Taking a vacation road trip from Florida to the Grand Canyon with three kids with only bikes also comes at quite the cost. Bikes are great, but in many practical scenarios they are slow. Not all of us live in Manhattan, or a dense city, or even a well connected and safe to traverse suburb.
If you were to say, ride a bike from Washington D.C. to Portland Oregon, they money saved on gas, maintenance, insurance, and lease payments, would amount to three times the hours of work to pay, assuming a median U.S income.
This is a ridiculous example, but, frankly, saying our main mode of transit should be cars because we might want to take a long road trip once a year is absurd. It’s an outlier use case that could be addressed with other systems more effectively.
I’m doing that anyway. I have a fixed work schedule and can’t be like “Eh, I have enough money, I’m just going to work 35 hours this week.” It would be amazing if I could, but I don’t know many people who have that option. So since I pretty much get the choice of working 40 hours a week or not working, I’d like to maximize my other time.
That freedom comes at quite a cost. Both to the driver and society. Riding a bike puts the “free” in freedom
Taking a vacation road trip from Florida to the Grand Canyon with three kids with only bikes also comes at quite the cost. Bikes are great, but in many practical scenarios they are slow. Not all of us live in Manhattan, or a dense city, or even a well connected and safe to traverse suburb.
Bikes cost time.
If you were to say, ride a bike from Washington D.C. to Portland Oregon, they money saved on gas, maintenance, insurance, and lease payments, would amount to three times the hours of work to pay, assuming a median U.S income.
This is a ridiculous example, but, frankly, saying our main mode of transit should be cars because we might want to take a long road trip once a year is absurd. It’s an outlier use case that could be addressed with other systems more effectively.
Sure there are situations where bikes aren’t suitable.
Bikes cost time. You have to think of the time it has cost you to earn the money to buy, run, and maintain a car.
I’m doing that anyway. I have a fixed work schedule and can’t be like “Eh, I have enough money, I’m just going to work 35 hours this week.” It would be amazing if I could, but I don’t know many people who have that option. So since I pretty much get the choice of working 40 hours a week or not working, I’d like to maximize my other time.
It is much easier to take a bike with you on a train than it is a car.