Originally Posted by
Doohickie
Trust me on this one. The vast majority of people in the U.S. will never ride a bike for transportation. Think of your own extended family. Which ones would even consider it? Besides me, I can think of maybe one other person in my family that would try it.
You may be right, my point is that to automatically assume that "the vast majority" of some 250,000,000+ people will behave exactly as you predict and that any alternative prediction is therefore "incorrect" is, in my opinion, somewhat short-sighted to say the least.
Two years ago I regarded cycling in my home town as something I'd never do. Now my wife can't keep me off the bike. If fuel prices get prohibitive the simple fact is we don't know how people will respond, whether they move to cities to use mass transit (I live in a city and I'd rather cycle than use mass transit, despite being relatively new to it) or just don't move around so much we'll never know for sure until it happens.