Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9875605:


Lands of two wheels 26 9, 11:56pm

@Hinoron

> "Nothing is close enough to walk to from there."

Agreed, sort of. That's why bikes would be used. :-)

Bike commuting is pretty easy for anything up to about 15 km/9 miles (On flat roads, obvs). That's 30 minutes of fairly leisurely biking, at 10-18 mph. I would regularly bike for up to an hour when I lived in the Netherlands. (Which in the Netherlands means being able to ride to another city... :-) )

Nobody's saying that someone living 50 miles away should be riding their bike to work.

But within the city, building bike infrastructure does a lot of good beyond just letting people bike. It means there will be a buffer zone between pedestrians and cars, it means there will be more space for kids to play (You take the space for bike lanes away from the cars, not from the pedestrians! The sidewalk should not be touched).

It makes the city nicer. Yes, a lot of US cities don't have people living in the center (Downtown) area, but not everyone lives in the 'burbs. They could easily go to work by bike if they felt safe enough to do so.

Your argument is basically "but no-one will use it" but it seems to be a chicken or egg situation. Biking in Lisbon, where I live now, has taken off because they built the bike lanes.