I only bike and I don’t drive. One of the biggest problems is various misconceptions around biking. I’ve had people tell me to my face that you can’t grocery shop with a bike. I had to politely inform them that I buy $300 worth of groceries every week with my 5-year-old on a single bike. Then they’ll say “well what about winter?” And I say: “I just wear good gloves and a mask”. Then they usually just assume I’m a crazy person
Same. I have exclusively commuted by e-bike since September 2020. Just last month I cycled the equivalent distance of Earth's circumference (40 075kms); already 1000kms into my 2nd lap! These scenarios are endless fun. I cycle commute by e-bike in Victoria BC - mildest winter climate in Canada - and I continually encounter others that challenge me on my vehicle choice. Even in a place that seldomly sees snow, and when it does, it last for such a brief period it's inconsequential, I find it strange to discover this exaggerated concern over a few days of inclement weather when considering cycling as an option. Given the 'Shangri-La' in which I live, aside from capability, and means, everyone else in my community should be cycling more.
Thanks Scott. I also bike almost daily, even during winter. This youtuber is just ignorant about what a basic standard, non-cargo bike is capable of and what the human body is capable of. Also, a reminder to just DEEPLY critically think for yourself. Talking about the importance of asthetics then say its not that important, but its still a top 5 biking issue 😢 ? Also refers to asthetics every other min....suspect channel and/or information
I used to walk , hike and run but now have collapsed arches in my feet so walking long distances became painful . This was fourteen years ago . So just out of boredom I purchased several bicycles fourteen years ago . Great news is I got my mobility back and can still go for these long treks plus the cycling strengthened muscles . Sounds funny but I find walking easier since I started bicyclng because it strengthened the muscles in my upper and lower legs plus my back and the orthotics also helped . We really have to push for bicycle lanes because bicycles are the best .
As an urban cyclist the section on driver behavior around 6:00 gave me all sorts of flashbacks. It’s a truly insane set of social interactions to have regularly, and the only times in my life I ever get angry - so angry I end l up physically shaking. It’s scary to realize your fellow citizens don’t care if you live or die.
Same. Just watching these scenes makes my blood boil. Not only do they not care if you live or die - many think it's your own fault if they kill you, and a few even wish for you to die. I honestly have PTSD from riding a bike on American streets.
I've ridden in many countries of the world. I've seen - experienced aggressive driver hostility in only two countries, us and UK. In both cases it comes from middle aged white men. Weak flabby people who think they can alleviate their inferiority complex by abusing a person they perceive to be weaker than themselves.
It's only a 1.5 mile straight shot from my apartment to my school, so I have been biking it this whole semester. Plastic bollard-protected bike lane along the whole journey, with a decent amount of space between cars and bikes. Nearly been hit by cars a few times, but it feels safe enough most of the time.
Great video, my daily commute is less than 5 miles and if I felt safe instead of riding right next to cars I would definitely want to use my bike instead of driving
I think it's very normal to feel this way. Unfortunately many cities say "why should we build bike infrastructure if nobody bikes?" but they've got it backwards. People don't bike BECAUSE there's no bike infrastructure. My wife likes biking with me but she's very risk averse so she usually needs me out in front navigating and dealing with traffic. It's hard and intimidating to be biking on a street alongside massive SUVs and trucks who could easily kill you and probably not even get a dent in their car.
@@timwalks you saying this is why I don't own a bike is what triggered the connection for me. wonder what companies would be good to outreach to for building up a bike manufacturing coalition to tackle these types of issues.
Unfortunately, the bike manufacturers already make good money from selling high-end road bikes and mountain bikes to recreational cyclists, so they really dont have an incentive to lobby for urban bike infrastructure
All great points. As my dental hygienist complained, "Why can't they make it easy?" I've bicycled regularly for about 50 years, despite all the problems you mention. I'm heartened by thr progress.
I grew up biking in the streets of NYC and I am comfortable with the ebbs and flows, but trying to get my wife into it showed me just how jarring it can be. She made the point that "Pedestrians rightfully feel uncomfortable when they have to share a sidewalk with a bike. Well the same feeling can be applied to Bikes that have to share a road with a car. If you wouldn't let your grandma or young children bike on it, it isn't safe and that is the biggest thing stopping so many people from using bikes."
Hi Tim! Great video. I too am a bike advocate who only bikes on city bikes. Unfortunately my risk tolerance just isn’t high enough to endanger my life on American roads as of now. Hopefully in 10 years from now it will be a different story just like the transformation of the Netherlands!
I've ridden over 12,000 miles on my e-bike in the 3 years I've had it and I absolutely don't blame anyone who doesn't use a bike for transportation. Too many aggressive drivers and there are hardly any consequences if they seriously injure or kill you. Sadly the public transportation in my city leaves a lot to be desired so it's faster and more convenient to bike. I've talked to lots of people about biking and they WANT to bike but they're rightly afraid of being injured or killed. I'm doing what I can to push the elected officials in my city to make it safe and fun to bike AND improve public transportation.
Love the content! I live in St. Louis and try to bike as much as possible, but face many of the problems you discuss here. Luckily, our city does have some long term plans that, if seen through, will connect a lot of places with real bike lanes. Unfortunately, they're reluctant to actually add physical barriers to these lanes, so they're not as safe as they should be. But I'm still optimistic. A note on the video: the transitions were a lot louder than the speaking parts. I found myself wanting to turn the volume down for them, then turn it back up for the speaking. Might want to check levels next time. Keep it up.
Thanks for the technical feedback. Ill keep an eye out for that in the future. Im very skeptical that we can really promote biking until real infrastructure is developed. I think the separation and plastic bollards are enough to get some bolder individuals to ride on them, but I still would be hesitant to ride with kids on such bike lanes.
I haven't biked in years. I'd love to again but there are too many overpowered and oversized trucks on the road here in Michigan. Ther is also the problem of the local car culture which seems to favour blacked out windows all around so you can't even get a idea if the driver of the car is looking at you or at their phone. And it's not just the trucks, ALL cars have gotten ridiculously overpowered and that seems to encourage aggressive driving. I also HATE driving a car for the same reason.
I live in a small town, with a huge wealth gap. Folks typically bike because they can't afford a car. Our lack of bike lanes is basically a war on poverty. That said, my town is gorgeous, and a robust bike network would be such a tourist attraction. We host two triathalons each year, so we HAVE cyclists coming to our town - we just need to give them the space to use their bikes for more than the race.
@@timwalks I'm with you about the price thankfully my company in London had a great cycle to work scheme which helped. The other option is second hand; these bikes are very long lived.
I have a Brompton and it's perfect for the current biking situation in a city like LA. For instance, the smaller wheels, which many dislike, are perfect for going on and off sidewalks, which you simply have to do in LA if you value your life. They are a bit pricey, but considering how much I use mine to replace car trips, much cheaper than a car. Plus healthier, etc. It's really the perfect Trader Joe's bike (with a nice big bag in front). Great design and a marvel of engineering, but my take on the Brompton is: too weird to be popular.
Where I live isn't so bad to get around by bike, but the thing that prevents me from using my bike more is the lack of storage at destinations. Like one my nearest stores has over 3 acres of parking lot but absolutely nothing dedicated to locking a bike to. It's just bikes locked to fire lane signs in front of the store...
I only transit/walk/bike in that order. Unfortunately for my travel preferences, I'm near one of the small cities on the Oregon coast. If you haven't been, there's one dangerous highway going the whole length of the rugged coast, with steep hills, no passenger rail, and really spotty bus service aimed at tourism. So the best non-car option is a beefy e-bike. It sucks having to chain that up to a bike rack, so I mostly make use of curbside pickup when I can. On the upside, Oregonians are generally very considerate of me on the road. They will slow down and usually use the passing lane even though I'm on the shoulder (screw the sharrows). Every trip someone wants to chat with me about biking, so there's a lot of untapped interest in this mode of travel. We've got a lot of older population out here and they want to retain their mobility too. Final upsides? It's beautiful out here when it's not storming, and it's very fun to take the bike up & down the beaches.
Very thoughtful video, as always. I especially enjoyed you pointing out (perceived) bike culture and how it intersects with some other issues. It's not a super huge issue, but important, especially when considering political appeals to get the lanes built.
Thanks! We elect politicians that tend to be representative of the general population. So if the general population has some preconceived beliefs about biking, it is likely out politicians do to!
Another awesome and informative video. Keep it up! As someone in their mid-twenties who's fairly confident in coordination, I still feel bike lanes are unsafe. If that's the case for me, what about kids and the older generation? The ones that truly cannot drive?
Yeah, many bike lanes as is are made for those willing to take a certain amount of risk, which is ridiculous. We shouldn't have to evaluate risk as a factor when getting around.
