With trains, you don’t arrive sweaty, you can’t get run down by cars, and someone else parks it
Anon likes bikes
Submitted 11 months ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/c899624a-545d-467a-a3de-39f042ab7fbe.jpeg
Comments
AA5B@lemmy.world 11 months ago
adriaan@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
I ride a bike to work every day. I’m never sweaty. The infrastructure to cycle exists so I won’t get run over by cars.
Mrderisant@midwest.social 11 months ago
Where I live I wouldn’t want to bike. Too many freaking hills
DrRatso@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
Teach me the non-sweaty ways. I love my bike, but theres no way I can arrive not sweaty. Before you say go slow, I’m not letting no bus take my god-damn glory.
uis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
and someone else parks it
And you don’t need to worry about driving
riodoro1@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Only if you live at one train station and work at another.
echodot@feddit.uk 11 months ago
You can also do this thing called walking. I didn’t know that in the United States that is considered suspicious behavior.
Facebones@reddthat.com 11 months ago
This is my favorite argument from carfolk, because they’ll treat walking one block from a bus station as some cardinal sin but will happily walk four blocks from a parking spot.
AA5B@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Cities with transit typically have several different ways of getting around.
For my last job, done choices were:
- express bus plus walk a couple blocks
- train and walk a mile
- train to subway and walk a couple blocks
- drive to subway and walk a couple blocks
I’m not even counting scooter and bike share but I chose each of these options depending g on what was best at the time. But my most common choice was the train and walk a mile. It was a bit of a walk but I didn’t have to deal with people or waiting and it was close enough.
someguy3@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s common to bus to the train station, and yes train stations downtown are where many people work.
nifty@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I love trains but they give me so much anxiety. I have stories of facing harassment on public transport. But it’s not just me though, here’s some idea of public transport can suck for women or other people in case my anecdotes are just that: metro-magazine.com/…/sexual-crime-and-harassment-…
California had to make a law for it, so it’s not just a one place issue: 19thnews.org/…/california-introduces-bill-harassm…
If public transport can come without being subjected to people and whatever miserable state of mind they’re in, I’d like that. I can at least escape a dumbass in my car, but in a train they’re either right in front of me or nearby for a long time. How do we fix this?
SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Public transport is clean and safe when everyone uses it. In the US, the social expectation is that public transportation is for the poor. Like white flight out of US urban centers in the 60s, it’s a class thing, and owning a car becomes a self perpetuating class signifier. In most of the rest of the developed world, like London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. public transportation is for everyone, rich and poor. It’s just a question of investing in and valuing public transportation over cars.
calypsopub@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Wouldn’t it be great if we could each have our own private pods?
Hugohase@kbin.social 11 months ago
ITT: Carbrains
Naich@kbin.social 11 months ago
As soon as bicycles are mentioned, everyone suddenly has to transport their washing machine 200 miles in sub zero temperatures.
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I think it’s more that when someone is suggesting something as a perfect thing, people naturally try to challenge that by finding faults in it.
SeekPie@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Glad that my city has a cargo bike renting program for (iirc) 25€/24h (I don’t remember if they’re electric)
kameecoding@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Both directions and against 100 km/h headwinds
LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Really hurts I guess 🤷♂️
Turns out it’s not so perfect but bike nuts don’t fit everyone’s needs.
Wanderer@lemm.ee 11 months ago
The Japanese used bikes to defeat the British in Singapore. The Vietnamese used bikes to defeat the Americans in Vietnam. The Chinese used bikes to destroy manufacturing in the west.
I’ll be in the cold cold ground before I use some stupid commie machine powered by rice.
All other arguments for not using a bike are stupid.
geogle@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Can’t tell if satire
el_abuelo@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
Poe strikes again.
peyotecosmico@programming.dev 11 months ago
Every time I see this kind of post I just wish they would try to go to work in a +40 degree Celsius environment.
It must be nice to work in a place that won’t mind if you arrive drenched in sweat.
deliberalization@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
It would be one thing if all employers offered locker rooms and adequate time to get ready along with safe storage.
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 11 months ago
adequate time to get ready
But doesn’t that depend on you? If you arrive earlier you have more time
uis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
silasmariner@programming.dev 11 months ago
It must be nice to work in a place that won’t mind if you arrive drenched in sweat.
coughs nervously in works-from-home
Sanyanov@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Remote jobs are unironically super good for environment, aside from all other amazing advantages they offer.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Where do you live that it’s 40+ degrees at ~8am in the morning, the entire year round?
Or could you simply be looking for an excuse?
Kepabar@startrek.website 11 months ago
Most tropical/subtropical areas will have a heat index in this range for the majority of the year thanks to humidity.
I live in Florida and maybe for two months of the year I could cycle around without getting soaked, either by rain or humidity.
