Poll: Why don't Americans ride bikes?

On Sep 7, 12:36 pm, Jym Dyer wrote:
ComandanteBanana, dragging in crap from elsewhere again:

Originally Posted by sojourn
I think a lot of guys think it's a "Gay" sport.........
I thought a lot of gays thought it was a guy sport. Nothing
effeminate about riding something until you drop exhausted.

=x= How can you even think this idiocy is worthy of discussion?
Are you mentally deficient or are you 8 years old?
_Jym_

I don't want to discuss my age here, just the issues.

But even kids know is deadly to ride bikes in America.

"Question
Why do so many people who ride bicycles ride in the streets when there
is a sidewalk nearby?

Now I ride my bike all the time and definitely stay on the
sidewalks... so why do so many people ride in the streets and slow
traffic and risk getting hit? It's sooo annoying and stupid (in my
opinion)

Answerer 4
By law, a bicycle is a vehicle and belongs in the street.

Of course, common sense says that a bicycle is too frail for being in
motor vehicle traffic.

Conclusion: THERE IS NO PROPER PLACE FOR BICYCLES."

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...0182657AArONFj

Originally Posted by StrangeWill

"I've watched coworkers drive ~200 feet as opposed to walk.

Nuff said."


Oh, those must be really stupid...

You know, they say when the car is cold it burns so much more gas...
Anyone knows about it?

99% of people use the car to the supermarket, and that's mighty stupid
too when it's under, say, 1 mile.

On Sep 7, 3:51*pm, Tadej Brezina wrote:
Jack May schrieb:





"ComandanteBanana" wrote in message
....
(No don't go the easy way and assume they are stupid. There may be
other rational explanations for them not doing the obvious thing)

Some argue that people should be riding bikes on the road, period. Not
very clever. Well, since nearly 99% of people don't ride bikes to
work, there must be some good reason for it. Perhaps PEOPLE ARE AFRAID
to share the roads with our reckless, sometime criminal drivers,
perhaps they are plain stupid, or perhaps they are lazy couch potatoes
who won't even go the supermarket on bikes...

Thus we put this poll so that a solution is found once the revolution
is in place.

Of course, the revolution will not be motorized.

The Poll is being taken here...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=462492

Hey retard it was explained to you that we know for an absolute fact

Haha, what are absolute facts in science anyway?
Just a theory that hasn't been proven wrong yet.

There have been hundreds of theories, that have been claimed to be "an
absolute fact", e.g. "the geocentric system", in their time until better
explanations came along.
Should be know to you Jack, eh?
Relax!

Tadej

Sorry to disagree.

There's one and only one absolute fact in America: THERE'S NO PLACE TO
RIDE A BIKE! (unless you go the "green areas")

On Sep 8, 4:49*am, Tadej Brezina wrote:
Tom Keats wrote:
In article ,
* *ComandanteBanana writes:

Some argue that people should be riding bikes on the road, period. Not
very clever. Well, since nearly 99% of people don't ride bikes to
work, there must be some good reason for it.

You're still trying to scare would-be riders off the
streets & roads, eh? *Your FUDmongering disinformation
campaign is destined to fail. *The Truth shall out,
as it inevitably does.

I don't think he's concern really is to scare existing roadway cyclers
off the and onto the sidewalk.
In some/many/most(?) US cities it may genuinely be a problem to ride a
bike in vehicular traffic, meaning, that there might be agressiv e
drivers honking horns and the likes. Especially for those, not used to
move with the stream.
But proposing sidewalk-cycling ist not at all a solution, that's
d'accord! So he may be a little "confused" about the best way to survive
in the jungle for real.
Tadej
--

Thank you for your defense, but I must clarify that I'm NOT proposing
that people should ride on the sidewalks. I'm just "reporting from the
jungle," so to speak. People often ride on the sidewalk because THEY
ARE TERRORIZED by drivers.

My personal decision at this time is (the way I'm chipping in to fight
Global Warming, and yet not put my life at risk in the process): 2
miles round trip to the market through quite streets and 4 miles of
trails that I have at my disposal. These lead me to some other shops,
and so much for practical biking. The main roads (north, south and
west) are no-man's land. To go east I need a kayak, where I find
another type of jungle with motorboats. You know, the big fish eats
the little fish.

On Sep 8, 1:31 pm, Eric Vey wrote:
ComandanteBanana wrote:
My personal decision at this time is (the way I'm chipping in to fight
Global Warming, and yet not put my life at risk in the process): 2
miles round trip to the market through quite streets and 4 miles of
trails that I have at my disposal.

Are you NUTZ!? You go go OUTSIDE the house in Miami-Dade?! Are you aware
how DANGEROUS that is?! According to the FBI, Metro reported 98 murders
in Miami-Dade in 2006 alone!!!http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_10_fl.html

I thought stupid cyclists didn't get to live that long. You must be
very young, right?

