Meanwhile in my major european city, I'd say bikes have a 70% share among delivery drivers. (Although some of those bikes may have cost more than the cars the other 30% are driving, which is a bit of a "uber tesla driver" situation).
Exactly. I live in Denmark and sure many of us use our bikes from transportation, but I guess that a large portion of the newly purchased bikes are for exercise.
Most of us can't afford a car that we drive just for fun, but most can afford even a $4000 - $5000 bike that's just for fun. Included in these statistics are mountain bikes and racing bikes that people ride only in the weekends.
The number of people commuting on their bikes are more interesting, but then the US and a few other countries are screwed because of the distances between the city and suburbs or industrial parks that are inaccessible by anything but a car (European countries have these too).
This raises a funny distinction between the US and Europe...
Outside of urban areas of the US, almost everybody drives cars, which are MUCH larger capital investments (and a larger long-term expense) than bicycles, regardless of income level.
Indeed. For many people, it's not just 'a bike', it's their only method of transportation to work, to the shops and across town. Price difference aside, it's like taking somebody's car.
You'd be amazed at how much can be delivered by bike. Go to Brazil and you'll see tons of things being delivered by bike in cities, things like 5-gallon water bottles, Propane tanks, supermarket shopping, etc.
I live in Manhattan and I find a bicycle to be a better choice for the majority of my trips than public transit (it's faster, too). I only use public transit for long trips or when I'm traveling with suitcases.
Bikes are simply better at point-to-point transportation (the same advantage that cars have), except that they don't take up a lot of space so it's actually a scalable solution to have everyone using them to get around even in a dense city; see Amsterdam as an example.
Bikes are the main form of transport for a lot of people. They aren't interlopers playing Tour de France on your road, they are fellow travellers who are going somewhere.
Bikes are often used in combination with subways. Bikes can also be used in cities that don't have subways and cycling infrastructure is far cheaper to build.
Don't know about the US, but I live in a 300K inhabitants city in France, we fetch everything on a bicycle and have heavier items delivered for 10€ which is much cheaper than having our own car, factoring in maintenance, insurance, etc. Might soon get a cargo bicycle to be able to fetch heavier things myself without relying on delivery service.
Once you're done with your tirade, let me gently direct you back to what I actually said: "Bikes are a great thing[...] but they're not an either-or proposition in many environments."
While you could maybe be a bit less polemic about it if you'd actually like to engage in a debate instead of yet another Internet flamewar, you've understood the core of the problem: Introducing bikes in the US is a cultural issue. It's a long slog. Dropping a subsidy for e-cars (which is crucial to drop pollution levels and break petroleum dependency) for bikes nobody will use right now is... not helping anybody.
You might also want to improve your understanding of another culture before you insult them wholesale. So, a few things:
* "jaywalking" means illegally crossing the street. Which exists in Europe as well as the US.
* "As for the sweat thing, that is not a problem on a bike". You really might want to learn about humidity.
* "you can pick up really fresh nice food on a daily basis from better shops". No, no you really can't. The shopping situation here is dismal.
In Europe there are many cars for less than 500 euros. Even new ones are something around 6k euros. Those of course aren't sedans like but they're still cars.
In Barcelona we're suffering a process of making the whole city available for bikes and its one of the most wonderful things you can see. Almost everyone uses bikes to go work. It's healthy, it's confortable, and you don't need to pay taxes or insurance. I think it's a brainless option.
BTW: I forgot to mention my city runs a public bycicle program since 8 years and it's a total success. For 40€/year you get full access to a bicycle to move around the city without restrictions. I think it was the smartest move the city did.
In EU: postman, grocery getting/delivery, common commute vehicle, etc etc
In USA: NYC bike couriers.
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