I do cycle around for fun though.
MindSkipperBro12@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Not everyone lives in sunny California, some people live in the perpetual 100% humidity tropical climate.
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
Tbf you could just take a shower at workplace after the commute, assuming you have showers at work.
DeepFriedDresden@kbin.social 11 months ago
How many people actually have showers in their workplace?
dlhextall@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Honestly, no matter the mode of transportation, I’d arrive drenched in sweat in a 40° environment.
Faresh@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
I would probably not even step outside unless absolutely necessary. At that temperature I would already suffer indoors, and if I stepped out I’d faint if I stayed out there for longer than thirty minutes.
Erismi14@midwest.social 11 months ago
So let’s build more urban heat islands and parking lots. Exactly what a +40 C environment needs. Biking might be unpleasant in 40 C weather, and the cyclist might get a bit sweaty, but all of the positives are true. And cars are just going to make the planet hotter.
abuttandahalf@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
Here in Palestine people drive bikes the most in the hottest city, Jericho. It reaches 40 degrees there. An ebike would make you get less hot from exertion. In combination with good urban planning with small streets and trees and buildings creating lots of shade it’s workable. It’s not sustainable to have air conditioned cars transport people everywhere. This is what living in a hot climate means.
someguy3@lemmy.world 11 months ago
But Texas exceptionalism!
weeeeum@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Or underdeveloped infrastructure that forces you to bike on the road. There’s this road near my house thats like a quarter mile long and its 40mph and people usually speed up to 65mph.
Trying to get to work on my bike with that is fucking suicide, and my work is only a mile away.
Even walking is excrutiating. The weather is very cold, which is fine since it’s only a mile, but the busy roads you need to cross make you wait so damn much. Waiting for the signal to walk is about 5 minutes. There are 5 busy crosswalks that turn my 10 minute walk into a 35 minute walk in the freezing fucking cold.
Yeah you could jaywalk but you can be arrested and trying to jaywalk a road with cars going 60 is like Russian roulette.
uis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yeah you could jaywalk but you can be arrested
How?
and trying to jaywalk a road with cars going 60 is like Russian roulette.
So, 60 units of imperialism is about 96 units of true freedom. How the fuck your city allows it?
Delphia@lemmy.world 11 months ago
While taking your kid on a 10km detour to the only child care center thats anywhere near your home or work that has availability. And dont forget to swing by the shops and grab milk on the way home.
jose1324@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Sounds like a purposeful car dependent design
SolarNialamide@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s an urban planning problem. My dad’s detour to drop me off at daycare when I was little was a 10 minute bike ride. When I was old enough to go to school, there was no detour because it was on the way to his work. Shops are also on the way or at most a 5 minute detour.
uis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
While taking your kid on a 10km detour to the only child care center thats anywhere near your home or work that has availability.
Imagine living in ex-USSR country. Daycares everywhere.
uis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
+40? I wonder why…
agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 11 months ago
Have you considered, that different places need different infrastructure?
I might also remark, that your houses are utterly unprepared for the -5C where I’m at currently, but that would be stupid.
redhydride@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
Screw that. I love paying for car insurance, gas, oil change, tires, and random bolts maintenance. There is also the thrill of driving in traffic, and dealing with road rage. There is plenty that makes the car the ideal transportation mode loved by the masses.
RacerX@lemm.ee 11 months ago
My personal favorite is how if someone bumps you and you get the smallest scratch or dent on your door, you now have to be late for whatever you were doing, pull over (impacting other traffic) exchange insurance info deal with possible hostility for that and ultimately have a crappy day because of it.
porthos@startrek.website 11 months ago
How about the fact that cars are so complicated now that working on them yourself feels next to impossible but you also have to somehow find mechanics that you trust to fix your vehicle when you really have no objective way to know if the mechanics are just bullshitting you or are actually genuinely investigating the problem, not just tossing away what you are saying with a mental note that you are clueless.
Also the thrill that it only takes a second or two of distraction at the wrong moment to kill yourself and other innocent people and irrevocably send your life down a worse path. To be clear, this experience is happening when you are tired, grumpy and stressed about getting to work or getting back from work. It’s nice that we aren’t driving boats or something where hitting other boats involves making really stupid choices, all you have to do is to slightly in the wrong direction for 3 seconds and boom maybe you just killed someone.
ByteWizard@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Stay out of the road with the heavy machinery. Cars won. Get out of the way or get run over.
GratefullyGodless@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Moved to the suburbs in my 30s. Got a new bike to hit the nearby bike trails. First bike ride turns into agonizing ordeal as it literally feels like someone ripped open my knees and poured broken glass in them. Diagnosed with arthritis in my knees.
There are plenty of reasons people don’t use bikes, and health reasons are one of the main ones.