Actually, I wouldn't even drive in Miami because that would be far
more dangerous than crime. Go for a spin on a car (just to play it
safe) and notice the wild activities going on out the wild change
of lanes, speeding on residential areas, bullying, chatting on the
phone, etc, etc.

Hey, and it's perfectly legal!


Yet, you are TERRORIZED by drivers who, also in 2006, bumped off 9
cyclists in Miami-Dade.http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departm...SI/12_FL/2007/...

Sounds to me like you have your priorities all out of whack.

Oh, I should be terrorized by terrorists instead, right? Or so says
the Republican Party.


These lead me to some other shops

You go SHOPPING? You carry CASH or a CREDIT Card? Aren't you afraid
someone will kill you for them?

There are delivery services, you know. You really ought to use them.
Then you can be nice and safe where you belong, in front of a tube, like
the old ladies who are afraid to go outside after watching the local
news for years and years.

Hey, I don't live close to "the jungle" by any means. I've got very
"lionized" neighbors.

You don't know what's going on in the jungle, right?


(HealthNewsDigest.com)-It's important to put the brakes on your
emotions whenever you get behind the wheel. That's the advice from
experts who say that road rage-when drivers act irrationally because
of anger or impatience-leads to danger.

"When drivers let their emotions get the best of them, they take it
out on other drivers, putting everyone on the road at risk," says
Captain Mark Welch, chief of public affairs for the Florida Highway
Patrol.

So which city's drivers suffer from the worst road rage? The third
annual In The Driver's Seat Road Rage Survey, commissioned by
AutoVantage, a leading national auto club, found that the least
courteous city in the country is Miami... It's the third consecutive
year that Miami takes the crown as road rage capital of America.

http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news...oad_Rage.shtml

ComandanteBanana wrote:

Actually, I wouldn't even drive in Miami because that would be far
more dangerous than crime. Go for a spin on a car (just to play it
safe) and notice the wild activities going on out the wild change
of lanes, speeding on residential areas, bullying, chatting on the
phone, etc, etc.

I remember going to South Florida to visit (I was born there but left
after college) and there was TV news segment about a woman grocery
shopping at Publix (the major supermarket chain there) who dropped her
purse, and her handgun fell out, and went off. No one was hurt. Other
shoppers being interviewed about the incident were berating the woman
for having carried the wrong type of gun. They proceeded to show the
news reporter their own guns that they used when grocery shopping.

As an aside, my mother has a friend in south Florida that, despite being
a hard core Democrat, has said that she will not vote for Obama because
she was once mugged by a black guy. My mother pointed out that she
herself had been mugged by a white guy, right in front of her own house.

(Perhaps we will never know why America isn't like Europe, or why
Europe isn't like America, but we'll keep theorizing in search of the
truth. Hey, if Globalization wins Europe will be like America and
China too, right?)

Originally Posted by ritepath
"Well said....Many people can't accept America isn't Europe, for
whatever reason."

I know we had a revolution so we didn't have to have a king. But
France doesn't have a king and it's making Paris bicycle friendly.

To be honest, I don't see the advantages of not having a king.

Or maybe it has to do with people's education, and the amount of time
they are exposed to commercials. Commercials are much more limited in
Europe. How much advertising we get on an hour, perhaps half the time?
Often I change all the 10 pre-programmed channels and they all selling
stuff --but never a bike.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Velorution: The movement for the cyclists who want bike facilities
now."

http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote91

On Sep 8, 3:24*pm, SMS wrote:
ComandanteBanana wrote:
Actually, I wouldn't even drive in Miami because that would be far
more dangerous than crime. Go for a spin on a car (just to play it
safe) and notice the wild activities going on out the wild change
of lanes, speeding on residential areas, bullying, chatting on the
phone, etc, etc.

I remember going to South Florida to visit (I was born there but left
after college)

I can see you are smart.

and there was TV news segment about a woman grocery
shopping at Publix (the major supermarket chain there) who dropped her
purse, and her handgun fell out, and went off. No one was hurt. Other
shoppers being interviewed about the incident were berating the woman
for having carried the wrong type of gun. They proceeded to show the
news reporter their own guns that they used when grocery shopping.

You should carry one too when cycling according to a recent poll I
conducted "bike forums."


As an aside, my mother has a friend in south Florida that, despite being
a hard core Democrat, has said that she will not vote for Obama because
she was once mugged by a black guy. My mother pointed out that she
herself had been mugged by a white guy, right in front of her own house.

Those kind of NON-ISSUES dominate the political landscape,
particularly affecting those who could have any connections with
communists.

But you have heard about Banana Republic, right?

(If you want to know many of the reasons why Americans don't ride
bikes, here's a good summary. I respond at bottom)

Originally Posted by andrelam
There are a few key items that I've noticed that seem to keep people
from cycling:

1. This country greatly suffers from the "A Bike is a Toy" mentality.
Unless you are living in places like Portland OR, Bolder CO, or some
other "heavy" cycling city, the concept of utility cycling is just so
foreign. This is ofcourse further propegated by Trek, Giant, and all
the other bike companies.

