I never learned how to ride a bicycle, I should really get to it someday. I just walk everywhere I need to go, or use carpooling/bus/subway..
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
88 points (98.9% liked)
Greentext
4437 readers
1286 users here now
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
"Cars are freedom! *
Except for the monthly finance payment, the legal obligation to insurance companies, the dependance on oil companies, etc"
My problem is that I have terrible balance on a bike, and the last time I tried to ride one I had an anxiety attack. I still am strongly for bike usage, though.
What about an electric scooter? Or honestly tricycles with a big cargo spot on the back are pretty sweet so long as you have the space and aren’t going up any crazy hills (could get an electric tricycle thoo).
At the end of the day though, I love bicycles but they can’t work for everyone… which is why the hope for most American cities at least is in busses. I know everyone hates busses and they are usually considered the least cool thing ever but honestly they are the future for mass transit in the US. We ripped out all the streetcars which is heartbreaking but I think busses are the closest practical replacement.
LONG LIVE THE BUS
I'll admit that I've considered an electric scooter, but I haven't gotten around to it.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I do wish licensing and insurance was required. I've been hit by 3 cyclists. 3 claims that would need to use uninsured motorist coverage and I had to go out of pocket on the deductible if I wanted to fix my car even though none were my fault. The one time damage was bad enough to where I did submit a claim, the insurance company tried to shake down the cyclist for my deductible, but failed, so I was out $500 or so. The other 2, I just accepted that my car now has a scratch there which was shitty too.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Aww, you don't list showing up for work drenched in sweat or with frozen fingers 😰
drenched in sweat
Skill issue.
frozen fingers
There's these things called gloves. You should look into them.
load more comments
(1 replies)
MUCH slower, no protection from the elements, most can only support one person at a time. Great for shorter distances, but that's about it.
most can only support one person at a time.
As a Dutchie, that's bullshit. Three at the least.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Distance. An hour commute or a 20 minute trip to the grocery store. We killed walkable neighborhoods so now here we are. Trapped.
But we can't have 15 minute cities because...that's tyranny somehow?
15 minute cities are about as organic as "two weeks to flatten the curve". There's a reason they don't exist, it's not a practical idea. Just like every other idea children come up with.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Open your own grocery store. Or allow others to do so.
I would if I could. But I can't beat Walmart prices an hour away on Transit.
That's why you don't see 15 minute cities anymore. Capitalism already figured out that a few large stores allow you to hire more efficient numbers of employees, buy more for less, stock better variety, pass along some of the savings to customers and still make more profit than building lots and lots of repeated commercial infrastructure throughout residential areas. A return to that model would require more employees in low paying service jobs, and would sacrifice lower prices and better variety. Ironically, it would be far faster to use a car to skip from store to store to look for the best deals and the specific brands you want. I suppose we could also get rid of capitalism at the same time, but I'm not holding my breath. As much as I like the idea of walkable infrastructure, it comes at a cost that I am not sure many would be willing to pay.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Unusable by almost everyone that's disabled, most of the elderly, and cannot carry any significant amount of goods.
Difficult to impossible to carry more than a single passenger as well, which reduces range and energy efficiency steeply when it is done.
You can negate part of those difficulties with variations on the bicycle, including tri and quad bikes, but you still run into range limitations that are incompatible with living anywhere but a city.
The posted text is yet another example of someone with a narrow view of how life actually works outside of their own situation. I used to love riding a bike. Can't now because of disability, but it also would have made my main job impossible back when I could still work. You can't ride a bike thirty miles across mountainous terrain in snow and ice to get to a patient's house. You simply can not do it with any regularity at all, no matter what condition you're in.
Even in cities, you're still limited by weather and time.
Unusable by almost everyone that's disabled, most of the elderly, and cannot carry any significant amount of goods.
Damn, I should call my 80 year old mom and tell her to stop doing her shopping on her bike. She'll pass it along to all her friends of similar age when they bike to the community centre together, I'm sure.
you still run into range limitations that are incompatible with living anywhere but a city.
Damn, so it only works for 274 million Americans and 555 million Europeans who don't live rural.
but it also would have made my main job impossible back when I could still work. You can't ride a bike thirty miles across mountainous terrain in snow and ice to get to a patient's house.
Oh no, it doesn't work for everyone all the time everywhere. Since this isn't a perfect solution for everything always, we should just completely ignore it and never use it.
I do 90% of my trips by bike, but sometimes I have to work at a construction site or a factory complex or some other middle-of-nowhere place, so I go by car. But when I go grocery shopping, or to a cafe, or out for dinner, or to my friends nearby, I go by bike. Most of the time I go to the DIY store, or clothes shopping, or just for fun, I go by bike.
And when it doesn't work, I take the car, but it's by far the minority of trips.
I completely agree with your arguments, but may I kindly ask you to not use such aggressive tone? This place is generally very kind, and it is saddening to see aggression coming from seemingly nowhere. The same arguments can be listed politely.
Their tone is downright pleasant compared to much of lemmy
Wanna some good old Internet toxicity?
Bruh I live 26 miles from where I work by car, and 21 miles by biking per Google Maps. And most of it is highway travel. It would make my commute over 1.5 hrs.
It is the dream if/when we can move closer though.
if entire cities were designed around these the way they are with cars, everyone would be fine with it and you would live less than 6 miles from where you work.
**
The fact is goes as far as as fast as you can isn't really a good thing. Also collisions are more likely to kill you.
...aaand we're back to adjusting our speed to suit the circumstances.
Cities are inhospitable, but mostly because they're built around 1 tonne death traps as opposed to other means of transport
You won't be able to adjust it very high. And what is a better solution than 1 ton death traps? Is it trains? No. That would require rebuilding every city in America to be like 4 buildings and nothing else and the places where it would work already have it like new York. Is it buses? No. They are already in place and nobody uses them. So tell me, what is the actual solution besides cars?
Can't sleep in it. Gotta haul your groceries. Won't get you to the next state and back.
Y'all are deluded.
- Will be yours for an average of 1.2 days in a major city before it gets stolen
Bikes are ableist aren’t they? They work well for you if you don’t have any physical or cognitive issues.
All I’m saying is nobody ever got a great ass because they drove a car a lot.