I bought my place with that very prospect in mind. I can do my vital errands by bicycle on roads with very little car traffic. For roads with cars you need to be able to get the hell out of their way. Even My Harleys are fast enough for that.
re: We will have accurate data when the 2010 census is complete
There is also something profoundly wrong with a nation where a constitutionally mandated enumeration of its people every 10 years collects info about bicycles!
Riding a bicycle to work is a beautiful and therapeutic experience. I know because I tried it, and pretty soon I’m going to try it again. Seriously.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Wholebunchalotta credibility there!
I have bicycle commuted off and on since 1989. I’ve done every STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride since 1991. The first 10 years in two days and the rest in one day. It’s 200 miles.
I like to bike ride, it keeps me in shape, and I am sharper when I get to work than I am when I’ve sat in a half hour of rush hour in a car. A couple of years ago, I counted the cars I PASSED on my 9 mile ride to work. I passed over 300 “stop and go” cars before 100 of them overtook me just before I pulled into the office. :)
I consider a mountain bike to be an excellent form of transportation when you put kevlar belted road tires on it. And if you leave the mountain tires on it is not only fun, but it can be a good way to get places during economic collapse. People do not realize just how fast bicycles are compared to cars in an urban area. Heck, I used to commute 46 miles round trip to my job in the University district. It took 55 minutes each way by bike and 1 hour and five minutes by bus.
I don’t force it on anyone else, and I have not gone down on a bike since I was jumping dirt piles in summer of 1965 in eastern Washington.
And no, I don’t stop at stop signs or even traffic lights if there is no traffic or cops. And I’ve been hit by three cars, all of which were badly scratched up by my handlebars and pedals but I stayed up with no damage whatsoever every time.
All that said, what makes it fun is that I don’t HAVE to. Nor would I force it on anyone else.
I have a 20-mile drive to work. Lately, I am encountering cyclists leaving town when I am within 4-5 miles of work. More annoying is when I am leaving for home and catch them in my lane getting out of town.
They are either retirees or unemployed or perhaps schoolteachers off for the summer. They seem oblivious to those of us who actually have to be somewhere.
Now I did have a friend once who was an Army Ranger triathlete who used to ride his bike out to my place for a light workout. Different deal; dude had it going on and was ready to deploy in defense or our country.
These other clowns are just out for a joy ride. Maybe they should volunteer putting up square bales if they need exercise.
Four wheels OK, two wheels BETTER.
Of course, my two wheels are a Honda Shadow with overcompression and custom pipes pushing 70 hoursepower...
Queue the spandex/exercise haters........
I bought my place with that very prospect in mind. I can do my vital errands by bicycle on roads with very little car traffic. For roads with cars you need to be able to get the hell out of their way. Even My Harleys are fast enough for that.
“500,000 Americans commute by bicycle.”
For a while, in nice weather.
Not 52 weeks a year!
Obviously I was fit enough back in the day but I could never figure out where to put 1,000 lb’s of carpentry tools on a bicycle for the 40 mile round trip to work.
In the Portland Metro area, we are building new bike paths as we speak, even though we can’t afford it. The reason being that IIRC correctly, Minneapolis was recently named as the bike path capital of the US...taking over Portland’s # 1 spot. Can’t have that happening!
Have you ever driven down a road without a bike path, see a biker in your lane, and want to open the passenger door as you pass said biker?
Happens to me all of the time.
Just a week ago I saw an idiot on a bike run a Red light in front of a Ford truck. The truck driver had to throw on his brakes and swerve to miss the idiot. Idiots on bikes make great smears. Get your child’s toy off the road.
Well then you can be sure the roads will be well paved.
I loved riding my bike to graduate school in Philadelphia,...**but**...I like being alive better. The truth is that if motorcycling in dangerous, then so is bicycling! ( Is a “duh” necessary?)
I still bike ( 30 years later) but it is on mountain trails that are specifically set aside for just that purpose.
I bike politely and as safely as is possible. Every mile that I ride leaves more fuel for those who need and want it. The joy of it is that so long as it is my option and I am considerate, what harm is it for the rest? The amount of money listed in this article is a pinprick on the ass of a 1.4+ TRILLION DOLLAR Deficit.
The idiots cited by my fellow FReepers should be pulled over by the police and tickets issued, just like the bozo who zoomed up on me and sprayed beer in my face and roared off on a traffic-less road. There are idiots on both sides but given the fact that this is a land of diminishing freedoms, please allow me mine!
I live in Alaska, bikes are not so easy to use up here, if anything a quad ATV is what everyone must have, many people commute to work on these, there are some wonderful paved off the shoulder of the highway bike trails around, they are kept clean, they have all the ramps and signs and such.
But very few people ride bikes on them, sure maybe for the couple of weeks of summer we get here, but on the other side of the highways with its muddy track full of dips and water holes is the route for the ATVs and in the winter the snowmachiners.
Of which neither group can legally use the $20 million bike path...
Democrats in action. They feel so good about a project but fail to consider the real wants and desires of the people.
Myself, I own two motorcycles and a 496 cubic inch gasoline powered dually.
For adults, bicycling has become a finger-wagging, revenue-pilfering, and increasingly obnoxious crusade.I never wag my finger while I'm riding; if I'm pilfering revenue, I'm not getting any money out of it; I'm certainly not on any sort of a crusade.