Originally Posted by
CrankyOne
This exchange from the clothing thread got me thinking...
Is it really harder in the U.S. or is it that we have to give up more of other things?
It's harder in some places and easier in others...just like Europe. I doubt that rural areas in any country have much infrastructure for commuting while urban areas do.
Further, the cost of buy a residence in
any large large city is going to pale in comparison to buying outside of a city. That's why we have so much sprawl in the US. The city center is expensive while further out is usually less expensive. The median US income is around $50,000 which is only slightly higher than the UK income ($43,000). Comparing apples to apples, you couldn't buy a residence in New York City on the median income either. You couldn't hardly buy a residence on a median US income in the City and County of Denver. Average prices in my neighborhood are 10 to 15 times the median income.
If you go 10 to 40 miles outside of Denver, the prices fall precipitously.
Originally Posted by
Marcus_Ti
Most places in USA have no commuting infrastructure for bikes. Roads are made for cars and that is it,and those roads frequently are falling apart. And to make matters better the single-person occupied cars using those roads are of the opinion that bicyclists have zero ight to use those roads and are jagoffs about it.
You want to live close to work? Guess what...you'll be 10 miles away from the nearest grocery store. Unlike most other (read smaller) countries we in the USA have tons of sprawl.
Further living close to work will likely not pay the bills like rent/mortgages/food/insurance etc.
You are completely wrong. In large cities, there are, generally, lots of infrastructure for bicycles and bicycle commuting. Enough so that the number of bicycle commuters are several times what the national average is. The national average is very low (0.5%) but still...
Outside of cities, the infrastructure for bicycle commuting is mostly nonexistent but you'd expect that. You can't spend $100,000 per mile on a bike path without some riders using it. I've never found rural roads to be all that bad for riding on.