Yeah the top ones for me are definitely safe infrastructure and safe storage. I live in the LA area and I have to trace a route on Google maps any time I bike anywhere because so many streets even with bike lanes feel super sketchy. Bike parking is also horrible, even large strip malls often don't have a single bike rack. I've even gone to bike shops that don't have racks lol. I used to live in a smaller town of around 70k people in Colorado and it actually felt pretty safe to bike around because residential streets didn't have much traffic and most businesses had at least 1 bike rack. In LA they put painted bike lanes on massive 5 lane streets, so those don't feel very safe, and traffic always seems to be overflowing into residential streets so those don't feel safe either.
Great video. about those flex post. it's fascinating to me how they always use things that are design to not damage cars to stop cars from killing other people. Like, i understand they are creating temporary solutions and all, and i think a bike network on the cheap is a good way to spark the need for a better bike structure, but couldn't they use something that at least would make an effort to stop car? or at least make a sound for the driver?
As an everyday bike commuter, my biggest problem biking in America is the disconnectedness of the network. There are some truly nice and safe paths but then you are dumped out into the car lane where you are getting honked at and almost run over by inattentive drivers.
You pretty much hit all the major points. Cities need to put as much effort into bike infrastructure as they do for cars, providing routes from where people live to the places they need to go, put effort into maintaining it, and use modern methods and markings to make it safe. They could also require bike parking just as they require parking for cars (usually way too much parking at that). The city where I live just finished rehabbing three major roads and none of the projects included a bike component. One repaving widened the road a bit so they could paint a stripe and call it a bike lane. There are other areas that you simply can't get to by bike unless you ride the road. One example is at a freeway interchange which has no bike or pedestrian crossings. I wanted to meet friends for lunch on the other side of the interchange but there's no way to ride it safely - the sidewalk just ends short of the ramps. I want to ask the city planners and council whether they'd let their child ride on the so-called bike lanes, and challenge them to get around town for a day on a bike.
BIke parking... imagine vertical structures, small footprint, robot controlled, enclosed, theft proof, coin operated. Solar panels on the sunny sides. Sell advertising on the shady sides. Imagine seeing them on just about most city and town corner? And the secret bike for city riding is the class 2 ebike. Can haul 100lbs as well. A throttle that gets you out of the way of the cars pretty fast. Drivers are not waiting for you to get out of the way. 20mph max. Great fitness as you pedal not just sit and twist. As a 2 wheel rider for over 50 years, I offer city riding skills training and education. Santa Fe NM. my 2 cents.
I think, it all comes down to "culture". Because cycling is only seen as a sport, cyclists are not accepted on the road - often not even by the DOTs. That's why "bike path" are often just a trail in a forest, where "the cyclists can play with their toys". The extreme aggression of many drivers against cycling also creates the need for a massive protection, which needs to cater against _intentional_ assault and not just against driver error. Many European cities are perfectly fine with just painted bike lanes or just a tiny curb that reminds drivers to stay in their lane. There may be some idiot parking in the bike lane, but that's it - you will never see people driving in the bike lane attempting to kill a cyclists.
I am fairly new to cycling to getting around. I have effectively zero road confidence, and safety is a big consideration for whether I even try biking somewhere. Just tonight I rode a brief distance for an errand on roads without bike lanes, and that was a big step for me. My BIGGEST fears, even if they're not the most rational ones, are street harassment and bike theft. Those are easily the biggest reasons I think twice about going somewhere on a bike.
I spent a couple of years in the New Territories of Hong Kong during my youth. Biking there was great. No way in hell am I about to bike next to cars. And the attitude that people even begin to think that we have great bike infrastructure.... And good point on the lack of storage.
I recently replaced about 75% of my car trips with bike trips, including a commute partially along a bike trail (El Cerrito, CA). The trail parallels a stroad a few blocks to the west, and drivers are all over the map in terms of how they respect the bike crossing. We currently have (mostly working) lights to warn drivers, but some don't see the lights anyway, and it's hard to tell from the cyclist's perspective whether the lights are working. I was thinking it would be great to reshape those intersections so that the bike lane is level across the road and car drivers experience a slight bump up to that level, along with mandatory stops for cars, much the way some Netherlands cities calm car traffic at intersections. Oddly, I felt almost as safe riding along parts of the stroad because all of the cross traffic was regulated, so I only had to worry about being hit from behind. Talk about a low bar.
Good on you for trying to make the change. El Cerrito is a decent area to try that. Very close to Emeryville and I hear they have a very supportive "Bike Mayor"
I saw some actual, solid bollards protecting bike lanes in Chicago and have missed that ever since. Never seen them anywhere else. What I wish for most of all, though, is long bike paths that don't have constant intersections with cars. Every single intersection is a new chance for a car to totally ignore the possibility of there being a bike and side swiping me. I have to treat every intersection like all the cars there are blind until they've shown they're slowing down enough that they have noticed me. This is even worse because Philadelphia is putting in great protected bike lanes (protected by the row of parked cars), but they're doing this on the busiest roads - where cars are the most in a hurry to turn off of them when they're turning. I'd often rather be on the unprotected neighborhood streets for that reason alone.
i would TOTALLY bike to places if it was comfortable and safe. theres absolutely no thought put into bysicle infrastructure where i am. the most they can spare is a painted fucking gutter
Bad networks is a big one, sometimes the bike network connects the city parks together nicely and doesn't do much else. Also no available maps of what lanes are existing. I see that my city has a bunch of lanes for bikes, but I'd have to map them all. It feels like the city wants to say they have many miles of bike lanes but it's all random and again mostly connects the parks.
The Queens waterfront greenway or South Bronx Greenway is not "bad" per-say, and Im sure there are some practical trips which will be helped by their creation, (all infrastructure helps at this point), but you are right they should be a lower priority compared to building a protected network north of 110th street in Manhattan or anywhere in southern Brooklyn. It still the Robert Moses mindset of bikes as recreation not transportation.
I sold my car in 2019, moved to SE portland and it was the best thing I ever did. I grew up riding bikes, hell i didn't get my license until I was 18, and only because i was told to. Hated driving so much so I went back to the bike lol. I know exactly how to ride in traffic, so i am 100% comfortable riding on any street(thankfully most of the streets in inner portland don't go higher than 25) but to get someone to convert to riding a bike is hard. If people are reserved in portland, then i can only imagine the struggle 95% of americans who dont live in good cycling areas
Converting to biking is hard. Even as someone who predominantly grew up walking or taking public transit, biking to me is only useful when I'm willing to spend $4 to "fast travel" using a rental.
I want to push back on the comment @8:48 - We don't need fastest route from point a-b FOR BIKES, safest is most important in the current car infested infrastructure. I take the long way to find the safest route on my commutes. Not optimal or quickest. That is car thinking, mow down the quickest path between every destination. Still liking your channel. Keep it up. SUBSCRIBED.
Or we could do like Amsterdam (and other places) where the car route is intentionally the least direct route so it takes longer than biking or transit. People won't shift away from cars until they are less convenient.
I bike, but it's hard to commute. I live in a bike town. We are IMBA gold for mountain biking, used to hold professional road bike races, have a local race series for road and mountain, but it's still hard to commute. And then all the problems you mention exist unless you live in the heart of the village, which is so expensive that people who live here year round cannot afford it unless it's employee housing.
I bike in LA. There’s obviously a ton that needs to be improved here, and LA needs to fix all the things you mentioned in this video. But given how bad the traffic is and the lack of reliable public transportation options, I actually think it should be easy for people to recognize biking as a legitimate transportation option here (the weather also helps). I am seeing more bikers with me along my commute to work and seeing how many people attend some community events like Critical Mass LA, I think (and hope) the culture is slowly changing here. They just need to add way more protected bike lanes at this point
I sometimes wonder if I left LA too early. Ive been carefully eyeing LAs public transit improvments over the last year. Pretty excited about the progress theyre making on the wilshire line and their new bus lanes
I used to live in a canadian city with a pretty complete car-separate bike network, but i moved to a small college-border town for college, I'm fairly comfortable riding with traffic, but I wasn't ready for just how bad it was, I only rode my bike a handful of times since moving there, since I had to drive there, (one intercity train a day, and very little in-town transit) I found myself never riding it. I really do miss bike commuting, commuting by car sucks! even in places built for cars.
I miss bike commutting as well. Its one of the few things I miss about the Bay Area. Commutting to work on bike everyday was so liberating. Surprised to hear its worse in a college towns. I feel like they tend to do a better job prioritizing students who cannot afford a car
Your #3 is by far the most important. In America, bicyclists are not generally accepted as legitimate road users. For bicyclists to be accepted as legitimate road users, a profound cultural shift has to take place. If this "cultural shift" happens, which I doubt, then your 4 other items will take care of themselves.
Too many Americans are filled with internal hidden hostility, feibgs of inadequacy, and rage, which comes out when they perceive a chance to abuse a person whom they believe to be weaker than themelves, like a cyclist. The reasons are complex, but it's real. I have ridden in many countries, but only in anglo Saxon us and UK have I experienced abnormal hostility. It's not limited to cycling l, but that's where we see it come out.
