this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Pro-tip: you don't have to defrost a windshield if you walk, bike, or take public transit instead.
I work over 2 hours away each way by bus or 20 minute drive. I'm gonna drive. Not everyone has the option.
I live about a 20 min drive from work, that's why I use my bicycle.
It's about 15km one way and takes me about 40-45 min. Normally the car takes 15-20 min, but in rush hour traffic it can easily be 30-40 min. So for my office commute the bike isn't even that much slower. And if there has been an accident or something like that, I could easily be stuck on traffic for over an hour. With my bike I get there in 45 min, no matter what. I love the fresh air, the exercise and the feeling of being outside.
My E-bike allows me to cover the same distance in about half the time, and no sweating at the end of the trip
Ah yes, because those are definitely viable options for everyone. Sarcasm aside, I'm not saying that these aren't the ideal modes of transport, but they simply aren't viable options for a large portion of people (including me).
In my city, the school buses only pick up kids that live more than 1 mile from the school. I live in a pretty dense (albeit still single-family) neighborhood, so almost everybody who goes to my kid's school lives too close to ride the bus.
It's amazing how the majority of the parents are apparently willing to spend five or ten minutes clearing the frost off their car windshield only to drive half a mile and then wait another ten or fifteen minutes in line at the car drop-off, when my entire round trip by bike is maybe ten minutes total.
Frankly, the "large portion of people" in my anecdote are just flat-out doing it wrong, to both society's and their own detriment.
The number of people who do have alternatives are a lot higher than many of them are willing to admit.
You can be investigated for neglect if you let your kids walk alone.
It happened in Maryland.
That's (unfortunately) true, but I'm not sure what you're getting at? My comment was about how parents should bike their kids to school (or walk with them) instead of driving them.
It doesn't really, but I'm sure there are parents who are driving to work anyway, and walking or biking the kids would take even more time than the
So I figured they'd just let the kids walk on their own because it's only a mile and it would save the parents some time. (Plus they don't have to go out in bad weather.) But then I remembered that even that isn't allowed anymore.
Then again, I'm old enough to have been a pedestrian latchkey kid and I'm pretty sure if I did that to my kids at the same age they'd be in the foster system.
Yeah people will use bikes or public transit if it's a better option for them than driving. But decades of carmaker lobbying, terrible zoning laws and bad urban design makes driving the only available option for most Americans.
Cities who invest in good public transit and sensible urban design always see a huge decrease in car traffic.
If it's cold enough that windshields freeze, walking and biking probably won't be fun. And kinda dangerous, as well.
It's funny how people never say things like that about skiing or other winter sports, yet for some reason, as soon as you're talking about a bike it becomes magically impossible. Why is that?
Anyway, back in reality, it's fine -- my kid and I literally do it every weekday morning. The key is my super-secret strategy called "wearing appropriate clothes for the weather." It's not even anything fancy, either: it's just normal street clothes (including decent gloves and a wind-blocking coat), with the only biking-specific part being an insulated skull cap that's thin so it fits under a helmet.
When I'm doing sport, I don't mind getting sweaty, when I'm cycling to work I definitely do. And that's the only alternative to being cold when cycling in extreme weather. I mean, I do it too, but I can certainly understand why some people don't like it (though the main reason is that it's not worth it to drive that short a distance - if it was further, I absolutely would. It's just so much more comfortable and convenient).
Anyways, the biggest issue isn't even that - it's ice on the road. That's hella dangerous if you're cycling.
Full disclosure: I'm using an e-bike, so I'm not even really exerting myself. I'm wearing enough layers to keep me warm as if I were standing still in a 20mph wind.
I admit, dressing for a decently long and/or faster-paced ride on an acoustic bike takes a little bit more consideration and planning. Still, lots and lots of people commute on acoustic bikes in street clothes, and make it work simply by not being in such a hurry that it turns into a fitness ride.
Also, where I live it's either wet or cold, but almost never both at the same time (and the rare times when it is, the whole city shuts down because we have no plows). There's just enough frost from the dew point to screw up people's car windshields and make the grass crunchy, but no ice stuck to the street.
Yeah I live in the Alps, so it isn't that easy here. We get quite a lot of icy roads in winter.
I was about to say. Imagine driving to work.
My wife takes the car, and I transit because she works closer but in a corner of the city, while I work in a highly transit centric part of the city. It only takes me like 35-40 mins to walk, bus, and walk. Plus my dog can come with and we get a nice little walk in for the morning!
Imagine having to leave your house to go to work.
My commute consists of walking down the stairs into my office. Takes about a minute unless there's a cat, in which case I'll be stuck for a few minutes giving him pets and letting him know he is a good kitty.
Yea, she works in a vet clinic. Kinda hard to do remote.
But I wish I could be remote, but my corpo overlords require me to”in the office” 3 days a week. So I go in for an hour or two and head back home to continue working.