Originally Posted by
Ogsarg
I can understand the lack of interest in cycling nowadays. Most kids are not allowed to ride bikes unsupervised anymore except for maybe on their block. Not much adventure involved in that....or all that much fun depending on where you live.
By the time I was 7, my friends and I rode bikes to school, all over town, around vacant lots, to lakes to go swimming, etc. There was no limit on where or how far I could go (as long as I was home for dinner). For years that was my only transportation and it occupied a lot of my childhood. As an adult, going back to cycling was pretty natural. I felt comfortable on bikes, didn't mind working on them or worry about riding in traffic, etc.
Nowadays, parents get bikes for their kids but don't let them go anywhere and wonder why they never use them. To be realistic, playing a video game is more exciting than riding 100ft up/down the street. The result is they don't get the enjoyment from riding that others did. They don't learn how to fix a flat or deal with the most basic repair. Most importantly, they don't really learn how to ride. All this makes approaching a bike as an adult a bit daunting and scary.
Given that there are many options for exercise, its no surprise that people are not choosing cycling as much as they used to. Given all the choices people have, the cost of cycling (in time and money), I don't see it improving.
Hmm interesting point. I am old enough where I spent my childhood biking the neighborhood. We didn't necessarily bike too far, but we did have all sorts of games on the block. And we would go over a few blocks.
When I got older we moved, and could only bike around the subdivision. But that also meant we could bike to the pool which was around a mile away. And biked to our friend in the neighborhood (she lived near the pool).
I dropped biking once I learned to drive. Picked it up for 2 seconds in college and then dropped it since I lived up a really steep hill. I just ended up walking. I tried it as a young adult, found it dangerous. I came back when the stars aligned - I was thinking about it and won a bike in a raffle. That was around 7 years ago now. I ride for transportation and brunch. Most of my friends do not ride.