I bike and have never owned a car in my life, but I'm relatively spoiled by the bike infrastructure of Cambridge+Somerville+Boston. Heck, I didn't get my driver's license till my late 20s. I've simply never needed a car for myself because I could easily get wherever I needed on foot, bike, or transit. I've been lucky enough to never have an accident but I do live with some amount of dread of the possibility. My most common fears on the road are: 1) is this car gonna turn and right hook me? (this fear is strong enough that I often cede my right of way (per MA traffic law) to turning cars) 2) am I actually fully out of the door zone? 3) damn, the bike lane is blocked by a truck - can I safely lane shift? 4) alright, I'm gonna do the "vehicular cycling" thing, let's keep our head on a swivel and hope other drivers actually watch out for me Through over a decade of constant bike commuting, I feel like I've learned some paths and best-practices to stay safe and quick, but that's been a lot of work. Far from something that is EASY to adopt. Hence, I can totally understand why folks are reluctant to bike. Totally agree with you on the importance of NETWORKS. If communities can make *safe* bike networks that get people from door to door faster (or more conveniently - e.g. on your own schedule) than the alternatives, that should foster a biking culture which can then support ongoing advocacy.
7:40 I agree, I frequent these bike lanes since I do deliveries in the area. It would be nice if they at least connected to Alley Pond Park via Union Tpke. Also once you end up in Nassau County there's no bike lanes and cars move much faster. The only bike lane there is the one on the I-495 south service road which only lasts a couple of meters
I used to bike 10 years ago when there were very few bike lanes in my city, it was scary and stressful biking in traffic. I stopped after I had 3 bikes stolen.
Great insights! I'm gonna remember that point about golf courses 🤣 🤣 I hate golf courses... tells you my point of view 🤣 Watched a bunch of your videos and really enjoyed them. I lived just east of the Grove mall for 32 years (!), then moved to Pasadena earlier this year. Had to have some peace and quiet and no chaos! I'm a bike person but I also recognize that most other people aren't. Here are my 2 perhaps worthwhile points. 1) Bike travel has to be a) safe and b) practical before most people will do it. In LA, I think the answer is take one of the major east-west routes, say Pico, and make it bikes only all the way across the city. That would be disruptive but I predict would be pretty popular. That kinda leads into my point 2: I see lots of great videos and viewpoints like yours and Nimesh's but what I haven't yet seen is some good suggestions for how to make the transition from a car city to a bike city. Seems to me that car infrastructure is so big and imposing and expensive that it's very hard to make a smooth transition to something different. It's just too disruptive -- or not disruptive enough, like painted bike lanes (which I consider possibly worse than useless as they don't protect anyone but they let politicians say "see, I added X miles of bike lanes"). Are there cities built in the US style (meaning not Paris) that show how to make that transition smoothly? I mean, here in LA, even a CicLAvia style event on Sunday mornings gets a lot of drivers really angry, saying "road are for cars!" I despair over how to make this transition less painful...
Hey @jazzfan7491, thanks for the constructive comment. I do need to do a video describing how we should make this transition. I despise a lot of these "interim" solutions. My perspective, as an engineer, any change you make is going to be met with some amount of anger. As a result I think it's better to go bold and rip the band-aid off instead of making awkward transitions and changes that have to be updated annually. With that in mind, I think your idea of just taking one Blvd and saying "yup this is no longer for cars" is a right approach. Especially considering people tend to forget about change fairly quickly, you are better off doing this than prolong an infrastructural change over many years. Thanks for the feedback!
@@timwalks Yeah, I basically agree that probably the only way to make the transition is relatively abruptly. The car infrastructure is just too established, and people have built their whole lives and jobs around cars. So it's going to to be difficult. I think if Pico went all bikes, that would be quite a band-aid pull off! (But I suggest that because I think there are so many alternative routes -- the 10, Olympic, Venice etc etc -- that it would be less shocking than doing the same thing on a north-south route, for instance...)
Here's an interesting transition, I think: My city is installing a center-running BRT on a major road. They have a bunch of lane closures around where they're building the stops. Drivers don't seem that upset about the lane closures. After all, working on the roads makes it better for drivers! But the drivers are getting used to having fewer lanes, and then - surprise! - they'll never get those lanes back because they will become dedicated bus lanes. So I'm now realizing that prolonged and disruptive road construction could be an effective strategy for transition.
While it's true that plastic flex posts do nothing to protect people from crashing or out of control cars, I wouldn't say that they "aren't stopping anything". They certainly stop normal drivers from driving in the bike lane. So they are in my opinion infinitely better than nothing. Drivers constantly, intentionally, carelessly encroach their machines into unprotected bike lanes, as if they aren't even there.
I live on Long Island which is small but densely populated, right NEXT to NYC. I feel like its the perfect candidate to start with, or at least Nassau with building some of this out. Maybe it has too many people living here but half of NYC and most of whats taken up is devoted to highways, parking lots and suburban housing. It could be a lovely and quiet place to cycle especially in spring and autumn. The most bike path near me is a bit out of the way and is purely made for exercise and recreation, not to get you anywhere
2 Year cycle commuter here in Richmond, VA You have to be hardcore to successfully be a person who primarily cycles here in Richmond. It is amazing how it is quite literally the quickest and cheapest way to get around town, but it also super dangerous and you must have thick skin. I encounter aggressive drivers who will harass you for no reason, some who will try to kill you, or will just do something mindless and impatient and almost take you out with out even noticing. I've been hit once and crashed other time that caused real injuries (ACL tear). Cycling is amazing, but it is so dangerous regardless if you follow traffic laws or not.
I biked as my main mode of transportation in Phoenix, Scottsdale & Tempe from 1991 to 1993. It's actually very doable, but you have to really think outside the box when planing your routes. The best option is to ride along canals when you can, and quarter mile thoroughfares like Colter, Virginia, Palm, 17th Avenue, 14th Street, 37th Avenue, Clarendon, etc. And of course ride after dark or early in the morning in the summer. It's helpful that all busses and the light rail allow bikes on board.
Great video! All good points but “safety” probably occupies all top 5 spots! That said, I started biking to work 25+ years ago before my city had very much bike infrastructure at all. The way I justified the risk to myself is that we know that a sedentary lifestyle kills millions through cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc. and that my risk from biking is probably no worse than the risk I would have of living a sedentary lifestyle. There is a risk of just sitting in your car, and it doesn’t come from just the crashes.
I bike to work each day. A huge barrier even to me whose pretty risk tolerant is intersections. You can piece-meal lots of decent bike paths, but there's about 0 semi-busy intersections in my town I feel close to comfortable going through on a bike. It makes pathfinding incredibly arduous if you're going somewhere new.
I have always loved biking as a means of transport, but no surprise; I live in the Netherlands. The nr. 1 bike country in the world. I take my bike even with me on holidays to other European countries. I cycled in London UK, Flanders, Munich, Hamburg and Senftenberg Germany.
I bike, sometimes. I don't drive, so the other option is walking. I walk a lot. I actually live in a "platinum" biking city (Madison, WI), but the infrastructure is all wrong for the people who need it most. We have great routes that used to be railroad tracks, and many of them are beautiful. But those routes were never designed to go to the places that currently support the most jobs, schools, and housing for people who are least likely to own cars. To navigate downtown or the University, you have to patch together bike paths, unprotected or barely protected bike lanes, and random city streets. But many of us who are not university students or downtown workers don't even have it that good. For example my local Walmart is only a couple miles away, but there's no designated bike route for a place like that, and getting there involves a curving drive with a narrow bike lane that abruptly disappears into the middle of nowhere. People who work or shop at Walmart can't get there on a bike without placing themselves in unreasonable danger. It's the same if we need to get to Target, the mall or the businesses around it, including ethnic grocery stores.
I once had a colleague whose entire take on cycling consisted of "you people all wear Spandex" (yes he meant Lycra). That was it. He couldn't conceive riding as anything other than a recreational pursuit.
I live up two floors and have to navigate a moderately tight spiral staircase with no protected storage for a bike. This initially deterred me from using one regularly as carrying a full sized bike up was a hassle, but I found an electric scooter and a folding bike have tight enough wheel bases that they are easy to carry without issue. They're small enough I don't really have an issue bringing them in places I am going to, and even on the local rail which can get cramped with people. But as you mentioned, there's a lack of education and culture that can make it difficult to find the right tool for the right job. Or the right bike for the right person. "How would I get groceries?" being a prime example of people not really knowing of the options on how to carry things on a bike. But yeah I do agree with your points, I do bike, but I have to be more selective than I'd like as the roads and bike network are really terrible for taking a bicycle for more trips
I enjoy your videos. I bike a decent amount but would bike more if the suburbs where I live had bike lanes lane side collectors. I would bike to work and shorter trips without taking my car.
There is only one reason American bike infrastructure sucks: we keep electing drivers. If the people in power didn't have access to cars, then transit modes other than cars would become viable.
I don't think people need to be "bikers" People who commute by foot don't see themselves as walkers. People who use their car don't see themselves as drivers. And people who take the train don't think they're nerds. That's the whole point. Bikes and trains need to become so ubiquitous and easy to use that they just become a normal thing, like wearing shoes and sending emails.
