I’ve only seen someone try to cycle on the roads around me twice in almost 20 yrs living here, and both times there was a line of cars a mile long waiting their turn to get around him. He was lucky he didn’t die.
I also know several people who live in actually-bikable areas not too far from me who have taken out loans to buy bikes. It’s not difficult to spend $3k, you can well upwards of $10k if you want high end. But yeah you can still buy a piece of garbage from Walmart for $250.
I cycle in the middle of the road any time there isn’t a suitable bike lane, cars will have to wait their turn and then I overtake all of them at the next set of traffic lights.
Well yeah they have to ride in the lane, there’s nowhere else to ride. But no one does because our roads are narrow and curvy with relatively high speed limits and a lot of large truck traffic that can’t stop quickly. I actually see bikes on my commute every day, they are on the side of the road as a memorial to people who died on them right there. Tons of deer get hit on those roads too. If you’re not traveling in the direction of traffic at least close to the speed limit, you are seriously risking your life.
Being highly visible helps a lot, also in the UK we don’t have high speed traffic in urban areas. Outside of urban areas there is usually some kind of bike path you can use unless you are using country lanes but in that case you get people walking in the road too.
I’ve lived a couple of years in Europe and spent time in the UK. I know what your reality is, you have probably never experienced mine. Visibility doesn’t help when a large dump truck carrying 25 tons of gravel comes around the bend and physically can’t stop in time, and there’s incoming traffic in the other lane. I’m on the outskirts of a good size city. There are zero bike lanes outside the urban inner city. Absolutely no one walks or bikes these roads out where I am.
I live in an area that is completely un-bikable so the only bike shop near me only sells to enthusiasts who are driving their bike somewhere to ride it. It’s also in a nicer neighborhood than I live in, so much of their clientele are middle class or upper middle class. They don’t sell a bike under $2k. I know a few people with 300k cars, they’re very wealthy. I know a dozen people with 5k-12k bikes, they’re middle class enthusiasts.
The affect is widespread. My kids didn’t even learn how to ride a bike because there is nowhere to ride them. Nobody owns bikes, so they aren’t many on marketplace nearby. The ones that do go on marketplace are either worn out or rusty or still very expensive because they started their lives as $5k bikes. Even the thrift shops around here only sell nicer bikes and they’re at least $200.
Did inflation hit bicycles? I put some miles on this for 550USD before I left the US, and I had no complaints, maybe an aluminum frame would have been lighter.
It shows $749 as the base price now. Almost everything has gone up 50-100% since 2020. At least my mortgage is fixed rate. My property taxes doubled though.
You need a 50 EUR bike, and for deterring theft, a can of cheap pink spraypaint and go wild with it. At least, that was the strategy of several of my coworkers, and all of them had six figure salaries.
I can take the tram to my job, why don’t you get a tram then? /s
People here don’t understand that people in general do what makes sense for them, and you can’t ask someone in a place with no bike infrastructure to “just buy a bike bro”.
I’ve only seen someone try to cycle on the roads around me twice in almost 20 yrs living here, and both times there was a line of cars a mile long waiting their turn to get around him. He was lucky he didn’t die.
I also know several people who live in actually-bikable areas not too far from me who have taken out loans to buy bikes. It’s not difficult to spend $3k, you can well upwards of $10k if you want high end. But yeah you can still buy a piece of garbage from Walmart for $250.
I cycle in the middle of the road any time there isn’t a suitable bike lane, cars will have to wait their turn and then I overtake all of them at the next set of traffic lights.
Well yeah they have to ride in the lane, there’s nowhere else to ride. But no one does because our roads are narrow and curvy with relatively high speed limits and a lot of large truck traffic that can’t stop quickly. I actually see bikes on my commute every day, they are on the side of the road as a memorial to people who died on them right there. Tons of deer get hit on those roads too. If you’re not traveling in the direction of traffic at least close to the speed limit, you are seriously risking your life.
Being highly visible helps a lot, also in the UK we don’t have high speed traffic in urban areas. Outside of urban areas there is usually some kind of bike path you can use unless you are using country lanes but in that case you get people walking in the road too.
I’ve lived a couple of years in Europe and spent time in the UK. I know what your reality is, you have probably never experienced mine. Visibility doesn’t help when a large dump truck carrying 25 tons of gravel comes around the bend and physically can’t stop in time, and there’s incoming traffic in the other lane. I’m on the outskirts of a good size city. There are zero bike lanes outside the urban inner city. Absolutely no one walks or bikes these roads out where I am.
Those prices are way too high. $250 gets you something decent off marketplace. $50 if it’s shitty but still works fine.
The people spending thousands are either very avid bikers or well off boomers going through their gravel bike mid life crisis.
10k is insanity, like spending 300k on a car
I live in an area that is completely un-bikable so the only bike shop near me only sells to enthusiasts who are driving their bike somewhere to ride it. It’s also in a nicer neighborhood than I live in, so much of their clientele are middle class or upper middle class. They don’t sell a bike under $2k. I know a few people with 300k cars, they’re very wealthy. I know a dozen people with 5k-12k bikes, they’re middle class enthusiasts.
The affect is widespread. My kids didn’t even learn how to ride a bike because there is nowhere to ride them. Nobody owns bikes, so they aren’t many on marketplace nearby. The ones that do go on marketplace are either worn out or rusty or still very expensive because they started their lives as $5k bikes. Even the thrift shops around here only sell nicer bikes and they’re at least $200.
I’m sorry, that sounds so awful.
Did inflation hit bicycles? I put some miles on this for 550USD before I left the US, and I had no complaints, maybe an aluminum frame would have been lighter.
It shows $749 as the base price now. Almost everything has gone up 50-100% since 2020. At least my mortgage is fixed rate. My property taxes doubled though.
That’s like buying racecars for commutes.
You need a 50 EUR bike, and for deterring theft, a can of cheap pink spraypaint and go wild with it. At least, that was the strategy of several of my coworkers, and all of them had six figure salaries.
Well you can’t commute on a bike here, and there are no functioning bikes for 50.
That’s kinda my point.
I can take the tram to my job, why don’t you get a tram then? /s
People here don’t understand that people in general do what makes sense for them, and you can’t ask someone in a place with no bike infrastructure to “just buy a bike bro”.