The American ones don’t

I've seen a couple cops (RCMP) on bikes in my city. They definitely didn't seem to be really comfortable on the bikes. Would definitely be easier to lose them in a bike chase than a car chase.

Cops dont like work, moving, being away from car.

Most people aren't driving in that weather either. Temperatures like that happen very rarely even in very cold places.

Well just keep on burning your fossil fuels, and you won't have to worry about it getting that cold again :3

I've made bike commutes in those temperatures, and yeah, I would say it's dangerous and most people shouldn't do that unless they've got some kind of fully enclosed, motorized bike with active heating.

It is worth noting that with proper winter gear, since biking is more physically demanding than driving, it is possible and likely that most winter bike rides will cause you to generate enough of your own body heat that you might actually feel the need to remove your jacket. At negative 40? Absolutely not. But I've done so at temperatures as low as zero.

And to be fair, you shouldn't be expected to drive at temps as low as negative 40 either. If you've got a long car commute and your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, you are dead. At least with a bike-centric lifestyle it pressures you to prefer jobs that are closer to home, so it might actually be less dangerous.

You are part of the less than 1% and probably not the target audience.

Where the fuck do you live that it gets -40?? Antarctica??

Negative 40 (yay, I don't have to clarify whether it's Celsius or Fahrenheit!) is navigable. Take proper clothing!

Source: living and walking in a northern city

I used to do that, then a car flew by and damn near killed me.

Vehicular cycling is a bad meme

Thanks, didn't know that.

Thanks, never heard that before...

The people living in true rural America truly do not have the ability to do so. But again, that’s less then a quarter of the populations and likely far less then a quarter of all kids.

Counterpoint: I lived in an extremely remote part of Vermont (population 400) for a couple years without a car, and I got around fine on my bike. The trick was living close to my work, which was easy since housing was dirt cheap. That said, getting out of town was difficult, as the buses (Greyhound) were notoriously unreliable. I also got random people buzzing me in pickups screaming at me for existing once in a while.

I have lived in urban, suburban, and very rural places. Rural is my favorite and most comfortable to commute on bike even if some things are a long ride away. The concept of what's "too far away" is very different depending on whether you ask someone who is afraid to get on a bike, vs someone who actually rides.

ride a bike for almost two hours each way ... [or a] 18 minute car ride.

That's the problem we want to fix.

Telling Grandma/grandpa to use an ebike in the snow or in lethal wet bulb temperatures isn't a real solution. It's great that it worked for your folks but it cannot work for mine.

It's not uncommon for population centers in the US to be basically uninhabitable without AC/climate control.

The air can be so saturated with water that you cannot evaporate sweat which is the primary way your body sheds heat.

It is unsafe for anyone, let alone the elderly, to travel in these conditions unless you have a vehicle with climate control.

You don't even have to be old. Ebikes are car replacements and can tow children, groceries, and furniture with ease. They flatten hills, get you to work on time and without sweat, and significantly extend the realistic travel radius around your home/work/last transit stop. Expect to pay pennies to recharge it, rather than two or three figures for a full tank of gas.

Any fitness benefits you get are just a cherry on top. Ebikes just make it so much easier to skip the car trips in your village or city.

I know this might sound pedantic but I will try to write with love. 90% of the world population buy groceries weekly or more often. Many European countries buy fresh food on the daily. Yes, from the grocery downstairs, or across the road. Car centric urban design fucked you up. It's built for the car, not for human beings. Your perception and expectations are completely out of wack with normal human existence.

For example, Costco style mega stores are not a thing in almost all of the world. No, no one needs a 3 year supply of mustard for a family of 4. Most businesses don't need a heavy duty truck, why would a middle class family need one just to get to the school and office. You don't need a 4x4 for the two trips a year you take to the mountains, on an asphalt road.

It's all bizarre, it is all out of proportion. But it is not a personal failure, oil corporations and car manufacturers created this weird mar on the planet that is suburban sprawl and car dependent infrastructure. We just live with the consequences.

I wouldn't ask my 9YO on a bike at 7:30 am on winter to go to school everyday

Why not? In a lot of the world that's pretty normal.

When I was a kid I walked 30-40 minutes to and from school in the winter. I would have preferred to bike, but they didn't clear the bike lanes. In places in Europe they make plowing the bike lanes a priority, so everybody can count on being able to commute by bike.

The place we go to the most is on the other side of mountains 3 hours away by car.

You shouldn't have to rely on a car to get somewhere that's that far away. It's more reasonable to take a train to get that kind of distance.

Groceries would have to be more regular. I currently fill the car and go like once a month or month and a half

Do you not like fresh food? Do you ever eat fruit or vegetables? Or meat that hasn't been frozen?

You can just take some other transportation for long trips.

I had to get a recumbent due to pain issues with a regular upright bicycle seat. I've owned a couple of them over the past 20 years or so, and they're great.

I've had scoliosis since before those accidents, so it's a whole host of back issues. Sitting sucks, but is ameliorated by a quality cushion (a very thick memory foam pad I've had for a while now). I can't sit on benches or hard seats for any length of time at this point.

Part of the problem is that I've learned to accept and work around so much chronic pain that I just realize there are activities I can't engage in. I really need to do something as this has gotten markedly worse in the past couple years despite being quite active (I walk at a very brisk place for 5-8 miles per day).

Vroom

I really wish most places had better public transit.

A major city near me ends public transit at midnight, despite most late night venues being open much later than that.... And their transit system is "good" by comparison to what's in cities nearby me, and I'm still a 15 minute drive from any of them (at least). It would take me most of the day to commute to the nearest major city by bike/public transit.

Still... I wish.