The UK is way better than the US, but my partner still doesn't feel safe to ride a bike- I have to equip mirrors, a horn, etc and still got run over by a driver failing to yield while staring at me on a roundabout! In a traffic calmed housing estate! It is no wonder she doesn't feel safe! Cars just suck! Who thought allowing any idiot to potentially own their own motor vehicle was rational?
people in europe are not fond of bikes or cars or public transit, they use whats most provided , pragmatic, easy and cost efficient. if you build frequent subway, frequent and safe bus and cycling path as a holistic system, with protected bikelanes, bike garages, bike repair cafe in every nearby place to one, people will use transport bike, commute to work, school and in free time.
Looking on every movie about urbanism and cycling in US shows me how progressive are the european cities, even in Poland. We really undervalue our possibilities, while our bike networks are not good, have also several issues. Comparing them to the US cities, shows me that we're ages ahead fo You. Such agressive motorists' behaviors also happens, but its numbers is decreasing, while bike became a normal transport mode in peoples' minds. It took some years, but it is possible.
I live close to work and the grocery stores, and could easily bike to those places, but I dont cause of all these reasons you mentioned. I sooo wish I could safely bike around town cause that would save me a ton of money on gas and car expenses
My region voted to create an agency that would create greenways that tracked along our many rivers in the years since it has learn some lessons about the power of nature on rivers banks and the needs of the voters that created it. It is now working to create greenways that connect communities. Providing real value for the taxpayers that fund it.
A large portion of feeling safe on a bike, is your perception, rather than actually being safer. This is important to understand as bike advocates if we want to invite new cohorts of everyday riders. But our focus on safety also artificially inflates the true number of accidents per rider miles. It's a catch 22. I envision biking and micromobility overtaking car ownership by the time we build separated bike infrastructure. What a mess that'll be.
In Philadelphia, there is a bike lane with plastic bollards from south to north but not the other way. So, I can ride the path from my house near South St. to the Trader Joe’s on Market, but there is no bike path to get back!
I’ve always thought that people who drive these heavy diesel vehicles are not walkers or joggers. Like I’m out walking, smelling nature, listening to birds. Then one commuter leaving the burbs means like a full minute of toxic fumes. It feels like a personal attack on me. Obviously it isn’t because the person driving isn’t aware of the misery they’re causing me because if they were a walker they would choose a different vehicle
I live in a suburb in the cusp of the city and the farms so everyone has a diesel truck here (cape town). Most people who live here are not farmers though (including me). My neighbour is this champion Lycra cyclist (the other neighbours discus his Strava stats in awed hushed tones) but the man has the stinkiest of all diesel bakkies (“truck”) and he lets it run for 10 minutes to warm up every morning but those fumes go straight into my bedroom. I guess it’s my fault that I just adjust my routines rather than ask him to park differently but I’m amazed that someone who spends as much time outside is also an air quality offender 😂 Man is obviously faster than the typical truck though
People in big diesel pickup trucks like to put big black smoke in my face because they think i'm a rich environmentalist, hence why they do it to Tesla drivers. They Rev their engines loudly to mock me, pass me too closely and force me off the road.
What you call bollards, I call stanchions, and THEY. ARE. USELESS. If they want to use stanchions then every second stanchion needs to be reinforced with a steel rebar embedded in concrete. That should teach motorists to respect the bike lane! Except it won't. Nothing but jersey barriers or total street closures to cars will sufficiently protect cyclists. Best yet, ban all cars from New York City! American 4-wheelers are terrible drivers anyway. Worse than Russians!
@@timwalks 😆 Yep! I got the idea from a co-worker when I worked at MassDOT and on one highway at Logan Airport in East Boston motorists were going through the stanchions and onto ridged concrete pavement to get around a traffic backup, every day. Typical Massholes!
Biggest thing for me where I am right now are how the city doesn't give a shit about bikers. Potholes remain in bike lanes and are never fixed, the "lanes" they do have are filled with gravel and the people here are idiots that don't understand bikes and like u said don't care if you die and wouldn't even notice you under the tires of their lifted f150s. They've never ridden a bike for anything other than leisure and believe that's all they're useful for.
All the reasons you said are the reasons I’m not riding a bike like I want to. I would sing some money into a cargo bike, but I’m not gonna do that because number one it is so unsafe. Furthermore, I am not about to buy an electric car, another car I cannot afford Car insurance car payments, car wrecks and I really hate traffic. So my only solution is to move somewhere that has some kind of decent transit. Yeah in America. Which, by the way, does not exist, except in really expensive places to live for the most part. America basicallysucks
A car driving saying he doesn’t care about your life? WOW! A true Christian I assume! To be fair, here in Amsterdam mostly American toerist can get a lot of anger for walking in the bike lanes. RED = DEAD!
I'm a biker. I've ridden the _streets_ (no sidewalks) of major cities like philly and atlanta since 1998. The truth of riding with traffic, is that bike lanes are deathtraps. Cars can easily lose sight of you, you're not as visible as when you're riding next to them. I hate bike lanes and always ride the outside edge of them. Drivers hate it, but I'm more visible, and drivers have to account for me instead of forgetting I'm there and running into me. Other riders, many of them novices, become a burden with bike lanes. The lanes are often trashy with occasional glass and other tire killers. Lots of people park in them. Bike lanes and casual riders are killing the joy of riding.
That doesn't work for children, elderly, and people with disabilities (me). You are probably an able-bodied adult but the rest of us can't do what you do. So infrastructure for the majority who can't vehicular cycle and don't tolerate such risk to life and limb is necessary
I had one in the '90s. It was a Montague. While heavy compared to my Cannondale, it was very convenient, especially if I needed to put it in the trunk of a friend's car.
I don't deal with bikers super often where I live (Utah) except for the mountains. Going through the canyons with a biker going as fast as a biker can go on a two lane highway gets old quick...
Roads are not solely the domain of cars. The issue here is the insufficient roadway to accommodate everyone....as is the collective understanding of motorists vis a vis cyclists. Cycling predates driving by centuries. Gentle reminder: roads have posted speed limits or maximums, not minimums.
As true as your fun fact about speed limits might be, it SDIL seems notable that one guy getting his exercise in for the day can be allowed to cause a traffic jam
I agree on all counts. But stop wasting so much time talking about what you're gonna say, and say something new, or give us a new way to say the same old thing. This is so repetitive I can't even share it & forward it to anyone.
Hey, say what you want, but I love dust and exhaust in my face when riding.
Jokes aside, your relation of bike lanes to golf courses is spot on.
I only bike and I don’t drive. One of the biggest problems is various misconceptions around biking. I’ve had people tell me to my face that you can’t grocery shop with a bike. I had to politely inform them that I buy $300 worth of groceries every week with my 5-year-old on a single bike. Then they’ll say “well what about winter?” And I say: “I just wear good gloves and a mask”. Then they usually just assume I’m a crazy person
Woah, thats impressive? Do you do groceries with a cargo bike or a more standard road bike?
it’s a cargo e-bike and I pull a trailer for large loads. Very practical! I can haul hundreds of pounds!
I LOVE the people who say "what about in winter" because where I live half of them ski/snowboard in winter
Same. I have exclusively commuted by e-bike since September 2020. Just last month I cycled the equivalent distance of Earth's circumference (40 075kms); already 1000kms into my 2nd lap!
These scenarios are endless fun. I cycle commute by e-bike in Victoria BC - mildest winter climate in Canada - and I continually encounter others that challenge me on my vehicle choice. Even in a place that seldomly sees snow, and when it does, it last for such a brief period it's inconsequential, I find it strange to discover this exaggerated concern over a few
days of inclement weather when considering cycling as an option.
Given the 'Shangri-La' in which I live, aside from capability, and means, everyone else in my community should be cycling more.
Thanks Scott. I also bike almost daily, even during winter. This youtuber is just ignorant about what a basic standard, non-cargo bike is capable of and what the human body is capable of. Also, a reminder to just DEEPLY critically think for yourself. Talking about the importance of asthetics then say its not that important, but its still a top 5 biking issue 😢 ? Also refers to asthetics every other min....suspect channel and/or information
8:33 "Could you imagine if we deleted these highways"
Man one can only dream!
Haha, I didnt even think of it being misconstrued like that
I used to walk , hike and run but now have collapsed arches in my feet so walking long distances became painful . This was fourteen years ago . So just out of boredom I purchased several bicycles fourteen years ago . Great news is I got my mobility back and can still go for these long treks plus the cycling strengthened muscles . Sounds funny but I find walking easier since I started bicyclng because it strengthened the muscles in my upper and lower legs plus my back and the orthotics also helped . We really have to push for bicycle lanes because bicycles are the best .
Yup! As Ive delved more into this topic, Ive discovered there are impressive health benefits to biking
As an urban cyclist the section on driver behavior around 6:00 gave me all sorts of flashbacks. It’s a truly insane set of social interactions to have regularly, and the only times in my life I ever get angry - so angry I end l up physically shaking. It’s scary to realize your fellow citizens don’t care if you live or die.
