Here are just 10 ways bicycles deliver the freedom that cars can only promise

[_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works]

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[dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world]

Motorcycles also cover all but like three of those bullet points. Just sayin', while we're at it.

Although riding your motorcycle down a public bicycle path is probably bound to raise eyebrows. Maybe don't do that.

[n0t_5ure@lemmy.world]

I'm sold, but I'm also someone who rides about 10 hours per week, putting over 5K miles on my bikes per year. I started biking because I was trying to lose weight, and my daily jogging overstressed a tendon in my foot, forcing me out of that exercise for a while. At this point, I just really enjoy riding bikes. I do a mix of on and off road riding, depending on my mood.

One thing that is really nice is how cheap it is to get into it. You don't need the latest, greatest $5K bike to have fun. I have a mid 90s vintage Trek mountain bike that I paid $45 for, and it was practically new, with the only wear and tear being from kicking around a garage for 30 years. 90s mountain bikes make great city bikes, because they typically have 3x7 gearing that will give you a low enough gear to climb any hill. They're really durable, and were also cranked out by the millions, so it's super easy to find them cheap.

[litchralee@sh.itjust.works]

To get ahead of anyone that thinks that induced demand for bicycles would destroy these benefits:

Firstly, the principles of induced demand apply no matter the mode of transport. So creating the environment for safe bicycling or reducing NIMBYist environmental hurdles would, to no one's surprise, encourage more bicycling and bus/LRT development.

Secondly, induced demand does not change the fundamental efficiencies (and inefficiencies) of that mode of transport. Bikes themselves don't get any larger just because there are ten or ten thousand of them that need to be parked. But how this compares to the rest of the built environment matters a lot.

To that end, let's play it out: what would it take to ruin these ten benefits.

1. No traffic jams

For there to be a bicycle traffic jam, there either has to be: a) limited road capacity, or 2) limited intersection/junction capacity. The latter is easier to imagine (eg hundreds of bicyclists stopped and waiting for a green light) but also easier to solve: just remove the traffic light. Bicycle traffic runs slowly enough that formal control devices aren't necessary. For that same reason, there are no traffic lights for people within a shopping mall. A bicycle roundabout would be incredibly compact in any case.

The scenario of limited road capacity would involve something like a bike lane entirely filled, along a full city block, and no room for other bicyclists to pass each other. This is, quite frankly, extremely rare in the USA, since we don't have very much barrier-separated infrastructure. The full density of a filled bike lane -- including two-abreast riding -- approaches that of a filled sidewalk, and that doesn't really happen either, except maybe during parades.

2. Easy parking

To make bike parking difficult, there would have to be overcrowding of the parking area. But as can be seen from the Netherlands and Asia, bike garages exist. And even in the absence of a parking area, a bicycle can be parked anywhere there is room and ideally something to lock against. To run out of room in an urban area for a bike would also mean a high probability of a human crush, which is outlandishly dangerous. To run out of room in a rural area (eg a weekend music festival) is just not a thing.

3. Low maintenance

This one is easy to dismiss: if everyone has a bicycle, that does not in any way make it harder for you to maintain your own bike. Sure, parts availability might be lower if everyone needs replacement parts at the same time, but it's a bike. Bike parts cannot physically be larger than a whole bicycle, which already isn't that big and such parts are easily warehoused. There's no such thing -- nor a need -- for a pick-n-pull lot filled with wrecked bicycles.

4. Health benefits

Same as the last, other people riding bikes doesn't change the health benefits derived from one's own bike. You pedal, you get exercise. Harking back to 2020, it would also be dubious to suggest that there could ever be enough adjacent bicyclists that it becomes impractical to social distance due to a respiratory disease, as bicycling is generally an open-air activity.

5. Cost-effective

Individual running costs don't really scale up when more people ride bikes. Bicycles are not known to create potholes, and the Fourth Power Law would tend to agree.

6. Environmental impact

There are no real nor substantial ecological impacts from full embracing of bicycle transport. At worst, the collective sound of hundreds of squeaky derailleurs per block could add a small din to the city soundscape. A few more birds and squirrels will likely become roadkill underneath bicycle wheels. But this all pales in comparison to the machinery needed for modern buildings (eg HVAC compressor) and the bird deaths caused by flying into glass windows.

7. Exploration and Adventure

This one is more arguable, but if a region has run out of space to explore because everyone and their mother is out-and-about exploring on bikes, that's hardly a bad thing, is it?

Plus, the USA has wilderness preserves, where even bikes are prohibited (except for the disabled). So even with built-up areas "overrun" with bikes, this planet would still have room to find new-to-you things.

8. Community connection

Perhaps the greatest social aspect of bicycles is that they don't interfere with the conventional methods of human expression. They are not so loud that shouting is required. They neither veil their rider, while enabling the rider to address others in the same manner as they would if on-foot. Sure, one cannot fist-bump a stationary person whilst astride and at speed, but that's easily rectified by coming to a halt. One need not even fully dismount to embrace a loved one at the wayside.

It's a very romantic thing in old cinema to wave some off at a train platform while they depart, but even that simply does not compare to standing face-to-face with someone, at level, to deliver a final valediction.

To build even the shallowest of community connections is to have one's presence acknowledge in that space. The simple act of riding in a neighborhood is the start of forming a cohesive community. Whereas driving an automobile through one is to forcibly drive a wedge through a community, pun intended.

9. Flexibility and freedom

Same as earlier, what someone does with their bicycle does not impact what you do with yours. Anyone stuck in automobile traffic knows that this isn't a universal statement for all modes of transport. But even within the structures of civil society, how can anything be more flexible than to arrive or depart with your own bike on your own schedule? Even if it's bicycle rush hour, then you still have a choice: join them or depart earlier or later. Freedom does not mean "do whatever you want" but rather "do you have a choice in the matter".

Motorists don't get to choose their price for gasoline. They cannot build their own car if they don't like what's available at the dealership. They cannot avoid some forms of surveillance, some reasonable (eg speeding cameras) and some not (gratuitous license plate tracking). Motorists accrue more of these problems as there are more motorists.

10. Personal empowerment

In the physical sense, a bicycle is literally powered by its human rider. But psychologically, making your way to a destination under one's own effort is an achievement. For many people, this achievement happens daily and they should be proud of it. In the USA where automobile commuting is the norm, it's not at all an accomplishment to get to work. But when it's one's own sweat pouring on a bike, it is.

In some ways, this is akin to the so-called IKEA effect, where people value their own contributions more than being handed the same thing made by someone else, paraphrased. Undoubtedly, this should be a good thing for people's mental health. So the more people who have that opportunity should be a good thing at large.

[walrusdragononabike@reddthat.com]

If it's a compact electric motorcycle, it ain't that much different than a class 3 ebike if you go slow enough

[psx_crab@lemmy.zip]

Maybe, yes, no, no, no, no, mostly yes, yes, mostly yes, yes. That's my take as someone living in a country with motorcycle almost the same amount as car.