reedie

I don't even think one riding style is enough for me. Sometimes on my bike, I met get up early on a saturday morning, bike to pick up some breakfast and some groceries, and then bike the half mile or so back home all at a slow leisurely pace while sipping my coffee.

Sometimes I feel like going faster, pushing the pedals a bit harder, and enjoying the exercise of a bike ride, as opposed to the relaxation it offers.

I don't see why one mode is inherently superior to the other.

LittleBigMan

I try not to make overgeneralizations about people who ride in Iowa, since I don't live there. Neither should people from Europe decide what's best for me in the Southern US.

A rather silly exercise in judgementalism, don't you agree?

charles vail

I must be unusual since my actual door to door (round trip) commute would be 54 miles exactly, per day, which for me at 3 days a week would be 162 miles a week total. I have to drive my auto part way in order to avoid total burnout so my commute is only 17 miles exactly from my parked car to work. This is still above average it seems, according to most of the figures I am reading. Maybe that is why my hamstrings and glutes are so sore. I'm taking it real easy tomorrow.
I don't think we can effectively compare Dutch commuting to what we have in some parts of America. True, some Americans by virtue of climate (coastal California) or proximity to work can effectively commute daily a few miles to work. City dwellers are better off I'd say than many of us, especially if public transport is available. Many Americans live miles from work due to housing costs and the inconsistency of steady employment at one company. Our constant changing job availability forces many to commute long distance or move only to find their job changing yet again. Moving every couple of years isn't practical for many. This forces people who want to bicycle to find alternatives and sometimes there are none, in a practical sense.
When America stops exporting all her jobs out of the country and the economy stabilizes, we might start to see at least our cities doing things more like the Dutch. The differences between us are what make each so great.
Heck, some of our States are larger and farther apart that most European countries and we are not even talking about Texas, California and Alaska.

tjspiel

My Neighbor is from the Netherlands. A couple of years ago he and his wife took a years sabbatical from the local university and spent that time with their two young kids in the Netherlands. What they described fits in well with what you're saying. They talked about how their kids loved to bike to the local ice cream parlor and how they biked just about everywhere.

Now they're back. They live right across the street from me. Where they work is about 3 km closer to their house than my office is to me. There are two very good ice cream places about 3 km from their house. Their church (same as ours) is about 6 km away. They don't bike to any of these places although one of them has talked about biking to work. These are places that I bike to.

Minneapolis is the #2 biking city based on commuters per capita in the US, so it's a fairly bike friendly place as US cities go. Yet this couple only get on their bikes for recreation. Why is that?

Because cyclists here face a different set of realities than cyclists in Amsterdam. When you get closer to downtown, it gets better. You'll see a lot more single speeds and people wearing all kinds of things, none of it you'd find in a bike shop. But downtown as a place to live for cyclists has its own limitations. There's plenty of nightlife, but not so much retail, and no real grocery stores. There's two kinds of places to live around downtown. Really expensive places and total dives.

Then there's the climate. About 10 degrees warmer on average in the summer than Amsterdam and I'm embarrassed to describe how much colder in the winter.

Now I think Amsterdam is a great example of what can be done when you deliberately try to curtail the use of the automobile. There's a lot we can learn. But what works there won't necessarily work well here.

Pedaleur

Ah, but the bikes here are only 15kg, whereas in America they're 20lbs. It's all about using the right unit of measurement.

Pedaleur

viplala, let me be the first to apologize on behalf of the humorless Americans everywhere...

mrbubbles

Then there's the cyclist who rides in spandex and for utility like the Dutch. Me.

I-Like-To-Bike

Quite an unusual distance for a US commuter to consider using a bicycle, I'd say. What percentage of the population do you think makes that type of commute by bicycle or would even consider it? Probably not too much different than the percentage of people living in any first world countries.

Ha, Ha! I knew someone would bring up that old tired chestnut of comparing "commuting" distances.. Let me know how many commuters traverse the states of Texas, California, Alaska or even Rhode Island daily. is right!!

kwrides

You missed that he drives over half of it

huhenio

I wear my fedora sometimes on my steel cheap fixed gear.

I wear my racing kit for the long way around home on my road bike.

robmcl

What exactly are " distances considered practical for routine commuting by bike"?

I-Like-To-Bike

I didn't miss it. Commuting by bike for half a 50+ mile commute while driving the other half is probably just as rare, as cycling the entire distance. How many people do you believe would consider either option. Possibly less unusual would be someone who drives the bulk of a long distance commute and parks at a free lot somewhat near the destination and cycles in the final miles in order to avoid exhorbinant parking fees.

I-Like-To-Bike

My definition is the approximate/estimated distance that any significent percentage of the population under discussion would consider using a bicycle as their principal means to commute to/from their destination. I suppose if the population under consideration comprised only the members of cycling enthusiast discussion list the outside distance would be more than if the popualtion included the other 99.9% of the commuting population.