Same. Just watching these scenes makes my blood boil. Not only do they not care if you live or die - many think it's your own fault if they kill you, and a few even wish for you to die.
I honestly have PTSD from riding a bike on American streets.
I don’t believe any of those people would behave like that if they weren’t in their 2 ton metal boxes.
I've ridden in many countries of the world. I've seen - experienced aggressive driver hostility in only two countries, us and UK. In both cases it comes from middle aged white men. Weak flabby people who think they can alleviate their inferiority complex by abusing a person they perceive to be weaker than themselves.
It's only a 1.5 mile straight shot from my apartment to my school, so I have been biking it this whole semester. Plastic bollard-protected bike lane along the whole journey, with a decent amount of space between cars and bikes. Nearly been hit by cars a few times, but it feels safe enough most of the time.
Sadly, it only takes one not-safe-enough time to send you to the hospital.
Great video, my daily commute is less than 5 miles and if I felt safe instead of riding right next to cars I would definitely want to use my bike instead of driving
I think it's very normal to feel this way. Unfortunately many cities say "why should we build bike infrastructure if nobody bikes?" but they've got it backwards. People don't bike BECAUSE there's no bike infrastructure. My wife likes biking with me but she's very risk averse so she usually needs me out in front navigating and dealing with traffic. It's hard and intimidating to be biking on a street alongside massive SUVs and trucks who could easily kill you and probably not even get a dent in their car.
Bike manufacturers take note, this are the things you should work with governments in getting done so you can SELL more bikes.
Ha, I didnt even consider this from a business perspective. But youre totally right!
Exactly! car lobbyists have been doing it for decades. At least try to beat them at their own game😉
@@timwalks you saying this is why I don't own a bike is what triggered the connection for me. wonder what companies would be good to outreach to for building up a bike manufacturing coalition to tackle these types of issues.
Umm what makes you think bike manufacturers are not lobbying?
Unfortunately, the bike manufacturers already make good money from selling high-end road bikes and mountain bikes to recreational cyclists, so they really dont have an incentive to lobby for urban bike infrastructure
All great points. As my dental hygienist complained, "Why can't they make it easy?"
I've bicycled regularly for about 50 years, despite all the problems you mention. I'm heartened by thr progress.
Thanks for outlining the issues so we can begin to address them. ❤
I grew up biking in the streets of NYC and I am comfortable with the ebbs and flows, but trying to get my wife into it showed me just how jarring it can be.
She made the point that
"Pedestrians rightfully feel uncomfortable when they have to share a sidewalk with a bike. Well the same feeling can be applied to Bikes that have to share a road with a car. If you wouldn't let your grandma or young children bike on it, it isn't safe and that is the biggest thing stopping so many people from using bikes."
Yup, right now most American bike lanes a made for risk takers, or those of us who are bot crazier. Bikelanes need to be made for everyone
Pedestrians do not get killed by bicyclists. Motor vehicles are far more dangerous.
Hi Tim! Great video. I too am a bike advocate who only bikes on city bikes. Unfortunately my risk tolerance just isn’t high enough to endanger my life on American roads as of now. Hopefully in 10 years from now it will be a different story just like the transformation of the Netherlands!
I hope so, it does feel like we are in a turning point right now. We just need to keep up the momentum.
I've ridden over 12,000 miles on my e-bike in the 3 years I've had it and I absolutely don't blame anyone who doesn't use a bike for transportation. Too many aggressive drivers and there are hardly any consequences if they seriously injure or kill you. Sadly the public transportation in my city leaves a lot to be desired so it's faster and more convenient to bike. I've talked to lots of people about biking and they WANT to bike but they're rightly afraid of being injured or killed. I'm doing what I can to push the elected officials in my city to make it safe and fun to bike AND improve public transportation.
Love the content! I live in St. Louis and try to bike as much as possible, but face many of the problems you discuss here. Luckily, our city does have some long term plans that, if seen through, will connect a lot of places with real bike lanes. Unfortunately, they're reluctant to actually add physical barriers to these lanes, so they're not as safe as they should be. But I'm still optimistic.
A note on the video: the transitions were a lot louder than the speaking parts. I found myself wanting to turn the volume down for them, then turn it back up for the speaking. Might want to check levels next time.
Keep it up.
Thanks for the technical feedback. Ill keep an eye out for that in the future.
Im very skeptical that we can really promote biking until real infrastructure is developed. I think the separation and plastic bollards are enough to get some bolder individuals to ride on them, but I still would be hesitant to ride with kids on such bike lanes.
I haven't biked in years. I'd love to again but there are too many overpowered and oversized trucks on the road here in Michigan. Ther is also the problem of the local car culture which seems to favour blacked out windows all around so you can't even get a idea if the driver of the car is looking at you or at their phone. And it's not just the trucks, ALL cars have gotten ridiculously overpowered and that seems to encourage aggressive driving. I also HATE driving a car for the same reason.
I live in a small town, with a huge wealth gap. Folks typically bike because they can't afford a car. Our lack of bike lanes is basically a war on poverty. That said, my town is gorgeous, and a robust bike network would be such a tourist attraction. We host two triathalons each year, so we HAVE cyclists coming to our town - we just need to give them the space to use their bikes for more than the race.
what town ?
One word: Brompton
Fixes theft,
Fixes storage,
Fixes shopping,
Facilitates multi model transport.
Ive considered it! But I don't know if i'm ready to throw 1.5-2k on a bike
@@timwalks I'm with you about the price thankfully my company in London had a great cycle to work scheme which helped. The other option is second hand; these bikes are very long lived.
I had an e-bike and got a Brompton but then I missed the e-bike part of it. Thinking I should get a Brompton e-bike heh
I have a Brompton and it's perfect for the current biking situation in a city like LA. For instance, the smaller wheels, which many dislike, are perfect for going on and off sidewalks, which you simply have to do in LA if you value your life. They are a bit pricey, but considering how much I use mine to replace car trips, much cheaper than a car. Plus healthier, etc. It's really the perfect Trader Joe's bike (with a nice big bag in front). Great design and a marvel of engineering, but my take on the Brompton is: too weird to be popular.
Too small for me. We need bike lockers for the theft issue. I wish my city had Oonee.
Where I live isn't so bad to get around by bike, but the thing that prevents me from using my bike more is the lack of storage at destinations. Like one my nearest stores has over 3 acres of parking lot but absolutely nothing dedicated to locking a bike to. It's just bikes locked to fire lane signs in front of the store...
I only transit/walk/bike in that order. Unfortunately for my travel preferences, I'm near one of the small cities on the Oregon coast. If you haven't been, there's one dangerous highway going the whole length of the rugged coast, with steep hills, no passenger rail, and really spotty bus service aimed at tourism. So the best non-car option is a beefy e-bike. It sucks having to chain that up to a bike rack, so I mostly make use of curbside pickup when I can.
On the upside, Oregonians are generally very considerate of me on the road. They will slow down and usually use the passing lane even though I'm on the shoulder (screw the sharrows). Every trip someone wants to chat with me about biking, so there's a lot of untapped interest in this mode of travel. We've got a lot of older population out here and they want to retain their mobility too. Final upsides? It's beautiful out here when it's not storming, and it's very fun to take the bike up & down the beaches.
Very thoughtful video, as always. I especially enjoyed you pointing out (perceived) bike culture and how it intersects with some other issues. It's not a super huge issue, but important, especially when considering political appeals to get the lanes built.
Thanks! We elect politicians that tend to be representative of the general population. So if the general population has some preconceived beliefs about biking, it is likely out politicians do to!
Our City Council decided concrete bollards are ugly, so they choose pedestrian/bike rider deaths instead 😥
Lol, plastic bollards are pretty? That's such weird logic. Safety should always trump aesthetics. What city is it, if you don't mind me asking?
Another awesome and informative video. Keep it up! As someone in their mid-twenties who's fairly confident in coordination, I still feel bike lanes are unsafe. If that's the case for me, what about kids and the older generation? The ones that truly cannot drive?
Yeah, many bike lanes as is are made for those willing to take a certain amount of risk, which is ridiculous. We shouldn't have to evaluate risk as a factor when getting around.
Yeah the top ones for me are definitely safe infrastructure and safe storage. I live in the LA area and I have to trace a route on Google maps any time I bike anywhere because so many streets even with bike lanes feel super sketchy. Bike parking is also horrible, even large strip malls often don't have a single bike rack. I've even gone to bike shops that don't have racks lol.
I used to live in a smaller town of around 70k people in Colorado and it actually felt pretty safe to bike around because residential streets didn't have much traffic and most businesses had at least 1 bike rack. In LA they put painted bike lanes on massive 5 lane streets, so those don't feel very safe, and traffic always seems to be overflowing into residential streets so those don't feel safe either.
People should replace random plastic bollards with steel bollards that look exactly like plastic bollards.
Great video. about those flex post. it's fascinating to me how they always use things that are design to not damage cars to stop cars from killing other people. Like, i understand they are creating temporary solutions and all, and i think a bike network on the cheap is a good way to spark the need for a better bike structure, but couldn't they use something that at least would make an effort to stop car? or at least make a sound for the driver?
