one thing they don’t mention in this article, is that bikes also cause essentially no wear and tear on road surfaces compared to cars and trucks, and re-paving is a pretty oil intensive and expensive process. the long term oil savings of reducing car usage in favor of bikes should therefore be even greater than their numbers suggest.
They also just need less street to begin with because they take up less space. Considering that it’s the ‘need’ to shoehorn in wide roads and parking lots that makes places car-dependent in the first place, the positive impact of more people switching to bikes is even greater than “even greater!”
Ah so that’s why they banned this thing from many parts of my city
They banned bikes?
Yeah, the way forward here is not simply more efficient cars, people actually have to try out different modes of transportation and incorporate them into the mix.
We’ll never get rid of cars, they solve important problems obviously (how tf are you gonna bike in the country), but if you’re living in a city and you can bike to all your usual destinations, consider just getting a bike (electric or otherwise) and using it, and so on.
Or, better, don’t get in your car every time you need to hit up the corner store across the street for a gallon of milk thinks angrily about several people I know
If you like, we became a car culture for reasons that had as much to do with property values, the real estate industry, and oh yeah, racism, that developed after WWII, as with any kind of actual economic development. White flight from city centers, funded with various federal programs and the GI bill, required building out large amounts of suburban real estate, which mandated the expansion of transportation infra and forced more people (especially white people) to buy cars to do exactly the same things they used to do before without cars in the city centers they used to live in. This led to the development of an entire way of life that revolved around individuals having to own cars, and then the real estate industry liked the suburban development model, and now here we are.
And, of course, the whole time the auto industry was laughing all the way to the bank and helping sculpt American norms around the idea that you weren’t really independent or free if you didn’t pay out the nose for a car + insurance + maintenance + gas
how tf are you gonna bike in the country
Get a mountain bike?
they’re illegal on the US interstate system. i don’t say this because i think riding from Chicago to NYC on a ebike would be fun or is a good idea but because lots of people use the interstate to go one of two exits from the suburbs into the city.
the interstate system needs a bike lane
Yes, or a nice “green lane” separated from interstate but as efficient.
In Europe we layed out intercity bikelanes on secondary roads, it is very efficient as there are less traffic lights than roads.
Plus, I would prefer not to breathe gas vapors and tires wear during my daily commute, especially with kids to bring to school or activities
In America, we layed out highways to segregate and displace minorities and maximize economic gains related to the consumption of oil.
Riding a bike on I-95 would be miserable due to the noise and wind, but also amazing biking past all the traffic.
Anyone know what bike that is? Edit: looks like a Eunorau cargo bike
The top photo is a Tern GSD or HSD
NGL I’m really close to convincing myself to buy an electric bike
In all honesty I’ll probably do it this spring once there’s less ice
The cycling infrastructure sucks where I’m at so weather is something I have to factor for
But even riding it only 2-3 days a week it’d pay for itself surprisingly quickly in gas savings
How far do you travel and how much is your gas that you’re going to save 5 or $600 quickly on 2-3 days a week?
It is reasonable to save $5/day on gas alone. So $1000/5 = 200 days, or 100 weeks. That is just on gas savings alone, you will save on maintenance costs as well.
If you can get rid of a car completely, then there is much more because you are not paying insurance and license fees (these are generally fixed costs that you pay even if you don’t drive), and most people don’t have a paid off car so even more savings (plus the income from selling the car).
Note that I said sell one car, not all cars. Most families have more than one car, so bikes can enable you to keep one car for those trips where the bike won’t work, and be majority bike. (this is important to point out as you don’t want people to feel like there is a war on their cars)]
I haven’t tried to quantify the health benefits of a bike, but they are there too.
One other nice thing about electric bikes is they’re extremely simple, enough that a moderately savvy individual can convert an ordinary bike into an e-bike with a kit from Bafang or other manufacturers. Converting a gas car to electric is much more complex, expensive, and time-consuming.
