Bikes are great, but not very practical.
As for humidity, this is in south Florida—if we can manage it here, then we can handle the humidity pretty much anywhere in the US.
Now I'm not saying everyone can or should bike a 52-mile round trip to work. But the point of this article is that this little experimental suburb has 5,500 people within a single square mile; biking or walking is a perfectly reasonable way to traverse such a small area at nearly any level of fitness, especially when you don't have to worry about automotive traffic, and for the few people who can't manage that there's the public transport option. Even on our hottest days here in south Florida, one can easily bike a mile, fully dressed, without breaking a sweat.
Perhaps we're different, but I break a sweat in a couple minutes simply going outside in FL this time of year. Add riding a bike and I'm drenched.
When I'm just cycling through the town (rather than exercising), the only time I really feel the heat is when I'm stopped at a light.
With enough training (build up the habit) and if you don't exert yourself too much (it's not like you have to go 20mph all the way), you shouldn't sweat too much. Add in a pair of showers on work site and you're golden.
> In addition, many people commute long distances to work, which may take up to an hour just by car.
That's an issue of brain-dead urban planning and stupid personal housing considerations, not of bikes.
> Bikes are great, but not very practical.
The article, and all of Amsterdam or Münster, already prove you wrong. Why do you make declamations which are already disproven before they even get out your mouth?
pg gets ideas in the shower. I get them cruising on the bike. Same effect.
I believe that post will also feed hungry trolls
(Btw I actually run to work.)
Blame it in "brain-dead urban planning", or "stupid housing considerations", but that doesn't change the fact that biking to work is simply not possible for most people.
If you live in the suburbs of New York, biking to Manhattan to work just isn't practical. If you live in the middle of the country, biking to work can be a nightmare. If you live down South, again, very difficult. If you live in San Francisco, hope that your job is downhill.
Let's build a better infrastructure, and not accuse people of being inconsiderate or stupid.
Oil drives concrete & consumption. Crack in a US sidewalk? Break it up and pour a new pad. Euro sidewalk? All pavers. Pull 'em up, fix a sewer line or whatever and put the same ones back down.
The trend even seems to be to make Autobahnen out of concrete. (Although that's not very relevant I guess, because Autobahnen are rarely digged up.)
It's not exactly a trend, I've seen concrete autobahnen more than 15 years ago, and the early ones were concrete as well.
The GDR also had streets paved with concrete---but they had tar in the gaps and sticking out of the gaps. You can imagine what a bumpy ride that was.
I use to use my bicycle for a job where I lived outside and the company was in some inner part in Hamburg. 18km.
I also used it when I lived in some inner part and was working in some part of the harbour. 16km. There was a Fitness center near the office, I was a member of that chain of fitness centers. I was using the bicycle to get to that fitness center and have a shower there. Then I walked to the office.
I would expect that it is important to take a shower before walking into office. It's just a matter of planning. Really good companies have showers for their employees. For example many of the larger companies have some kind of sports facilities.
Additional to taking a shower, one also needs some fresh clothes. Also you need a save place for the bicycle.
It takes some planning and organization, but once you use your bicycle three or more times per week to get to work and back it pays back.
The excellent fitness is what you get in return.
Currently I live in a suburb. The whole area is reduced to 30km/h for cars. I use my bicycle a lot. Bus station is 50 meters away. The bus comes every 20 minutes. The bus takes me in 5 or 10 minutes to two local city centers. The next local train is 15 minutes walking or 5 minutes by bus. That local train gets you in 18 minutes into Hamburg City. So, public transport is sufficient for me. Though there is also a Autobahn nearby. Generally connectivity is great.
In the inner city of Hamburg one can now rent bicycles and a lot of planning is now done to improve the whole bicycle co system. Even the port authority of the Hamburg port, one of the largest in the world, thinks about using bicycles - they are working on a 'master plan' for using bicycles in the harbour region: http://www.hamburg-port-authority.de/presse-und-aktuelles/ne...
A few friends of me bike in spain during the summer. You see, it can be done. All that's needed is a small shower at work and you are even fresher than by driving with your car. And sweating in the rush hour.
If you drive more than 20 Miles you can't go by bike, yes, but you can drive shopping or to your friend by bike. Try to use it to go to the nearest pub on weekends.
Just try it :) .
It all depends on the environment you are in, which is not a static unchangeable monolith. You have choices. Maybe living somewhere where biking is practical would involve making choices that go against your priorities, but those are your priorities.
You are right, bikes wouldn’t work in every case but sometimes they can replace cars just fine.
Even if you did have the average high summer humidity index for Europe and the US (personally, after having lived in the swamp that is Maryland & Virginia, I'd take a look at them), you still need to overlay the temperature index. 100 relative humidity in Oslo doesn't mean a whole lot when it's a balmy 21C, right?
That davidu is not exactly fair in his declaration.
> As someone else said, if you just cruise at a conservative pace, you don't even sweat very much.
I'm the one who said that...
I use to commute 35 miles each way without owning car, it was taking quite a lot of time, so I moved closer to work, but I still don't own car.
As for the long distances, I've known people to drive some of the way, stop where it's easy to park and ride the last bit (generally the bit with the most traffic congestion, so it can work quite well).
Most people who complain about sweat are trying to cycle in cotton. Just change when you get to work.
(sorry, I meant 'bikes', not Jesus).
EDIT: I knew this would get down-voted. No sense of humour these bicyclists ;)
I my case, I have a short commute, but mostly drive it, because cycling is much more effort, and much less comfortable than driving. Sorry to have an incorrect opinion.