apparently my city literally literally banned public rail funding, and people online love jerking off about how good biking is, so i figured might as well try. I have come up with:

pros:

  • good for mental health / exercise / endorphins
  • arguably quaint
  • feel like an old timey guy taking his wares to market
  • feel european
  • can annoy others
  • less of a police state around them vs cars
  • more flexible parking, routes
  • capacity to be peaceful
  • nice in summer

cons:

  • look like an annoying dork (esp w neon - which also hurts the quaint factor)
  • have to wear a helmet (^)
  • getting sweaty, potentially “unpresentable” for work
  • still have to find safe parking
  • still takes a while
  • have to find new routes to places
  • can’t listen to music or might die
  • little meaningful protection against severe injury
  • can only carry so many groceries/etc
  • sucks in winter
  • Waryle@jlai.lu
    2·
    5 months ago
    • Those are tires, not wheels.
    • 35% which uses them means that 65% don’t use them.
    • You said “no matter gear you have”, so you can’t use that point.
    • With 20cm of fresh snow, even a normal car would be stuck. But if you tell me that you use a special car (a pick-up for example), I will argue that you can use a special bike (such as a fat bike) and roll with it without problem.
    • pumpkinseedoil
      1·
      5 months ago

      • Ty, always trying to improve my English. Comments like that are really helpful because noone corrects those things in real life, ig they assume they’re trivial.

      • Refer to my last sentence in the comment you replied to (no elevation, no sharp turns).

      • Even with spike tires you’ll struggle greatly as soon as you add elevation. But in one of the cities without elevation you’re correct, yes.

      • Of course it’d be stuck, but generally the situation is, at least in my country: It snows, there are for example 20 cm of fresh snow -> roads get cleaned -> there’s no / hardly any snow on the streets anymore. So the situation where you’d have to cycle on snow is when the snow is a bit deeper. If I really can’t wait for the roads to get cleaned (which happens very quickly so usually it’s no problem) I go by foot or use skis, depending on how much snow there is.