As an everyday bike commuter, my biggest problem biking in America is the disconnectedness of the network. There are some truly nice and safe paths but then you are dumped out into the car lane where you are getting honked at and almost run over by inattentive drivers.
You pretty much hit all the major points. Cities need to put as much effort into bike infrastructure as they do for cars, providing routes from where people live to the places they need to go, put effort into maintaining it, and use modern methods and markings to make it safe. They could also require bike parking just as they require parking for cars (usually way too much parking at that). The city where I live just finished rehabbing three major roads and none of the projects included a bike component. One repaving widened the road a bit so they could paint a stripe and call it a bike lane. There are other areas that you simply can't get to by bike unless you ride the road. One example is at a freeway interchange which has no bike or pedestrian crossings. I wanted to meet friends for lunch on the other side of the interchange but there's no way to ride it safely - the sidewalk just ends short of the ramps. I want to ask the city planners and council whether they'd let their child ride on the so-called bike lanes, and challenge them to get around town for a day on a bike.
This video was both funny and enraging. I might add that bike theft in America is another barrier. I've had two bikes ripped off myself.
Sadly, bike theft is not limited to the US, it is a major problem in the Netherlands and Germany too.
BIke parking... imagine vertical structures, small footprint, robot controlled, enclosed, theft proof, coin operated. Solar panels on the sunny sides. Sell advertising on the shady sides. Imagine seeing them on just about most city and town corner? And the secret bike for city riding is the class 2 ebike. Can haul 100lbs as well. A throttle that gets you out of the way of the cars pretty fast. Drivers are not waiting for you to get out of the way. 20mph max. Great fitness as you pedal not just sit and twist. As a 2 wheel rider for over 50 years, I offer city riding skills training and education. Santa Fe NM. my 2 cents.
I went car-free 4 months ago. Although I have a bike, decent storage at home and work, I don't always use it because of the lack of infrastructure.
Good on you for trying the car-free life. It isn't easy in many parts of America.
I think, it all comes down to "culture". Because cycling is only seen as a sport, cyclists are not accepted on the road - often not even by the DOTs. That's why "bike path" are often just a trail in a forest, where "the cyclists can play with their toys".
The extreme aggression of many drivers against cycling also creates the need for a massive protection, which needs to cater against _intentional_ assault and not just against driver error. Many European cities are perfectly fine with just painted bike lanes or just a tiny curb that reminds drivers to stay in their lane. There may be some idiot parking in the bike lane, but that's it - you will never see people driving in the bike lane attempting to kill a cyclists.
I am fairly new to cycling to getting around. I have effectively zero road confidence, and safety is a big consideration for whether I even try biking somewhere. Just tonight I rode a brief distance for an errand on roads without bike lanes, and that was a big step for me.
My BIGGEST fears, even if they're not the most rational ones, are street harassment and bike theft. Those are easily the biggest reasons I think twice about going somewhere on a bike.
I went to Italy a few years ago and in Venice's suburbs there were wide sidewalks, that were half for pedestrians and half for bicyclists.
Germany has implemented that shared bike-pedestrian policy too. Pedestrians sticks to the houses and cyclists stick to the curb.
I spent a couple of years in the New Territories of Hong Kong during my youth. Biking there was great.
No way in hell am I about to bike next to cars. And the attitude that people even begin to think that we have great bike infrastructure....
And good point on the lack of storage.
I recently replaced about 75% of my car trips with bike trips, including a commute partially along a bike trail (El Cerrito, CA). The trail parallels a stroad a few blocks to the west, and drivers are all over the map in terms of how they respect the bike crossing. We currently have (mostly working) lights to warn drivers, but some don't see the lights anyway, and it's hard to tell from the cyclist's perspective whether the lights are working. I was thinking it would be great to reshape those intersections so that the bike lane is level across the road and car drivers experience a slight bump up to that level, along with mandatory stops for cars, much the way some Netherlands cities calm car traffic at intersections. Oddly, I felt almost as safe riding along parts of the stroad because all of the cross traffic was regulated, so I only had to worry about being hit from behind. Talk about a low bar.
Good on you for trying to make the change. El Cerrito is a decent area to try that. Very close to Emeryville and I hear they have a very supportive "Bike Mayor"
I saw some actual, solid bollards protecting bike lanes in Chicago and have missed that ever since. Never seen them anywhere else.
What I wish for most of all, though, is long bike paths that don't have constant intersections with cars. Every single intersection is a new chance for a car to totally ignore the possibility of there being a bike and side swiping me. I have to treat every intersection like all the cars there are blind until they've shown they're slowing down enough that they have noticed me. This is even worse because Philadelphia is putting in great protected bike lanes (protected by the row of parked cars), but they're doing this on the busiest roads - where cars are the most in a hurry to turn off of them when they're turning. I'd often rather be on the unprotected neighborhood streets for that reason alone.
i would TOTALLY bike to places if it was comfortable and safe. theres absolutely no thought put into bysicle infrastructure where i am. the most they can spare is a painted fucking gutter
Bad networks is a big one, sometimes the bike network connects the city parks together nicely and doesn't do much else. Also no available maps of what lanes are existing. I see that my city has a bunch of lanes for bikes, but I'd have to map them all. It feels like the city wants to say they have many miles of bike lanes but it's all random and again mostly connects the parks.
The Queens waterfront greenway or South Bronx Greenway is not "bad" per-say, and Im sure there are some practical trips which will be helped by their creation, (all infrastructure helps at this point), but you are right they should be a lower priority compared to building a protected network north of 110th street in Manhattan or anywhere in southern Brooklyn. It still the Robert Moses mindset of bikes as recreation not transportation.
I sold my car in 2019, moved to SE portland and it was the best thing I ever did. I grew up riding bikes, hell i didn't get my license until I was 18, and only because i was told to. Hated driving so much so I went back to the bike lol.
I know exactly how to ride in traffic, so i am 100% comfortable riding on any street(thankfully most of the streets in inner portland don't go higher than 25) but to get someone to convert to riding a bike is hard.
If people are reserved in portland, then i can only imagine the struggle 95% of americans who dont live in good cycling areas
Converting to biking is hard. Even as someone who predominantly grew up walking or taking public transit, biking to me is only useful when I'm willing to spend $4 to "fast travel" using a rental.
I love Portland's "twenty is plenty" residential speed limit campaign.
@@danieldaniels7571And it should be 20 kph not mph! Right?
@@AubreyBarnard no. Definitely mph. 20 kph is too damn slow.
Excellent video. Agree on all points.
I want to push back on the comment @8:48 - We don't need fastest route from point a-b FOR BIKES, safest is most important in the current car infested infrastructure. I take the long way to find the safest route on my commutes. Not optimal or quickest. That is car thinking, mow down the quickest path between every destination. Still liking your channel. Keep it up. SUBSCRIBED.
I think you're right. But if we caaaan have both, why not? :)
Or we could do like Amsterdam (and other places) where the car route is intentionally the least direct route so it takes longer than biking or transit. People won't shift away from cars until they are less convenient.
I bike, but it's hard to commute. I live in a bike town. We are IMBA gold for mountain biking, used to hold professional road bike races, have a local race series for road and mountain, but it's still hard to commute. And then all the problems you mention exist unless you live in the heart of the village, which is so expensive that people who live here year round cannot afford it unless it's employee housing.
I bike in LA. There’s obviously a ton that needs to be improved here, and LA needs to fix all the things you mentioned in this video. But given how bad the traffic is and the lack of reliable public transportation options, I actually think it should be easy for people to recognize biking as a legitimate transportation option here (the weather also helps). I am seeing more bikers with me along my commute to work and seeing how many people attend some community events like Critical Mass LA, I think (and hope) the culture is slowly changing here. They just need to add way more protected bike lanes at this point
I sometimes wonder if I left LA too early. Ive been carefully eyeing LAs public transit improvments over the last year. Pretty excited about the progress theyre making on the wilshire line and their new bus lanes
I used to live in a canadian city with a pretty complete car-separate bike network, but i moved to a small college-border town for college, I'm fairly comfortable riding with traffic, but I wasn't ready for just how bad it was, I only rode my bike a handful of times since moving there, since I had to drive there, (one intercity train a day, and very little in-town transit) I found myself never riding it.
I really do miss bike commuting, commuting by car sucks! even in places built for cars.
I miss bike commutting as well. Its one of the few things I miss about the Bay Area. Commutting to work on bike everyday was so liberating.
Surprised to hear its worse in a college towns. I feel like they tend to do a better job prioritizing students who cannot afford a car
Your #3 is by far the most important. In America, bicyclists are not generally accepted as legitimate road users. For bicyclists to be accepted as legitimate road users, a profound cultural shift has to take place. If this "cultural shift" happens, which I doubt, then your 4 other items will take care of themselves.
Yeah, perhaps it comes down to receiving respect. Once you have respect, policy won't be so antagonistic.