ADTJ@feddit.uk 11 months ago
Going less than ten miles away? Sure
Going 30+ miles away and no rail links exist? Fuck you, I guess
Liz@midwest.social 11 months ago
I was gonna argue, but we really are filled with out of shape people here. Even so, biking is easier than walking.
AquaTofana@lemmy.world 11 months ago
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.
pseudo@jlai.lu 11 months ago
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.
Erismi14@midwest.social 11 months ago
You may live in a place that is the result of building car dependent infrastructure. To achieve a “bike city” op is describing, it would take decades, if not a century in your area for it to make sense to just bike everywhere. It takes time.
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Already fairly interesting how you can still manage to save five miles by bike in a system designed for cars.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Distance. An hour commute or a 20 minute trip to the grocery store. We killed walkable neighborhoods so now here we are. Trapped.
Mac@mander.xyz 11 months ago
Does not protect you from weather
Cannot haul anything
Takes forever to get anywhereDraegur@lemm.ee 11 months ago
HVAC and shelter.
ain’t gonna survive sleeping in your bike for a few years scraping by on the few places willing to hire you under the table.while all the shitstain hiring managers complain “nobody wants to work anymore” as they fucking shred your application over and over and over again.
Ruscal@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
No need for parking
Yeah, just look how Nederlands or Belgium looks like xD
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 11 months ago
All I’m saying is nobody ever got a great ass because they drove a car a lot.
jaschen@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Here is another reason. I can’t afford a reasonable sized apartment that can house my family near my work. So I have to travel further. Bikes are great for cities if you can afford to live in the city.
Also, what happens when it snows and you gotta get to work? Snow chains?
samus12345@lemmy.world 11 months ago
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.
MrJameGumb@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s a great plan if you intend to live the entirety of your life within a 15 mile radius of your house!
GENIUS! 🤯
Facebones@reddthat.com 11 months ago
“Cars are freedom! *
Except for the monthly finance payment, the legal obligation to insurance companies, the dependance on oil companies, etc”
Lojcs@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Hurts my ass
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
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.
quams69@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Lemme just bike from Lansing to Detroit lmfao
The US is huge, I love bikes but they aren’t really the solution for like 85% of the country
LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Aww, you don’t list showing up for work drenched in sweat or with frozen fingers 😰
M500@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
I would love it if my city had bike only days. Or at least specific bike route that do not allow cars.
I don’t live in the us and there is a major road in my city that has a bike lane, but they just split one of the car lanes so there is a bike lane, half a lane for a car, and a full lane.
So cars have no choice but to drive in the bike lane. It’s also between the cars and a place with tons of right turns.
In addition to this, the city has some of the worst traffic in the world short distances can take hours. But it’s too dangerous to ride a bike.
Thcdenton@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I live in the hills. bikes are a pain in the dick over here :(
beebarfbadger@lemmy.world 11 months ago
How many corpses can you fit in the trunk and where would you even put the shovel while you ride?
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Cars were, and to some extent, still are, a statement of wealth. Having a “horseless carriage” back when personal vehicles were called that, was an easy way to distinguish that you were a successful person. As time went on, this transformed into having the latest vehicle or vehicles of a specific brand or type, or that cost x amount of dollars… Many of these points are still true today, unfortunately.
Because of the status you would demonstrate having a vehicle, demand for infrastructure from the affluent persons that owned these vehicles, most cities were built with space in mind so their richest could enjoy their personal vehicles as optimally as they could. As time went on, and more people bought cars due to the ease of transport they provided, that infrastructure demand only increased.
Specifically in America, further pressure was given to state and local governments by automobile manufacturers to build better and better roads to more places so more people would have access to roads and therefore see value in owning a personal vehicle.
Then there’s the interstate. Again, specifically talking about the states here, mostly… The Interstate systems were desired by the auto makers and people, but we’re not strictly required. AFAIK the largest push for interstate freeways came from the military, so they could rapidly move equipment from one location to another. This is why interstates are so built up; if you compare the underlying structure of most roads with what’s done for interstate freeways, the difference, at least, historically, is quite significant. The interstate was designed to have a batallion of tanks roll from place to place, something that would utterly destroy most roadways. Of course they can also move other equipment on it, since the majority of the remainder of what they would need to move is less damaging to the road than tanks… Like planes. Many interstates are designed, on purpose, to act as impromptu runways to land or take off from. This enables the military to set up shop pretty much anywhere they need to, in order to defend the land.
The existence of the interstate only drove (no pun intended) more people to want and buy cars. Further compounding the problem.
Now, many years later, city streets are generally not built for you. They’re not built with regular human lives in mind. They’re built to act as conduits for emergencies so personnel or equipment can move from place to place with ease and relative speed. Public emergency services (police, ambulance, fire) are all geared around the existence of roads for transit. Because of this and a multitude of other, somewhat less notable reasons, roads continue to be a fixture in most cities and urban areas.
