Originally Posted by
CarinusMalmari
@
rekmeyata: I shared this earlier. About a quarter of all car commutes is an ideal-for-cycling 2x5=10 miles or less and about half is a less-than-ideal-but-still-doable 2x10=20 miles or less. So I think Americans are more car-dependent on a psychological level than that they really need cars for the great majority of their trips.
However accurate that graph is is anyone's guess, but lets assume that it is, about 2/3rds of the nation has people living in areas of dramatic weather changes, it could be sunny leaving then be raining returning or vice a versa, so with such potential weather issues most don't want to risk riding in the rain. And in that same 2/3rds of the nation they can't ride a bike to work for at least 5 months out of the year due to bad weather called snow, this year in Indiana was one of the worse winters on record and the cold and snow and ice lasted 7 months, so for 7 months commuting by bike would have been treacherous not to mention miserable. Also keep in mind that for various reason a person goes to work then for lunch they take off in the car to either get food or run errands, although with some planning that wouldn't be necessary.
HOWEVER, if people paid more attention to area weather forecasts they could do a better job of at least commuting by bike in the late spring, summer and early fall part time.
Again I'm not arguing against commuting by bike, but in most places in our nation it isn't really going to happen due to logistics as I spoke of earlier and weather. And I do agree with you that people are lazy in general here, I use to have friend who lived a block from me, would come over by firing up his 10 mpg truck and drive over to my house! He never walked over!! I don't think it's so much
psychological as it is just plain laziness...at least in my opinion.