The big bike companies' products are clearly sold as toys. If you
spend about $60 (retail) you can add fenders and a rack. With such
simple additions you can actually USE your bike to carry something.
Without a simple rack how can you even ride to the neighborhood store
to get a few items.

One more pet peeve is the complete lack of lighting. I don't care if
they add a low end simple bottle generator and a battery operated rear
LED light for about $20. Unless I am mistaken, every state required
active lighting after dark, yet virtualy no bikes are sold with any
form of lighting. In Europe, low end bikes come with low end light,
but even a super cheap $15 set of generator hub and front light will
be a HUGHE improvement over no lighting at all.

If every bike in the USA case with a rack, fenders, and some very
basic lighting, at least you'd give everyone the ability to use their
bikes from something other than just recreation.

2. Distances are much greater in the USA than most European countries.
This is a simple fact that can not be ignored completely. That being
said however, there is still a vast portion of the population that
could get to at least a convenience store within 2 to 3 miles. Even if
a large percentage of the population commutes more than 15 Miles round
trip... that doesn't excuse those that live closer from using an
alternative form of transportation.

3. Weather. Certainly the USA gets much more extreme weather than most
of Europe. The Summers here are Much hotter than anywhere in
Scandanavia or other parts of Northern Europe where cycling is very
popular. The Winters too can be more extreme in their cold and
precipitation. The mild (but wet) year round weather in place like
Holland and Denmark do help make cycling easier without changing
clothing. This past Summer for instance I was in Holland (outside of
Alkmaar) for the last week in June through the 1st week in July. The
warmest weather was about 78F and on average it was aright around 72F.
Once I got back the Buffalo (NY) it was pretty much in the high 70's
to low 80's from July through end of September. That 10 degree
difference means I sweat a whole lot more, and therefore wear a T
shirt and shorts to work while riding and then change into clean
clothing. During the past Winter temps are are consistantly below
freezing and we had our usual weeks of weather in the Teens and
Twenties, and even a few days of low single digit weather. I could
wear my work pants, but with the fresh snow fall a few days a week it
was just more comfortable to wear a pair of tights under my rain pants
and leave the nice cloths at work.

4. Government policies that have historically been very pro-car and
not much more. I remember during the 1st few years of the Bush
Administration that one of the higher-ups said sothing to the effect
that "Driving Big Cars was a Right" that every American deserved and
that worying about effciency was unamerican. With the cost of fuel now
seriously hurting our economy even with clearly Pro-Energy
administration has seen the need to make things more efficient, and
look at alternative forms of transportation. However most of the
"progress" appears to be put into Ethanol and not working out how to
get people to drive less. Cycling infrastructure, public
transportation, and Amtrack (national rail) are all seen as a grain on
our government, yet we conveniently forget how expensive it is to
support all the cars on the road (road maintenance, new contruction,
securing oil).

These are ofcourse by no means the only reasons people don't consider
riding a bike as a serious option to saving fuel, and improving once
health. By leading by example, I've convinced a few people at work
that cycling isn't so crazy after all. Once they see my coworker and I
riding into work virtually every day during the Winter we inspired a
few folks to start riding for fun and excercise. Some of teh folks
that started riding admittedly live to far away for a novice to
commute, but at least they are starting to use their bikes. Better to
ride a bike around the neighborhood, then to get in a car to drive
some distance to a health club just so you can Spin, etc.

Happy riding,
André

***

Thanks, great feeback. I totally agree with 1, often overlooked. They
could meet a criteria similar to a motorcycle to make it street legal
--or not. Number 3 is relative and I can handle Florida weather most
of the time.

Number 4 deserves proper attention. It's the policies of both
Republicans and Democrats (Republicrats) to incentivate the Big Three
and ignore the bike. It's all about money, of course, and not that
they hate the bicycle that much. Actually you often see SUVs with
bikes hanging from the back.

Now the only hope is the Obama, but maybe he'll be become part of the
machine, if he ever has a chance. So just keep riding, and pray for
the revolution.

ComandanteBanana wrote in news:ce402479-eb07-
:

Originally Posted by StrangeWill

"I've watched coworkers drive ~200 feet as opposed to walk.

Nuff said."


Oh, those must be really stupid...

You know, they say when the car is cold it burns so much more gas...
Anyone knows about it?

Generally, until the engine reaches optimum operating temperature, more
fuel passes through the system without being burned. 'Modern' engines are
set up to reach o.o.t. rapidly, but it still takes several miles/km to
reach this. Mechanisms that control emissions and limit unburnt fuel also
loose efficiency over time unless scrupulously maintained.

99% of people use the car to the supermarket, and that's mighty stupid
too when it's under, say, 1 mile.

OTOH how else do you get the stuff if you are old, pressed for time, have
to stock up for a family?