Another stupid (mostly American) reason is how far away everything is. The reason everything is so distant is a simple explanation: zoning. Commercial and residential zoning created problems where getting a plot of land re-zoned to build a strip mall or plaza is challenging at best. So since you live in a residential zone, all the commercial zoned services that you use, must be on different land in different areas. The nice thing about this is that residential zones tend to be much quieter than commercial most of the time, so homes can sit in quiet area while all the hustle and bustle of the city stays separate. This has somewhat changed on recent times but it still exists as a significant issue. Since zones of residential and commercial are generally not very small, unless you live at the edge of a residential zone that borders a commercial zone, essential services like grocery stores and shops are generally a significant distance away. Owning a vehicle and road infrastructure makes this a minor inconvenience at most, unfortunately it also makes this a major inconvenience for anyone who does not (thus driving sales of personal vehicles, again, compounding the problem). Again, in recent years, maybe the last 20-30, this has been changing, and we’re starting to see, at least in large Metro areas, the rise of condos. Usually intermixed with commercial areas, it’s a home you can buy that is surrounded by commercial services within walking distance (copy/paste for apartments).
Unfortunately, due to the military and historical reasons, as well as continued demand for roads from people living in residential zones that are further away, roads are and continue to be built, and maintained, in cities.
If you look “across the pond” to Europe, there are many examples of cities that existed long before zoning was even considered and where automobiles didn’t exist that are very convenient to bike or walk through. Homes are intermixed with shops, and generally living in the city, while a bit more noisy than a residential zone, is otherwise very convenient for walking and cycling where you need to go. Mainly because cars were not a consideration at the time that those cities were constructed. Walking was common and cycling was not unusual, so the infrastructure reflects that.
We’re seeing a resurgence of this kind of anti-vehicle infrastructure thinking among people, and with the rising costs of everyday living and the expense that vehicles can incur, both in operating them, storing them and maintaining them, it’s easy to see why, especially when housing, in the form of apartments and condos, is getting closer to the commercial services that people want and use. However there seems to be a growing animosity among those that want more walkable and cycling friendly cities, with their car-driving counterparts.
I’m impartial. I own a car and live in a rural area, so I need one to get pretty much anywhere. My situation is not that of a city dweller and I see the merit in the walkable city. At the same time, I see the merit in drivable cities too. I wouldn’t mind driving to a parking structure and taking a bus/subway/bike/whatever to get into any major city, since I do so very rarely. But I can’t deny the convenience of driving into a city and parking less than a block away from my destination. Both arguments have merit and ultimately, I don’t really have any “skin in the game” (so to speak), so what happens shouldn’t be up to me, and cities should sort that out among their populous. I just know way too much about the issue, so I decided to comment. Sorry for the wall of text.
hawgietonight@lemmy.world 11 months ago
For some reason the slow and relaxed franchise with Vin diesel doesn’t sound like a blockbuster to me.
Skates@feddit.nl 11 months ago
Rosco@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
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…
Mango@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Can’t sleep in it. Gotta haul your groceries. Won’t get you to the next state and back.
Y’all are deluded.
nifty@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Bikes are ableist aren’t they? They work well if you don’t have any physical or cognitive issues.
FunkyMonk@kbin.social 11 months ago
You had me till the BuY AnOthER OnE, Pay me imaginary strawman. I do love bikes though, so do the fuckers that keep taking mine.
Hyperreality@kbin.social 11 months ago
You have enough money for a pair of bolt cutters.
FunkyMonk@kbin.social 11 months ago
Yeah Yeah I do have some of those, where you parked again you say?
Blackmist@feddit.uk 11 months ago
If you’re big enough, you just need money for a balaclava.
AeonFelis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Think of it that way - whoever stole your bike was probably more happy to get it than you are sad to lose it. The total happiness in the world increased. So, whatever.
hydrospanner@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There it is.
The stupidest thing I’ll read all day.
And the sun’s not even up yet.
doylio@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
I think the point was to contrast this with cars. Having your car stolen is 10x worse than having your bike stolen
uis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
10x? What car can be so cheap?
JayDee@lemmy.ml 11 months ago
At this point, they’ll need an angle grinder to get anything valuable off the bike. It’s more expensive but so long its not the standard of ever biker, bike thieves’ll target easier bikes to steal off.
someguy3@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s true although it sucks. You could have several bikes stolen a year and it’s still cheaper than a car.
Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
It’s, once again, comes with infrastructure. When I moved to Germany from the country with no bike infrastructure, I only thought of a bike as an expensive stuff, but here I bought a used commuter for 40 Euro and it’s fucking great. I love it, but if it gets stolen, I would be mildly frustrated and buy another one of those for 40 Euro the next day.