They did the picture with 1 person per 1 car because that's what happens in 99.6% of the cases. So the picture is Not Skewed at all.

where I live we have a 500 year old urban center designed for foot and hoof traffic. now everyone owns a car, and on my fixie i gleefully speed by the lines of cars with one or two people in them, and they look at me morosely, sometimes hatefully, rarely with joy. actually, most of them dont even notice me, they are so caught up in the neurosis of not being able to go anywhere in their metal coffins.
it takes me 10 to 15 minutes to traverse the entire city on my bike.
by car it takes 40 to 60 minutes.
people buy cars here because they think they are escaping poverty that way.

Not really. Just don't ride like a dick around them. Also, street cars are much worse for a cyclist than buses for 2 reasons: 1) tracks are death in wet, icy, or snowy weather; 2) peds run into traffic, trying to catch a ride they're too late for.

Thats an awesome picture. Unfourtunatly in miami public transportation is a joke, and to top it off all drivers here seem to be completely blind to cyclist. I've been hit three times by a car, but never hurt. I wish our public transportation would improve or have atleast bike lanes.

Well, where is that?

no way. i remember the time i was riding in a lane and a bus driver proceeded to look in his mirror, right at me, and just kept going, right into my path, nearly going over me. i swerved--i was lucky there was an empty lane, but unlucky that there was a cop nearby who pulled over the bus driver and i, and proceeded to lecture me about how i shouldn't have yelled at the bus as it cut me off. **** the bus driver and **** the pigs. get hit on a bike in ohio, get a ticket and/or lecture. i don't call the cops, ever.

man, i'm a bit prone to ranting this morning.

mexico.

Chip, meet Shoulder.

This argument is boring. Can we just talk about religion and politics instead? That's much more exciting.

Cars suck because I just dropped 100 bucks on a battery for my Jeep and I'm gonna have to drop another 300 or so when I get new shocks. I'm contemplating just dropping a full grand or so and getting it lifted just to piss off more cyclists.

Drive to work. Work to drive. I hope to be carfree by next year.

Speaking of which, shouldn't this thread be in the...oh I don't know...the "living car free" subforum? Or even the "Advocacy & Safety" subforum?

I'm just sayin'. Just sayin'.

If you want to be car free, do it. It's not hard, just sell your car. I did it for 3 years and paid off my student loans.

Just do me a favor and don't be one of those high and mighty dumbasses who thinks that he/she is better than everyone because he/she doesn't drive. People like that are the only people on earth that are more annoying than hybrid owners.

EDIT! I have a lot more to say on this subject. I'll branch off when I get back from work if it isn't locked yet.

My girlfriend goes to school about 40 miles away. She finishes in May, so I won't really "need" it after that. Plus she's got a job in NYC for next year, and I can't wait to be able to take decent public transportation and use my bike for all my transportation needs.

There is place for that here.. look around.

haha so true, so true. well, no matter what, no one likes a braggard. :)

My friend has gotten hit by cars in Cincy a few times and never deals with the police. Thankfully the only time his bike ever got ****ed up the dude payed for it, but usually nothing happens. Then again, I think with how racist the Cincy police force is he probably could have gotten the drivers in trouble because he's white and they weren't most of the times he's been hit.

Same. At least in the ****hole town I live in right now. All the buses have big "Share The Road" stickers on the back with a pic of a bike, and yet everyday on my commute home I witness the bus drivers doing the exact opposite. And the buses here aren't even an effective alternate source of transportation. S hitty routes and schedules.

This county (Sonoma) is so car culture driven it's sickening. I commute 10 miles each way and they look at me like I have three heads and am on a unicycle. Lot's of people here have more than one car PER PERSON too. WTF is up with that s hit.

*additional rant:
And the more SUV's that are sold with the interior set up like your f ucking living room with a sofa and dvd player and mini fridge, the more complacent and careless drivers become and the more cyclists and peds get hit.

Correct. I'm typing this one handed because I went down HARD in the trolley tracks on California last night. Shoulder's either broken or separated. Screw the trolley and any stupid ****head that actually rides it. I'd trade these tracks in for another few hundred cars on the road any day.

Interestingly I've read cycling history books where late 19th Century period cyclists say exactly the same thing about streetcars/trams.

i cant wait for the day the petroleum finally runs dry and we all ride around on bamboo bikes with natural rubber tires reinforced with hemp fibers and such. another world IS possible....

If you got the bucks, you can ride a bike made from natural materials:

A bamboo Calfee:

http://www.calfeedesign.com/images/bamboo.jpg

A CF/Flaxseed fiber blend Museeuw:

http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/news/im...uw_bike_hi.jpg

yup
now we just have to find alternative materials for cogs, chains, seat tubes, etc....
heres one idea:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005...ga_biolove.php
drive train still made of metal though.

i'm a fan of these...
http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-conten...ation_Lyon.jpg
the first ones were implemented in lyon, france as a test for the whole idea...when i was over there this summer i saw them in barcelona, paris, and lyon. they have racks like this one ^^^ all over the city, you just swipe your card at one rack, the bike unlocks, then you ride to wherever you are going and put it into a rack around there. a lot of people actually ride them, but they aren't in the greatest condition because they don't have enough people or money for the needed maintanence.

Also, I suspect they are not in the greatest condition because they are everyone's and nobody's bikes. I hail from a formerly communist country, and this "effect" is well known to me: what is everybody's it is nobody's, so many feel like they can screw with it.

To be honest, vandalism happens even in non-communist countries, it's just that in (formerly) communist contries there was much more opportunity for crime of this kind.


In Helsinki we have these public bikes here, too - they don't have the basket on the front and are not unlocked with a card but a coin. And they are in a pitiful state just like yours, but what can you do.

Not better than everyone! Just better than those car-driving wankers.

I keed... I keed...

By the way, cycling has a higher chance of getting you killed than riding cars or using buses. Check this out.

Even in Helsinki, cyclists have 5 times more the chance of getting killed, per traveled kilometer, than a car driver. Think of that for a moment.

EDIT: look at this:
http://www.bikexprt.com/research/pas...mages/fig2.gif
I'm seriously considering getting off the roads and back on the separated bikepaths. They may be a bit bumpier, but you can't argue with their safety.