Originally Posted by
Papa Tom
To encourage more bicycling for ANY purpose, I think we first have to get over the marketing BS that tells us we can't ride a bike without special shoes and clothing and that every bike needs a holder for a cell phone that's equipped with an app to tell us how fast we are riding, how to get to the Starbuck's three blocks away, and how fast we have to ride home to burn the calories in the chocolate scone we ate.
It's an article of faith among a certain set of utility riders that this is the "problem" with bicycling, that everyone thinks it requires special shoes and spandex and great fitness. And if only the roadies would stop riding around in their spandex and the industry would stop trying to sell things to them, people would suddenly realize that cycling can be done in normal clothes and then people would be riding bikes everywhere. As someone who actually does do the large majority of his miles on a road bike in spandex, this idea is really frustrating because it's just so obviously complete baloney. People GET that you can ride a bike in normal clothes. The majority of people who ride bikes are doing it on hybrids in street clothes. This just isn't the problem. Countries that are well known for having large cyclist mode share in their cities, such as the Netherlands, are also countries where the sport of cycling is much more mainstream and there are just as many people riding around with special shoes and spandex there as there are here. Probably more.
The factors that make bike commuting so unpopular here are many and complex, but I would start with two basic facts. First, that people here do not believe that riding a bicycle on the roads is safe. Second, that riding a bicycle, period, is seen as weird, and is actually getting more and more weird as time goes by. These days children aren't even allowed to ride their bikes to school (see point number one), and are increasingly shuttled everywhere by their parents in cars (again, supposedly for safety reasons). None of this is the fault of people riding bikes recreationally. But I can tell you, no matter what kind of riding you happen to be doing at any given time, people think you are weird and a jerk for supposedly endangering yourself. This has been especially absurd with the last few weeks of snowfall here in Boston, with people I know getting called names for riding their bike. We can be concerned for the future of all types of cycling, recreational and utility, for as long as this continues.