For bad weather I just wear a poncho or rain clothes when bicycling. Or a shirt and plenty of water. Etc. Our bike pathes also get salted in winter.
For payloads – most people don’t need to tow anything more than a backpack more than once or twice a year. And even then, there are bicycle bags that you can put on the back of the bike. And bike trailers as well.
Most people buy groceries more than once a year, and as soon as I wasn’t living alone that became an unreasonable quantity of groceries to transport by bike. Even before then, I was carrying them in panniers - it was always way more than would fit in a backpack.
Cycling is great - ideal, even. But I bought a(n electric) car a year and a half ago, and now my nose wrinkles at the fuck cars mindset. The ability to take big items to the recycling centre, freedom from public transport schedules, not having to worry about falling off and breaking my instrument when riding to a music lesson - it has a lot of advantages.
And riding in the rain is fine, and people make a bigger deal out of that and a lot of other things than they should if they haven’t tried it, but driving is an improved experience on almost all of them.
And? I do my groceries by foot or bicycle and it goes just fine. Same with public transit. There’s also home delivery, that goes by bicyclists.
The public transit schedules being shit in your region is most likely because of defunding of their lines, intentionally reducing the amount of coupes/buses, not paying their employees a decent wage, and strike busting (eg prohibiting strikes where the transit continues to ride but without raising a fee). Realise that car and petrol lobbies worked a ton to do that.
And also… seriously? “Your instrument falling off” out of all worries? C’mon. Then you need a good bicycle bag and to bike more often to learn to do it well. I’ve never fallen off my bicycle and I’ve biked for 25 years. And that’s with snow, rain, heatwaves, potholes and bad roads.
The car isn’t really an improvement for me. Stressing out about other drivers, all the honking, needing to look for parking, fuel costs, maintenance costs, and the enormous space it takes up for so few people – it’s incredibly inefficient.
And? I do my groceries by foot or bicycle and it goes just fine. Same with public transit. There’s also home delivery, that goes by bicyclists.
Given that I said I used to do groceries by bike but mentioned some changes, this isn’t worth very much without saying how many people you’re buying for, and how often. If you’re willing to go shopping every other day, or are only buying for yourself, it’s quite different than if you’re trying to minimise the number of trips and/or are buying for more people, isn’t it?
The public transit schedules being shit in your region
I didn’t say they were shit. For many purposes they are quite reasonable. But they are still a schedule, and the difference between getting to the bus stop at the right time to catch your bus versus a minute after it left is really annoying, meaning you have to be a lot stricter about when you leave your home and when you leave whatever it is you’re doing. It’s distracting and anxiety-inducing.
Then you need a good bicycle bag and to bike more often to learn to do it well.
Fuck off. Seriously go and think about what you just said to someone you know nothing about and what your goals are from this conversation.
The car isn’t really an improvement for me.
Then why don’t you talk about it from your own perspective, rather than telling other people how amazing cycling will be for them? You’d be less annoying and probably convince more people to cycle that way, too.
If I were to reply to your concerns about driving in the way you speak about cycling and public transport, I’d say something like, “you just need to check out where to park before you go” (you know, like you do bus stops); “if people are honking it’s because of a toxic culture that causes them to take their anger out audibly” (as if, like your comment on bad public transport, that makes it any better); “if your fuel and maintenance costs are bad, you just need to get a good car”. As you can appreciate, none of those response are reasonable - in the same way you’re being unreasonable.
I prefer biking too - when it’s reasonable. I do not prefer public transport to driving, except in limited circumstances.
And? I do my groceries by foot or bicycle and it goes just fine. Same with public transit. There’s also home delivery, that goes by bicyclists.
Groceries are mostly doable I’d say. But what if you need a larger or heavier item? Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to get rid of the car and am bicyclist myself, but realistically? Between bad weather (while rain can be done, it is not a very pleasant experience, moreover when it’s cold as well), shit public transport and more complicated payloads and such, it quickly gets complicated.
And all the kudos to you if that works for you, honestly.
birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 weeks ago
For bad weather I just wear a poncho or rain clothes when bicycling. Or a shirt and plenty of water. Etc. Our bike pathes also get salted in winter.
For payloads – most people don’t need to tow anything more than a backpack more than once or twice a year. And even then, there are bicycle bags that you can put on the back of the bike. And bike trailers as well.
FishFace@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Most people buy groceries more than once a year, and as soon as I wasn’t living alone that became an unreasonable quantity of groceries to transport by bike. Even before then, I was carrying them in panniers - it was always way more than would fit in a backpack.
Cycling is great - ideal, even. But I bought a(n electric) car a year and a half ago, and now my nose wrinkles at the fuck cars mindset. The ability to take big items to the recycling centre, freedom from public transport schedules, not having to worry about falling off and breaking my instrument when riding to a music lesson - it has a lot of advantages.
And riding in the rain is fine, and people make a bigger deal out of that and a lot of other things than they should if they haven’t tried it, but driving is an improved experience on almost all of them.
birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
And? I do my groceries by foot or bicycle and it goes just fine. Same with public transit. There’s also home delivery, that goes by bicyclists.
The public transit schedules being shit in your region is most likely because of defunding of their lines, intentionally reducing the amount of coupes/buses, not paying their employees a decent wage, and strike busting (eg prohibiting strikes where the transit continues to ride but without raising a fee). Realise that car and petrol lobbies worked a ton to do that.
And also… seriously? “Your instrument falling off” out of all worries? C’mon. Then you need a good bicycle bag and to bike more often to learn to do it well. I’ve never fallen off my bicycle and I’ve biked for 25 years. And that’s with snow, rain, heatwaves, potholes and bad roads.
The car isn’t really an improvement for me. Stressing out about other drivers, all the honking, needing to look for parking, fuel costs, maintenance costs, and the enormous space it takes up for so few people – it’s incredibly inefficient.
FishFace@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Given that I said I used to do groceries by bike but mentioned some changes, this isn’t worth very much without saying how many people you’re buying for, and how often. If you’re willing to go shopping every other day, or are only buying for yourself, it’s quite different than if you’re trying to minimise the number of trips and/or are buying for more people, isn’t it?
I didn’t say they were shit. For many purposes they are quite reasonable. But they are still a schedule, and the difference between getting to the bus stop at the right time to catch your bus versus a minute after it left is really annoying, meaning you have to be a lot stricter about when you leave your home and when you leave whatever it is you’re doing. It’s distracting and anxiety-inducing.
Fuck off. Seriously go and think about what you just said to someone you know nothing about and what your goals are from this conversation.
Then why don’t you talk about it from your own perspective, rather than telling other people how amazing cycling will be for them? You’d be less annoying and probably convince more people to cycle that way, too.
If I were to reply to your concerns about driving in the way you speak about cycling and public transport, I’d say something like, “you just need to check out where to park before you go” (you know, like you do bus stops); “if people are honking it’s because of a toxic culture that causes them to take their anger out audibly” (as if, like your comment on bad public transport, that makes it any better); “if your fuel and maintenance costs are bad, you just need to get a good car”. As you can appreciate, none of those response are reasonable - in the same way you’re being unreasonable.
I prefer biking too - when it’s reasonable. I do not prefer public transport to driving, except in limited circumstances.
Mihies@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Groceries are mostly doable I’d say. But what if you need a larger or heavier item? Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to get rid of the car and am bicyclist myself, but realistically? Between bad weather (while rain can be done, it is not a very pleasant experience, moreover when it’s cold as well), shit public transport and more complicated payloads and such, it quickly gets complicated. And all the kudos to you if that works for you, honestly.