Too many Americans are filled with internal hidden hostility, feibgs of inadequacy, and rage, which comes out when they perceive a chance to abuse a person whom they believe to be weaker than themelves, like a cyclist. The reasons are complex, but it's real. I have ridden in many countries, but only in anglo Saxon us and UK have I experienced abnormal hostility. It's not limited to cycling l, but that's where we see it come out.
I bike and have never owned a car in my life, but I'm relatively spoiled by the bike infrastructure of Cambridge+Somerville+Boston. Heck, I didn't get my driver's license till my late 20s. I've simply never needed a car for myself because I could easily get wherever I needed on foot, bike, or transit.
I've been lucky enough to never have an accident but I do live with some amount of dread of the possibility. My most common fears on the road are:
1) is this car gonna turn and right hook me? (this fear is strong enough that I often cede my right of way (per MA traffic law) to turning cars)
2) am I actually fully out of the door zone?
3) damn, the bike lane is blocked by a truck - can I safely lane shift?
4) alright, I'm gonna do the "vehicular cycling" thing, let's keep our head on a swivel and hope other drivers actually watch out for me
Through over a decade of constant bike commuting, I feel like I've learned some paths and best-practices to stay safe and quick, but that's been a lot of work. Far from something that is EASY to adopt. Hence, I can totally understand why folks are reluctant to bike.
Totally agree with you on the importance of NETWORKS. If communities can make *safe* bike networks that get people from door to door faster (or more conveniently - e.g. on your own schedule) than the alternatives, that should foster a biking culture which can then support ongoing advocacy.
7:40 I agree, I frequent these bike lanes since I do deliveries in the area. It would be nice if they at least connected to Alley Pond Park via Union Tpke. Also once you end up in Nassau County there's no bike lanes and cars move much faster. The only bike lane there is the one on the I-495 south service road which only lasts a couple of meters
Yeah, you start running into a slew of other problems once you cross city lines. Even in NYC the disparaties between council districts are obvious
I used to bike 10 years ago when there were very few bike lanes in my city, it was scary and stressful biking in traffic.
I stopped after I had 3 bikes stolen.
Great insights! I'm gonna remember that point about golf courses 🤣 🤣 I hate golf courses... tells you my point of view 🤣 Watched a bunch of your videos and really enjoyed them. I lived just east of the Grove mall for 32 years (!), then moved to Pasadena earlier this year. Had to have some peace and quiet and no chaos! I'm a bike person but I also recognize that most other people aren't. Here are my 2 perhaps worthwhile points. 1) Bike travel has to be a) safe and b) practical before most people will do it. In LA, I think the answer is take one of the major east-west routes, say Pico, and make it bikes only all the way across the city. That would be disruptive but I predict would be pretty popular. That kinda leads into my point 2: I see lots of great videos and viewpoints like yours and Nimesh's but what I haven't yet seen is some good suggestions for how to make the transition from a car city to a bike city. Seems to me that car infrastructure is so big and imposing and expensive that it's very hard to make a smooth transition to something different. It's just too disruptive -- or not disruptive enough, like painted bike lanes (which I consider possibly worse than useless as they don't protect anyone but they let politicians say "see, I added X miles of bike lanes"). Are there cities built in the US style (meaning not Paris) that show how to make that transition smoothly? I mean, here in LA, even a CicLAvia style event on Sunday mornings gets a lot of drivers really angry, saying "road are for cars!" I despair over how to make this transition less painful...
Hey @jazzfan7491, thanks for the constructive comment. I do need to do a video describing how we should make this transition. I despise a lot of these "interim" solutions. My perspective, as an engineer, any change you make is going to be met with some amount of anger. As a result I think it's better to go bold and rip the band-aid off instead of making awkward transitions and changes that have to be updated annually. With that in mind, I think your idea of just taking one Blvd and saying "yup this is no longer for cars" is a right approach. Especially considering people tend to forget about change fairly quickly, you are better off doing this than prolong an infrastructural change over many years. Thanks for the feedback!
@@timwalks Yeah, I basically agree that probably the only way to make the transition is relatively abruptly. The car infrastructure is just too established, and people have built their whole lives and jobs around cars. So it's going to to be difficult. I think if Pico went all bikes, that would be quite a band-aid pull off! (But I suggest that because I think there are so many alternative routes -- the 10, Olympic, Venice etc etc -- that it would be less shocking than doing the same thing on a north-south route, for instance...)
Here's an interesting transition, I think: My city is installing a center-running BRT on a major road. They have a bunch of lane closures around where they're building the stops. Drivers don't seem that upset about the lane closures. After all, working on the roads makes it better for drivers! But the drivers are getting used to having fewer lanes, and then - surprise! - they'll never get those lanes back because they will become dedicated bus lanes. So I'm now realizing that prolonged and disruptive road construction could be an effective strategy for transition.
@@AubreyBarnard Good ideas
I try to bike commute, but everything that you said in the video is so true! It is unfortunate, but I hop it is changing.
Need to address the issue of hating on poshness. Excellent use of ZeroEnigma clip.
Maybe less income equality would help? (I'm not so sure because there seem to be some other, pretty deep cultural issues involved.)
I bike, but only on the sidewalks because I'm too scared to ride on the street.
While it's true that plastic flex posts do nothing to protect people from crashing or out of control cars, I wouldn't say that they "aren't stopping anything". They certainly stop normal drivers from driving in the bike lane. So they are in my opinion infinitely better than nothing. Drivers constantly, intentionally, carelessly encroach their machines into unprotected bike lanes, as if they aren't even there.
This is a good point, perhaps I'm too aggressive against this solution.
I live on Long Island which is small but densely populated, right NEXT to NYC. I feel like its the perfect candidate to start with, or at least Nassau with building some of this out. Maybe it has too many people living here but half of NYC and most of whats taken up is devoted to highways, parking lots and suburban housing. It could be a lovely and quiet place to cycle especially in spring and autumn. The most bike path near me is a bit out of the way and is purely made for exercise and recreation, not to get you anywhere
2 Year cycle commuter here in Richmond, VA
You have to be hardcore to successfully be a person who primarily cycles here in Richmond. It is amazing how it is quite literally the quickest and cheapest way to get around town, but it also super dangerous and you must have thick skin. I encounter aggressive drivers who will harass you for no reason, some who will try to kill you, or will just do something mindless and impatient and almost take you out with out even noticing. I've been hit once and crashed other time that caused real injuries (ACL tear). Cycling is amazing, but it is so dangerous regardless if you follow traffic laws or not.
I ride an ebike and take a lot of neighborhood streets and avoiding stroads, but in phoenix thats not easy esp in the summer.
I biked as my main mode of transportation in Phoenix, Scottsdale & Tempe from 1991 to 1993. It's actually very doable, but you have to really think outside the box when planing your routes. The best option is to ride along canals when you can, and quarter mile thoroughfares like Colter, Virginia, Palm, 17th Avenue, 14th Street, 37th Avenue, Clarendon, etc. And of course ride after dark or early in the morning in the summer. It's helpful that all busses and the light rail allow bikes on board.
Great video! All good points but “safety” probably occupies all top 5 spots! That said, I started biking to work 25+ years ago before my city had very much bike infrastructure at all. The way I justified the risk to myself is that we know that a sedentary lifestyle kills millions through cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc. and that my risk from biking is probably no worse than the risk I would have of living a sedentary lifestyle. There is a risk of just sitting in your car, and it doesn’t come from just the crashes.
Huh, I never considered this tradeoff, but I think this is a good point. This might be an interesting data driven video topic!
I bike to work each day. A huge barrier even to me whose pretty risk tolerant is intersections. You can piece-meal lots of decent bike paths, but there's about 0 semi-busy intersections in my town I feel close to comfortable going through on a bike. It makes pathfinding incredibly arduous if you're going somewhere new.
I have always loved biking as a means of transport, but no surprise; I live in the Netherlands. The nr. 1 bike country in the world.
I take my bike even with me on holidays to other European countries. I cycled in London UK, Flanders, Munich, Hamburg and Senftenberg Germany.
I bike, sometimes. I don't drive, so the other option is walking. I walk a lot.
I actually live in a "platinum" biking city (Madison, WI), but the infrastructure is all wrong for the people who need it most. We have great routes that used to be railroad tracks, and many of them are beautiful. But those routes were never designed to go to the places that currently support the most jobs, schools, and housing for people who are least likely to own cars. To navigate downtown or the University, you have to patch together bike paths, unprotected or barely protected bike lanes, and
random city streets.
But many of us who are not university students or downtown workers don't even have it that good. For example my local Walmart is only a couple miles away, but there's no designated bike route for a place like that, and getting there involves a curving drive with a narrow bike lane that abruptly disappears into the middle of nowhere. People who work or shop at Walmart can't get there on a bike without placing themselves in unreasonable danger. It's the same if we need to get to Target, the mall or the businesses around it, including ethnic grocery stores.
I once had a colleague whose entire take on cycling consisted of "you people all wear Spandex" (yes he meant Lycra). That was it. He couldn't conceive riding as anything other than a recreational pursuit.
