I'd love to be able to bike to restaurants, but it would mean convincing the rest of the family to do the same! Any trip I can take on my own I do by bike though, providing there's somewhere safe to lock it up.
Don't know where the parent is from but I live in a largish Canadian city. Using a bike for primary travel is not viable except for short leisure/weekend errands. I even live in the part of town where biking would be the most viable.
Yeah, if you want to ride a bike then you ride on the street and try and stay to the side. Kids can ride on the sidewalks.
It works for me because I can walk to my butcher, coffee shop, various restaurants, book store, etc and if I need to do more then I can drive my car. Sometimes we'll bike for fun when going to places not too far away. I only end up driving a couple times a week generally. I think it's a great balance and I wish more towns were like mine since the typical home near me is around $1M and out of reach for many people.
That's actually what I ended up doing most often (albeit w/o a trailer)! I was living somewhere where it wasn't too dangerous to bike to the grocery store. I've also lived places where it would be an extra two miles to get around something like a narrow main road. Still faster than the bus though...
I had a bike when I was a kid. Had to ride over an hour just to visit my nearest friend. It was a pretty dangerous route on roads designed for cars too, so my parents wouldn't let me do it alone until I was 14.
Sure there are bike vacations, and perhaps we can make them a little more popular. I'm not going to take my family on such a vacation: most of our vacations are visiting grandparents. With a car and modern freeways we can make the trip in 21 hours of driving (split over a few days - we try to visit some other uncle along the way), few people get enough continuous vacation to bike that far. If flying wasn't such a hassle I'd probably do that instead (driving is cheaper)
I generally don't drive anywhere that's under 15Km away, but there are exceptions. Taking the family to certain places just isn't feasible by bike sometimes.
I've got friends in Berlin who have no car.
They're a family of four and they go everywhere either on their bikes or public transport.
Last year when they took vacation, they just jumnped on their bikes and spent two weeks on the road cycling. For me it was unthinkable until they told me there are guides telling you which roads are safe for cycling.
I share the sentiment. Still, this is «gantt chart thinking». I bike the kids around and myself to work and the store, so I can do two things at a time. Bonus, saves $€£ and time, since there’s traffic issues when driving to work. I realize this is not possible for everyone, but there’s a lot of people who could do the same, too.
I wanted to go on holiday to places I had never visited before, and places where public transport does not go, so I just got on my bike and went there. I don't own a car, but even if I did I don't think it would have been able to take me to all of the places a bike did. Still, at the core my hobby is traveling, not cycling.
Sure, you can ride a bike. Now, tell me how you would transport groceries for a family of 4, or how you transport the kids to doctor's appointments, for instance. What about people who physically can't ride a bike? What if I'm coming from 15 miles away?
I live in an area where I can very easily and quickly bike to just about anything. But I never do because there's nowhere to store the bike while I'm there so it will get stolen. So I either walk (if I have the extra 15-20 minutes) or feel silly driving a mile or less. I'd rather bike.
With a dysfunctional public transit system and unsafe bike lanes (not separated from the road), that doesn’t always work. Our school is 10km away, so for us, bike is off the table for now.
Most people live in urban areas. Even in suburban areas, the bicycle could be a viable form of transportation. My grocery store is literally under ten minutes away by bike, but it is essentially a nightmare to bike to because of a lack of safe cycling infrastructures.
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