There will always be the outliers who cycle incredibly long distances just as their may be a few commuters who would use unicycle or highwheeler. Neither use would demonstrate that what is possible is necessarily considered practical by the vast majority of the population.

GP

Same here. Some days I commute on my Bianchi San Jose, sometimes on my Electra beach cruiser and sometimes on my road bike.

In my area there are a lot of people that make short commutes on cruisers and wear regular clothes.

Rob_E

It's interesting to read all the responses saying why what the OP said does not apply to us. It's doubly interesting because this is, after all, the commuter forum, where the basic idea behind the OP's post, bikes as transportation, should be a no-brainer. I don't really believe that the reason we don't have Amsterdam's bicycle culture is because of differences in elevation, terrain, climate, commuting distance, and road conditions. I think that the reason we think that elevation, terrain, climate, commuting distance, and road conditions are unsuitable is because we don't have Amsterdam's bicycle culture. Sure, it may be relatively flat, and the climate may be more moderate than some areas, and I'm sure that helps, but there are so many people on this forum who commute in so many different situations, that we already know that most of these obstacles can be overcome.

I think all the nitpicking about necessary clothing, necessary bikes, and commuting lengths here vs. there are just examples of us echoing the prevalent idea in this country that a car is the default mode of transportation and that bicycles are inherently inferior, weird, or impractical. I think we've all had the experience at one point or another where someone says, "You got here how? From where? Are you serious?" It's not normal. It's "programmed" into us as being an odd "alternative" choice, and, moreso than any other factor, I believe that is what makes US cycling culture different than European cycling culture.

I don't mean to put words into the OP's mouth, but I think the message behind those lovely pictures is not really about clothing, style of bike, or riding style. It's about how you can have a really great bicycle culture simply by having people who don't waste any time thinking about why can't bike to where they're going. In high school or junior high, I pulled an old Schwinn, possibly older than me, out of the yard and started riding it where I wanted to go. I didn't hardly spend a dime on it other than new tubes when the old ones were unpatchable and new, cheap tires when the old, cheap tires had worn through. People were constantly amazed to find where I'd biked to. They thought it was "great," but they also said, "I could never do that." It seemed to be some extraordinary feat to them, but I knew that wasn't the case. You take any old, rusty bike, put air in the tires and oil on the chain, then you point it in the right direction and pedal until you get where you're going. Nothing could be simpler.

All those other issues, they're worth discussing. We're all about comfort. We're all about convenience. And we can pour money and technology into cycling to fit it to our mold. That's not why America doesn't take bikes seriously. We've simply set our collective minds that can't do it. So much so that even though I haven't driven to work more than a few days this year, and I started my car yesterday for the first time this month, I still occasionally, during my pre-work preparations to head out, say to myself, "Now, where did I leave my car keys?"

Our default is set to "car" so much so that without even thinking about it we will argue in favor of the car and explain why bike-centered transportation is impossible here.

"And that," says Yoda, "Is why you fail."

Lot's Knife

I wish I had written that. Rob E. is my hero.

squirtdad

Great thoughts.....I concur..... my feel is that we should do more "just riding". Not just 'commute" to and from work...but "I have to pick up a prescription, it's nice out and the drugstore is a mile away" kind of rides.... Hopping in the car is such a habit...and a hard one to break

Ride what you have if your are only going a couple of miles it doesn't make much difference.....I built up an 'utiliyt/commuter" that I can just throw my leg over and go....and it gives me options. I put on the lycra and bike shirt for longer rides. I ride my wife's cruiser (with my 10 year old kidding me for riding a girls bike) if have a flat or am in the middle of repair/upgrade. I avoid my son's BMX because it is too hard on my knees though

I'm lucky....within a 5 mile circle is my work, my son's school, the grocery store and and drug store we use, A hardware store, a farmers market, a small downtown area with coffee, ice cream...etc. I know not everbody is this lucky in terms of location

I don't always bike when I can....but I am working on it I am really happy when I realilze at the end of a weekend, that I had a great weekend and didn't use the car for any local trips

genec

You CAN do that, and you should, but then you run into the issue of where and how to park the bike, and the even more basic issue of how to deal with the auto centric road that doesn't have suitable width for sharing... and a 50MPH speed limit. Those are the little things that make cycling work in places like Copenhagen.

LittleBigMan

I agree on the culture part. America as a whole does not foster cycling culture.

But I can't use his recommendations. For example, trying to make a chain last 10 years is "stretching it" a bit.

ok_commuter

1. fail, self-righteous
2. forget it, dude; OP was gone forever after the first page.

viplala

u sure?

Pedaleur

Ooh! Well, I never! You are _so_ going on the list!

<stomps away steaming>

I-Like-To-Bike

I believe you're serious. Are you really?

Somehow I think the OP has enough common sense not to get perturbed by a dopey comment from a know nothing stranger on the Internet.

KLW2

I do but it's 25+ miles not 50+...

ok_commuter

Ha, I didn't figure he was perturbed; just bored.