, especially considering how many scandals and investigations the WHO have already had due to funding from private corporations and pharma companies.
And the fact that they simply changed the definition of what a pandemic is, seemingly on a whim, to no longer include death rates, with no scientific intervention, is that something we should accept as some kind of perfect and neutral decision making that's obviously in the interest of.. whom exactly?
>The WHO and it's director has an enormous amount of centralised global power on this matter, which anyone would argue is ridiculously dangerous and disproportionate
better phrased: 'I, personally, as 1 of the people in the world, argue this thing'
so, argue it, but try to stick to specifics: "This is the direct evidence that the CDC killed scientists who disagreed with this study" or whatever the specific conspiracy theory is as it pertains to this article
Well it's questionable when that personal freedom is part of the same society's constitutional law.
In that case, there would be no limits at all to what a society can and can't do, just declare martial law at any time for any reason. That's the same thing as living in a totalitarian dictatorship.
Can society actually become the opposite of itself over night, and this should not be questioned?
One of the core basic principles of society is this freedom, and suddenly it's obvious that society can take away freedom whenever it wants? Does not even need to be debated and people who have show any form of surprise or need to talk about this, should be ridiculed?
> It was like any other shot, why risk covid if you can get the vaccine?
Because the (second) shot makes you really sick, and in many cases with lingering heart inflammation. Why do that to yourself, when you have a really good chance of not even getting infected (recovered/already vaccinated)?
Yep, it's just inflicting suffering also to the healthy in a misguided and desperate attempt to improve a situation by making it more "fair". When in reality the total amount of suffering is just increasing many times, which just makes it much worse. But this is a typical communist/religious idea that you should "share" suffering by punishing yourself.
How is protecting yourself from a disease with a low but real risk of life-altering effects by taking a vaccine with minuscule (but also real) risks a form of self-punishment???
Well, taking the vaccine still has a much lower chance of causing heart inflammation than getting the disease while unvaccinated does, even when multiplied with the chance of getting the disease at all.
It's really complicated to cycle in the rain, especially in cold winter rain. You have to have specialised clothing that will both keep you warm, and be waterproof. Special gloves, insulated rubber boots? And you still get sweaty underneath at the same time.
How do you cover your helmet? Your face? Have fun taking a shower in freezing water three times a week for 6 months of the year, ice bucket challenge on the way to work. I hope you don't mind those extra sick days.