Yes, I do bike. That is how I get astound town.
I live up two floors and have to navigate a moderately tight spiral staircase with no protected storage for a bike. This initially deterred me from using one regularly as carrying a full sized bike up was a hassle, but I found an electric scooter and a folding bike have tight enough wheel bases that they are easy to carry without issue. They're small enough I don't really have an issue bringing them in places I am going to, and even on the local rail which can get cramped with people. But as you mentioned, there's a lack of education and culture that can make it difficult to find the right tool for the right job. Or the right bike for the right person. "How would I get groceries?" being a prime example of people not really knowing of the options on how to carry things on a bike.
But yeah I do agree with your points, I do bike, but I have to be more selective than I'd like as the roads and bike network are really terrible for taking a bicycle for more trips
I enjoy your videos. I bike a decent amount but would bike more if the suburbs where I live had bike lanes lane side collectors. I would bike to work and shorter trips without taking my car.
Well put.
"Your life is not my concern". Yup, about sums up the attitude of the average american motorist towards cyclists and pedestrians.
There is only one reason American bike infrastructure sucks: we keep electing drivers.
If the people in power didn't have access to cars, then transit modes other than cars would become viable.
I don't think people need to be "bikers" People who commute by foot don't see themselves as walkers. People who use their car don't see themselves as drivers. And people who take the train don't think they're nerds. That's the whole point. Bikes and trains need to become so ubiquitous and easy to use that they just become a normal thing, like wearing shoes and sending emails.
The UK is way better than the US, but my partner still doesn't feel safe to ride a bike- I have to equip mirrors, a horn, etc and still got run over by a driver failing to yield while staring at me on a roundabout! In a traffic calmed housing estate! It is no wonder she doesn't feel safe! Cars just suck! Who thought allowing any idiot to potentially own their own motor vehicle was rational?
people in europe are not fond of bikes or cars or public transit, they use whats most provided , pragmatic, easy and cost efficient.
if you build frequent subway, frequent and safe bus and cycling path as a holistic system, with protected bikelanes, bike garages, bike repair cafe in every nearby place to one, people will use transport bike, commute to work, school and in free time.
Looking on every movie about urbanism and cycling in US shows me how progressive are the european cities, even in Poland. We really undervalue our possibilities, while our bike networks are not good, have also several issues. Comparing them to the US cities, shows me that we're ages ahead fo You. Such agressive motorists' behaviors also happens, but its numbers is decreasing, while bike became a normal transport mode in peoples' minds. It took some years, but it is possible.
I live close to work and the grocery stores, and could easily bike to those places, but I dont cause of all these reasons you mentioned. I sooo wish I could safely bike around town cause that would save me a ton of money on gas and car expenses
My region voted to create an agency that would create greenways that tracked along our many rivers in the years since it has learn some lessons about the power of nature on rivers banks and the needs of the voters that created it. It is now working to create greenways that connect communities. Providing real value for the taxpayers that fund it.
A large portion of feeling safe on a bike, is your perception, rather than actually being safer. This is important to understand as bike advocates if we want to invite new cohorts of everyday riders.
But our focus on safety also artificially inflates the true number of accidents per rider miles. It's a catch 22. I envision biking and micromobility overtaking car ownership by the time we build separated bike infrastructure. What a mess that'll be.
In Philadelphia, there is a bike lane with plastic bollards from south to north but not the other way. So, I can ride the path from my house near South St. to the Trader Joe’s on Market, but there is no bike path to get back!
I park my bike in car parking spots 😊
Bold!
I live in ct and I bought a bike barley use it because no biking lanes and sometimes no sidewalksmi refuse tomrieemon the street
I’ve always thought that people who drive these heavy diesel vehicles are not walkers or joggers. Like I’m out walking, smelling nature, listening to birds. Then one commuter leaving the burbs means like a full minute of toxic fumes. It feels like a personal attack on me. Obviously it isn’t because the person driving isn’t aware of the misery they’re causing me because if they were a walker they would choose a different vehicle
I live in a suburb in the cusp of the city and the farms so everyone has a diesel truck here (cape town). Most people who live here are not farmers though (including me). My neighbour is this champion Lycra cyclist (the other neighbours discus his Strava stats in awed hushed tones) but the man has the stinkiest of all diesel bakkies (“truck”) and he lets it run for 10 minutes to warm up every morning but those fumes go straight into my bedroom. I guess it’s my fault that I just adjust my routines rather than ask him to park differently but I’m amazed that someone who spends as much time outside is also an air quality offender 😂
Man is obviously faster than the typical truck though
Bikers need to adopt open carry.
It's the way in Arizona 😅
People in big diesel pickup trucks like to put big black smoke in my face because they think i'm a rich environmentalist, hence why they do it to Tesla drivers. They Rev their engines loudly to mock me, pass me too closely and force me off the road.
❤
What you call bollards, I call stanchions, and THEY. ARE. USELESS. If they want to use stanchions then every second stanchion needs to be reinforced with a steel rebar embedded in concrete. That should teach motorists to respect the bike lane! Except it won't. Nothing but jersey barriers or total street closures to cars will sufficiently protect cyclists.
Best yet, ban all cars from New York City! American 4-wheelers are terrible drivers anyway. Worse than Russians!
Lol I never considered planting rebar inside them, that is a funny idea
@@timwalks 😆 Yep! I got the idea from a co-worker when I worked at MassDOT and on one highway at Logan Airport in East Boston motorists were going through the stanchions and onto ridged concrete pavement to get around a traffic backup, every day. Typical Massholes!
A lot of our "safe" bike lanes in NYC have been poached by mopeds and motorcycles and other non human propelled vehicles 😡
Biggest thing for me where I am right now are how the city doesn't give a shit about bikers. Potholes remain in bike lanes and are never fixed, the "lanes" they do have are filled with gravel and the people here are idiots that don't understand bikes and like u said don't care if you die and wouldn't even notice you under the tires of their lifted f150s. They've never ridden a bike for anything other than leisure and believe that's all they're useful for.
Your in between segment music is painfully loud.
I feel sad now :(
The home of the scared (cyclist) and the land of the unfree (cyclist)
Oi its pronounced summer-ville @2:21
All the reasons you said are the reasons I’m not riding a bike like I want to. I would sing some money into a cargo bike, but I’m not gonna do that because number one it is so unsafe. Furthermore, I am not about to buy an electric car, another car I cannot afford Car insurance car payments, car wrecks and I really hate traffic. So my only solution is to move somewhere that has some kind of decent transit. Yeah in America. Which, by the way, does not exist, except in really expensive places to live for the most part. America basicallysucks
A car driving saying he doesn’t care about your life? WOW! A true Christian I assume! To be fair, here in Amsterdam mostly American toerist can get a lot of anger for walking in the bike lanes. RED = DEAD!
I'm a biker. I've ridden the _streets_ (no sidewalks) of major cities like philly and atlanta since 1998. The truth of riding with traffic, is that bike lanes are deathtraps. Cars can easily lose sight of you, you're not as visible as when you're riding next to them. I hate bike lanes and always ride the outside edge of them. Drivers hate it, but I'm more visible, and drivers have to account for me instead of forgetting I'm there and running into me.
Other riders, many of them novices, become a burden with bike lanes. The lanes are often trashy with occasional glass and other tire killers. Lots of people park in them. Bike lanes and casual riders are killing the joy of riding.
As a cyclist and e-scooter rider I actively avoid roads with painted bicycle gutters. Side streets without them are exponentially safer.
That doesn't work for children, elderly, and people with disabilities (me). You are probably an able-bodied adult but the rest of us can't do what you do. So infrastructure for the majority who can't vehicular cycle and don't tolerate such risk to life and limb is necessary
@@rachaelm4573 I had no problem doing it as a child
Get a folding bike.
I had one in the '90s. It was a Montague. While heavy compared to my Cannondale, it was very convenient, especially if I needed to put it in the trunk of a friend's car.
I don't deal with bikers super often where I live (Utah) except for the mountains. Going through the canyons with a biker going as fast as a biker can go on a two lane highway gets old quick...
You end up with a biker leading like 7-10 cars up the canyon...
Roads are not solely the domain of cars. The issue here is the insufficient roadway to accommodate everyone....as is the collective understanding of motorists vis a vis cyclists.
Cycling predates driving by centuries.
Gentle reminder: roads have posted speed limits or maximums, not minimums.
As true as your fun fact about speed limits might be, it SDIL seems notable that one guy getting his exercise in for the day can be allowed to cause a traffic jam
What if they're trying to get somewhere? You assumed it's just for exercise...
I agree on all counts. But stop wasting so much time talking about what you're gonna say, and say something new, or give us a new way to say the same old thing. This is so repetitive I can't even share it & forward it to anyone.
Way#1: ban all bikes from public spaces and roads.
...
lol
Nice joke
@@NotFine Not joking. I am not a fan of bikers.
Don't you mean: Build separated bike infra to minimize car driver- cyclist conflict?