Originally Posted by RobbiRobbi

Here's my two cents: people who've managed to move a couch with their cargo bike, or regularly cycle to work in -20F weather, or really anything else that seems extreme to the uninitiated, like to talk about. That's understandable, people want to feel good about what they've done, but it can still be discouraging to people not on that level (yet.) But other times it's actively confrontational, which I think is super counter-productive. Most real lifestyle changes are made incrementally, and that means starting with the easy stuff. But when people hear "give up your car! Stop being addicted to automobiles, sheeple!" the first thing most people think of is trips that are most difficult to do without a car, and they get defensive. Instead of insisting they stop driving at all right now, point out how so many of those car trips could be easily replaced by bike, before they even have to touch the difficult stuff.

I get it, people who've "made it" want to emphasize the really impressive things they're doing, but people who are just starting out ought be focussing on the easy things they could be doing. Like, how much of your transportation doesn't require hauling more than a backpack's worth? Try doing that stuff by bike. How many days out of the year where you live is the weather dry between 40F and 80F? Try biking to work on those days. You live at the top of a really big hill? Bike to work and take the bus back! (if possible) When people get started with that stuff, it's easy to expand later.

There should be a place for bragging about how hardcore you are, but it shouldn't get mixed up with alternative transportation activism. If the point of what you're saying is supposedly to get people to change their habits, try saying stuff that's more likely to actually work, rather than what makes you feel good.