Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
What percentage of your coworkers, do you think, are going to come to work by bicycle when the weather conditions make the use of a car impractical? This question applies to everyone, not just axOn. Please no answers that say everybody could if only they were dedicated to bicycling or saving the environment or some some other irrelevant response.
I'm pretty sure as long as the person had become comfortable with riding in adverse conditions, quite a few would be the same way. See, my morning commute of 3 miles really isn't that far. It's actually so close that taking the bike, especially in winter, is faster and easier than taking the car. There's no idling the car for 20 minutes or standing outside freezing while scraping crap off of the car. You hop on the bike, pedal, and warm up quickly after that. Before my car would have gotten the chance to warm up, I'm already at my destination.
It just so happens that there were some days where I happened to choose the bike, and ended up being able to use it to get up hills that were bringing cars to a halt, or getting me through deep unplowed snow that my car would not have made it through. Sure, my Explorer would have gotten through all of that, and up the hills, but I never drive that thing. I would have likely tried to take my Focus if I decided not to ride my bike. It would have met certain doom at least three days this winter. At the very least I would have needed to find a different way to get where I was going.
I should also say my philosophy on bad weather (mostly since I don't let harsh conditions stop me very often) is that if it's too bad outside to use my bike, it's too bad to go to work.