• nutsack@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    these are feasible in cities that you wouldn’t want to drive a car in anyways. probably not so good for commuting around Boise Idaho

    • hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      We sold our car and committed around Tacoma for about 6 months before we moved to the Netherlands. It was awful in a ton of ways, but for a lot of trips it was way better. The majority of trips are under a mile, so dropping the kids off at preschool and stuff was way better on a bike. It’s actually quite a bit faster since kids love to get on the bike instead of the long fight against the car seat.

      We also did a few shopping trips. You can’t really do much more than 3 bags on a long tail bike with two kids in the back, but it worked well enough for shopping trips. People look at you like you’re crazy in the US when you’ve got things strapped all over your bike, but here it’s just completely normal. We probably would ride year round there if it wasn’t for how dangerous cars are when it rains. I have no problem biking in the wind and the rain here because I know I’m not going to be randomly murdered by some idiot in a multiton metal box.

      I’m not familiar with Boise, but I’d bet that an eBike would still be better for a lot of trips.

      • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        He he, yeah, riding strapped into the little kid’s seat behind mom on a bike was exciting as hell when you were little…

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Because Boise, ID is not interested in building the necessary infrastructure for ideological reasons.

      • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m going to wager this comment was posted and upvoted by people who have never been to Boise. Because that place has a good amount of people biking around. Especially around Boise state and for recreation.

        • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Been to Boise many time. Take a trip to Europe and then come back and tell me what you think of Boise’s bike infrastructure.

          • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Any American city is going to look like shit compared to Europes biking capitals.

            Compare a super blue “bike friendly” city like San Francisco to Amsterdam. It’s not even a fair contest. SF is a fucking cycling death trap in comparison to Amsterdam.

            • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Sure. I’m just saying that there are a lot of opposition in many US cities to building green and more progressive infrastructure that doesn’t specifically benefit cars. Especially in red states.

              • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                True, but often times stuff like this boils down to the city planning and city budget, not the state. And a lot of major metro areas are pretty blue, even in red states.

                Oftentimes the biggest barrier is that the bones of US city planning was done with cars in mind, and trying to accommodate bikes afterwards is difficult. Which is why US cities that want bikes struggle with supporting them.

                Many old European city layouts were baked before cars were a thing.