261–270 of 382 posts
Not in any city with a real winter (-10F to 20F) I already loath going into my ice cold car and waiting for the heat.
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Fixed gear, skinny tires. I'd probably be better off with cyclocross tires, but if you're optimizing for what you're going to be riding on 90% of the time, for winter commuting 90% of the time it's dry/wet pavement or hardpack snow. If the fatbikes give people confidence to ride in winter, more power to them, but personally I think it's overkill. For the cold you've got to keep your extremities protected. I've got bi…
Is there a temperature at which you call it quits? Those -30 Edmonton days seem like good days to choose other ways to commute.
> On a bike, you inherently have to make a physical connection with people. In a car, you're separated by glass and steel. But when you're out on a bike, you can actually see everybody, you can say hello to the people that you meet along the way. This is an underrated aspect of commuting by bike. I ride 8 miles into San Francisco every day, and more often then not I get a little bit of human interaction somewhere alo…
A 2 key points about well designed bike lanes that aren't bought up enough are: 1. raised / structural separation between the road and bikes path. 2. bike paths can be used for just about anything that is not a car/motorbike or a pedestrian. Skaters, skate boarders, mopeds and bikes can all share a common separated path way. I have tried biking in Boston and it is a nightmare. Bike Lanes marked on the road are taken…
If it's a true old school style moped (small engine/electric motor with pedals) that's probably fine, but something like a vespa or small motorcycle should be in a separate area.
I'd say anything above 50cc is probably off limits.
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Fixed gear, skinny tires. I'd probably be better off with cyclocross tires, but if you're optimizing for what you're going to be riding on 90% of the time, for winter commuting 90% of the time it's dry/wet pavement or hardpack snow. If the fatbikes give people confidence to ride in winter, more power to them, but personally I think it's overkill. For the cold you've got to keep your extremities protected. I've got bi…
Is there a temperature at which you call it quits? Those -30 Edmonton days seem like good days to choose other ways to commute.
Motorized scooters, semi-motorized bikes (the ones that "flatten hills"), "hoverboards," motorized skateboards along with those one-wheeled self-balancing things that I want so badly. :) Haven't seen motorized roller skates in the real world but I'm betting on them arriving soon.
And then there are the self driving cabs that we know are coming soon. Combined with the rentable scooters and bikes, these can allow mixing it up in interesting and practical ways.
It seems like thinking of cars, bikes and pedestrians as 3 distinct categories is not going to work for long. Maybe a bit fanciful, but I could almost imagine rainbow stripes drawn on the roads, with red being for cars, purple being for pedestrians, and if you're using a motorized skateboard or a bike, you'd tend to ride in the greenish area.
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I don't see why it couldn't be done by almost anyone given that they live close enough to work. Anything less than 10 miles is doable assuming you have a good route.
>almost anyone I think that you considerably overestimate the capabilities of “almost anyone”
I’m simply never going to support any policy framework that would require me to cycle in Chicago in the winter. I know it’s possible but I’m not doing it.
And we can talk about how maybe you should because it's better for you, but this brings up a larger issue: when it comes to how whole populations behave, comfort is a factor that can't be totally ignored. Basically it creates a trade-off. Some percentage of people will decide one way and some the other way. This is going to affect adoption if you try to build a city around this idea. Incidentally, there are also issu…
I’m simply never going to support any policy framework that would require me to cycle in Chicago in the winter. I know it’s possible but I’m not doing it.
I love cycling. I grew up in my father's bicycle store and nearly 50 years later, he's still running the business and we've all worked in it at one time or another. I ride bikes around the neighborhood with my kids every day. With that said, the U.S. is not the Netherlands. Like most Americans, I depend on my vehicle to get my kids to school and myself to the grocery store, which are 4-5 miles away from my house. Thi…