Yes. There are people who would be better off with a bike than a car. I take that point and I believe it’s easier than some people think.
The problem is that carfree isn’t the right choice for everybody and it’s not always obvious from the outside who it is or isn’t appropriate for. If you aren’t careful, advocacy here can come off as thinking you know your interlocutor’s life and needs better than they do. (Which is a bit irritating.)
I’m going to describe a bit about my experiences, just so that you and the readers have a sense why somebody might reasonably benefit from owning a car.
I live in a small town in the northeast. We don’t have particularly good public transit in, out, or around town. By transit, it’s about two hours from my door to the nearest major city. It’s less than half that by car. It’s cold and slushy here a lot and therefore not a particularly pleasant place to bike.
The grocery stores I typically go to are five miles away, via a major expressway that isn’t bike-safe. (The ones that are bikeable are small and expensive.)
When last I checked, there were only four car-share vehicles within ten miles. They’re heavily used.
I’m in a medium-distance relationship, and that involves a lot of medium-distance travel with overnight stays. Having a car makes this much cheaper for a given amount of visiting, and I think it’s worth some money to see my special friend.
I have some experience with the car-free life. I used to live in a dense urban area. Most of my friends didn’t own cars and didn’t want to. I myself was happily car-free for five years. I did the math before buying the car, and I’m pretty sure I come out well ahead.
I would be interested to calculate the health benefits and costs. I suspect this is hard to do, because the risk of bike accidents is hugely variable depending where you live and where you travel.
The problem is that carfree isn’t the right choice for everybody and it’s not always obvious from the outside who it is or isn’t appropriate for. If you aren’t careful, advocacy here can come off as thinking you know your interlocutor’s life and needs better than they do. (Which is a bit irritating.)
I understand how other-optimizing can go wrong. Different circumstances make different solutions optimal. A lot of what you described fits with my earlier knowledge. Still, previously I hadn’t considered that relationships could be an issue, but I’ve now learned better.
I have found that many drivers is are prone to other-optimizing cyclists. People frequently request (actually, insist) to give me rides because they think what I’m doing is dangerous or a bad idea for other reasons (convenience, largely). They see it as doing me a favor, but it’s actually rather annoying. I will oblige sometimes, but mainly when the weather is bad, or if it’ll help the requester feel better. I have never seen bicycle advocates be so assertive. Imagine if bike advocates regularly insisted that no, you aren’t going home in your car, you are taking a bike. Car “advocates” (if you will) have done the same for me many times.
I would be interested to calculate the health benefits and costs. I suspect this is hard to do, because the risk of bike accidents is hugely variable depending where you live and where you travel.
This is definitely hard, and it hasn’t been done yet for anywhere in the US. I previously wrote a post about the net effects of cycling on health, and in short, the only good study I could find on the subject used data from Europe. Europe is generally considered to be much safer for cyclists than the US. Many cycling advocates in the US cite this report as affirmation that cycling has net health benefits without realizing why it does not apply. I am not sure whether the average net health effects in your typical US city are positive, and I lean towards negative for the moment.
Another factor (that few recognize) is that the health benefits are reduced for people who are in good shape. I run fairly regularly, and thus the health benefits of cycling are limited for me. Though, the cycling has worked out well to keep me in reasonable shape when I’ve been too busy to run.
Yes. There are people who would be better off with a bike than a car. I take that point and I believe it’s easier than some people think.
The problem is that carfree isn’t the right choice for everybody and it’s not always obvious from the outside who it is or isn’t appropriate for. If you aren’t careful, advocacy here can come off as thinking you know your interlocutor’s life and needs better than they do. (Which is a bit irritating.)
I’m going to describe a bit about my experiences, just so that you and the readers have a sense why somebody might reasonably benefit from owning a car.
I live in a small town in the northeast. We don’t have particularly good public transit in, out, or around town. By transit, it’s about two hours from my door to the nearest major city. It’s less than half that by car. It’s cold and slushy here a lot and therefore not a particularly pleasant place to bike.
The grocery stores I typically go to are five miles away, via a major expressway that isn’t bike-safe. (The ones that are bikeable are small and expensive.)
When last I checked, there were only four car-share vehicles within ten miles. They’re heavily used.
I’m in a medium-distance relationship, and that involves a lot of medium-distance travel with overnight stays. Having a car makes this much cheaper for a given amount of visiting, and I think it’s worth some money to see my special friend.
I have some experience with the car-free life. I used to live in a dense urban area. Most of my friends didn’t own cars and didn’t want to. I myself was happily car-free for five years. I did the math before buying the car, and I’m pretty sure I come out well ahead.
I would be interested to calculate the health benefits and costs. I suspect this is hard to do, because the risk of bike accidents is hugely variable depending where you live and where you travel.
Driving sounds best in your case.
I understand how other-optimizing can go wrong. Different circumstances make different solutions optimal. A lot of what you described fits with my earlier knowledge. Still, previously I hadn’t considered that relationships could be an issue, but I’ve now learned better.
I have found that many drivers is are prone to other-optimizing cyclists. People frequently request (actually, insist) to give me rides because they think what I’m doing is dangerous or a bad idea for other reasons (convenience, largely). They see it as doing me a favor, but it’s actually rather annoying. I will oblige sometimes, but mainly when the weather is bad, or if it’ll help the requester feel better. I have never seen bicycle advocates be so assertive. Imagine if bike advocates regularly insisted that no, you aren’t going home in your car, you are taking a bike. Car “advocates” (if you will) have done the same for me many times.
This is definitely hard, and it hasn’t been done yet for anywhere in the US. I previously wrote a post about the net effects of cycling on health, and in short, the only good study I could find on the subject used data from Europe. Europe is generally considered to be much safer for cyclists than the US. Many cycling advocates in the US cite this report as affirmation that cycling has net health benefits without realizing why it does not apply. I am not sure whether the average net health effects in your typical US city are positive, and I lean towards negative for the moment.
Another factor (that few recognize) is that the health benefits are reduced for people who are in good shape. I run fairly regularly, and thus the health benefits of cycling are limited for me. Though, the cycling has worked out well to keep me in reasonable shape when I’ve been too busy to run.