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Comment by lvl102 | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think everyone wants to ride around in bikes. I really don’t like the idea of forcing municipalities to spend tax dollars retrofitting cities for bikes. It’s quite literally ripping apart the streets to satisfy 5-10% of the population. No thank you.

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As a dutch person, i'm very happy our governments made this choice: makes cities way more liveable, benefits those who can't afford a car, saves many lives, improves the health of 1000s, and reduces healthcare costs due to improved health. It impacts way more people than just the 5-10% actually cycling. Everybody benefits from others cycling. Even if you're still driving a car, you should be happy with reduced traffic jams due to others leaving their cat at home.

As opposed to forcing everyone to have to use cars? Cars are expensive, dangerous, and incredibly space-inefficient, and car infrastructure is very expensive. A car lane can move max 1600 people per hour, where as a bike lane can move up to 7500 people per hour (according to nacto.org). Note that even in Amsterdam you can still drive, it just is often a slower option than biking because you will have to take longer routes.

And remember, that a bike lane doesn't have to just be human-powered bikes: it could be e-scooters, e-bikes or perhaps even microcars.

Should municipalities instead be forced to spend tax dollars on more roads? Bike paths are cheaper, more people on bikes leaves more space for cars, and less cars means less traffic deaths.

Lots of people want to bike or would appreciate it once they get used to it, but often the infrastructure simply isn't there. If you build good bike infrastructure (nut just the occasional bike path, but a network of them), it will be used, and will remove a lot of strain from the car infrastructure.

Your theoretical argument against bikes is actually just a practical argument against cars. Most people hate driving, they do it because they have to. Cities ripped apart streets to satisfy a minority of the people.

Maybe people would want to use bikes if the opportunity existed. I don’t bike because it doesn’t feel safe next to cars, but I also don’t drive because I know it isn’t safe.

Imagine yourself in the year 1920:

I don't think many people want to ride around short distances downtown in a car, hunting for parking spaces at both ends. I really don't like the idea of forcing municipalities to spend tax dollars retrofitting cities for cars. It's quite literally ripping apart the streets to satisfy 5-10% of the population. No thank you.

Do you live in a US city centre? Or do you live in the suburbs, miles out, and want the privilege of driving your large vehicle directly into those city centres when you want to cosplay as an urbanite? I don't know many folks who live in downtowns in US cities who want to drive a personal vehicle around everywhere they go; it's inefficient, expensive, and stressful.

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