cross-posted from: https://pawb.social/post/23351353
this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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Buy a bike, and often that sense of freedom comes back.
Still getting around, still able to use public transit at its best, but also able to fill in the other parts of trips with a form of low-stress exercise.
I get the feeling you're not from the US. In the vast majority of US cities, bike infrastructure is either non-existent, or so limited/unprotected that it's still dangerous to use.
Let me try to give a good comparison. Telling people to switch to biking in US cities is like telling someone to switch to biking on the Autobahn. It's impractical, it's dangerous, and often it's even illegal. You might think that's hyperbole, but I promise it's not. For many major cities, 40 MPH (65 KPH) is considered a low speed, found on side-streets and other non-major roads; in neighborhoods, where kids play, it drops down to 30 MPH. On highways, you're looking at 50 MPH minimum, sometimes up to 75 MPH, and these are inner-city highways.
Americans don't choose not to bike out of laziness, but because, in most places, biking as a form of transportation will get you killed.
I am American, but I’m lucky enough to live in a city where bikes are relatively practical.
My Australian town is almost as bad as American ones because it was built after cars became necessary
It has decent bike paths and painted bike lanes on many roads. Riding to local centres is easy, or to any of the five or so nearby schools (which gets a lot of kids onto bikes), but if you work a desk job it is probably in one of the three big centres and you're likely to live up to an hour by bike away. So few adults get around by bike