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Comment by ithinkinstereo | Hacker News Reader

Having bikes chained everywhere is a common sight in China and other developing countries -- even in developed countries where biking is a popular mode of transportation like the Netherlands.

This is less common in the US. I wonder if Americans will tolerate having bikes everywhere, like the Chinese or the Dutch do.

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You tolerate cars everywhere, so why not?

Apples to oranges.

Its a fair comparison. Where I live many roads have parallel parking available, were people leave their cars in public. Since a single car spot can house maybe 10 bikes, a 10% impact on available car parking could allow all drivers the option to bike.

How so?

Even if they do tolerate it, the biggest impediment to adoption of bikes in the US, is its vast suburbia. This itself makes it so unbearable. Cycling just isn't fun when you're not able to see other cyclists, humans, stores and actually socialize with your society.

Let's not forget the very real possibility of death when cycling on a US road. You are completely at the mercy of the auto. In most cities dedicated bike lanes with any barriers or protection are very rare.

It is not everywhere per say. There are restrictions saying where you can put your bikes. There are designated places in cities where bikes are allowed. For example, in San Francisco, there are only certain places where you can park your bikes.

America: where you can park your car wherever you want (and laws are set up to mandate construction of parking access for new buildings), but parking your bike is limited to specific areas.

Just in case there's anyone still harboring the illusion that the auto/petroleum industry isn't thoroughly dominant in US culture.

That's absolute nonsense. I can't park my car on a sidewalk. I can't park my car in the middle of a park on the grass.

Sure, there's no doubt that cars still dominate in the US but yours is a hysterically fallacious comparison.

Additionally I find that bike parking is literally never enforced unless you're directly inconveniencing someone who then calls it in.

You actually can park your car on a sidewalk in a lot of American cities. For example, in Los Angeles:

http://la.streetsblog.org/2017/04/12/parkway-parking-really-...

well no, you still can't park on the sidewalk in LA, only the parkway (area between the sidewalk and the curb) or the apron (part of the driveway between the sidewalk and the road).

in any case, i would love to have this kind of inexpensive rackless bike sharing in LA. the metro has bike sharing in downtown (https://bikeshare.metro.net/), but it's not rackless and is only economical if you live and/or work there and can use it often. santa monica has expensive, racked bike share (https://santamonicabikeshare.com/), blah.

(i used to bike quite a bit in LA but my bike was stolen... from a well-lit metro station, no less.)

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