Hacker News Reader

Comment by nkrisc | Hacker News Reader

Because the comment they were replying to said:

> People have no idea how much cars benefited the lower and created the middle class.

Many lower class and even middle class jobs involve physical labor (or even just standing all day). Then they replied, essentially, that they didn’t need cars, they could bike.

So I assumed they also had a job involving physical labor as opposed to their comment being totally out of touch. Biking is a lot more palatable when you have a cushy office job (maybe even with a shower).

View on HN

If you look at reality, the people biking and walking to work the most are lower class and include physical labor. Migrants working in the fields, construction sites (at least to a pick up point)...

The lower class cannot even afford gasoline and car maintenance.

If you look at reality, the people going to work the most are lower class.

Very few workplaces are made up of a majority of upper class people.

With respect to bike riders, there's a lycra clad group who are largely all middle to upper class, they simply don't make up a majority. But they are visible.

> With respect to bike riders, there's a lycra clad group who are largely all middle to upper class, they simply don't make up a majority. But they are visible.

These are only a fraction of people using bikes.

50 miles distance from workplace means around 80km. Both ways, 5 days a week that is around 800km which is pretty much the range of my car. I have to spend around 80€ to fill up the tank. No way lower class people can afford spending 80€/week 300€/month on gasoline only to go to work. That is not counting maintenance, insurance, yearly inspection. This is pure luxury. Even I with a decent income would not commute daily by car as it is just throwing money out of the window.

> That is not counting maintenance, insurance, yearly inspection.

In the US, they’re just not doing that. The state of some cars you see on the road is atrocious.

They might also be driving without insurance and just hoping they won’t get pulled over.

As for gas, they’re likely carpooling and sharing gas costs.

That heavily depends on where you’re looking, at least in the US.

> The lower class cannot even afford gasoline and car maintenance.

Carpools. It’s why at a job site you might see only 3 cars even though there’s 10-15 guys working there. They’re either arriving together or getting dropped off/picked up by friends or family.

Never in my life have I seen a bike parked at a construction site.

In my working class rural area, if you see a man on a bike, and he's not dressed like Lance Armstrong, it means he lost his license to a DUI.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com