I genuinely wish I could ride a bike where I live :( I’m not in good enough shape to ride for 10 miles, but even if I were, there are no safe ways to ride a bike around here. There’s no shoulders, blind hills and curves, no sidewalks, not shit. The road I live off of is the main way other than the interstate that connects two towns, and at least once or twice a month some homeless person walking or riding their bike on that road gets hit by a car. A guy died a few months ago. If I lived somewhere where I could ride a bike, I absolutely would. Healthier for me personally, better for the environment. I used to love riding my bike when I lived in a bikable city, but shitty semi rural Appalachia gives no shits about pedestrian or cyclist safety
That’s rough buddy. Wishing you either better road planning in the future or a move to a nicer town, biking should be accessible to everyone (even if you’re not in shape, with modern ebikes it’s easier than ever to get out and move for relatively cheap)
Ive been considering trying to save up for an ebike to use for the purposes of getting into shape. I’m too damn fat anymore to pedal myself up a hill (and it’s nothing but hills here), but if I could get a bike to take to some of the bike paths in a nearby city, maybe I could slowly work up to it and use the motor when I just can’t. That, or a stationary bike until I can make it to the point of being able to do it outside. Lol.
Iunno, I just know I loved riding back in the day, and I’d like to not keel over
More than enough range for a day’s riding around the city, on the cheap end but still reliable, and most importantly folds up to fit in your car alongside anything you might pick up along the way. Maybe look for used ones too, they’re fairly common and you might get a good deal vs. new.
Ebikes are actually fantastic for exercise, even more so than acoustic bikes. The biggest thing it does is erase hills for you so you don’t exhaust yourself, and they’re just plain fun.
Same. Even just taking walks around my area can be scary (though I also don’t know how to ride lol). I could go to the store, but only that one store. My actual grocery store + most things are in a strip mall with no sidewalks to be seen, not even a curb to slow down cars thay come too close.
My former boss once challenged me to ride my bike across our main local highway to go get us some pizza. He said if I could accomplish that and get back in less than 4 minutes, he’d pay for it.
Then he told the other coworkers to watch as I did exactly that. 3 minutes 53 seconds later, and I was back with a fresh hot pizza.
For comparison, it would probably take like 15 minutes in a car, having to stop at red lights and waiting at the drive through and all that good fun traffic shit.
Disclaimer: When I ride my bike, I don’t obey any traffic signs, I’ll ride straight through the median if that’s the shortest/safest path. Whichever way is quicker, safer, easier, IDGAF.
Good thing they live 4 minutes away from a grocery store. You can fit quite a lot on a bike very easily, and living that close you don’t need to make big infrequent trips anyway.
Most Americans buy a lot of groceries at once because most Americans don’t have quick access to grocery stores, and buying smaller portions of groceries costs a fortune.
I can buy a week’s worth of groceries for a family of 4 for about the price of 10 days of groceries for one person. But it requires being able to haul a lot more than can fit on a bike. And for many of us, the store is also a long way away with no public transit and in a place where the temperature may be lethally hot for months at a time.
man, it’s so wild hearing that the nearest grocery store is 20 miles away. You guys have created unnecessary problems for yourself. It’s so shocking how rough you guys have it and how non-chalant you are about something which is a no-brainer for the rest of the world.
Believe it or not, not everyone lives in dense urban areas or the suburbs.
And the scale of the US isn’t something most Europeans understand. How long does it take you drive across your country? In the US, a drive from Southern California to Maine is over 48 hours and around 5000 kilometers.
The Texas Triangle megalopolis (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio) is bigger than lots of European countries.
You don’t drive across the country daily do you? How long does it take to drive across the country? that’s irrelevant.
the whole of zoning and design of US is bad.
You can’t bring this up when the argument is how far is your local grocery store is to your house. Unless you drive cross country for your groceries!
“Not everyone lives in dense urban areas or suburbs”
Your argument is “that’s how it has always been and we have to solve around it” when the solution is to not to have it that way.
the US is hopelessly into spread out development. There’s no solving your way out of having to drive 10 minutes to get groceries without substantial changes to mindset and zoning policies. It’s so absurd!
With a pannier rack and baskets to hang on the rack, I can carry all the groceries we need for 1-2 weeks if I so wish on my bike, no problems whatsoever.
4 minute drive to the grocery store is probably a 4 minute bike ride to the grocery store, just sayin
Yeah but I’m not carrying 6 bags of groceries back to my place tho
Why not? With panniers and baskets there’s no limit to what you can do on a bike, and that’s not even mentioning bakfietsen.
I genuinely wish I could ride a bike where I live :( I’m not in good enough shape to ride for 10 miles, but even if I were, there are no safe ways to ride a bike around here. There’s no shoulders, blind hills and curves, no sidewalks, not shit. The road I live off of is the main way other than the interstate that connects two towns, and at least once or twice a month some homeless person walking or riding their bike on that road gets hit by a car. A guy died a few months ago. If I lived somewhere where I could ride a bike, I absolutely would. Healthier for me personally, better for the environment. I used to love riding my bike when I lived in a bikable city, but shitty semi rural Appalachia gives no shits about pedestrian or cyclist safety
That’s rough buddy. Wishing you either better road planning in the future or a move to a nicer town, biking should be accessible to everyone (even if you’re not in shape, with modern ebikes it’s easier than ever to get out and move for relatively cheap)
Ive been considering trying to save up for an ebike to use for the purposes of getting into shape. I’m too damn fat anymore to pedal myself up a hill (and it’s nothing but hills here), but if I could get a bike to take to some of the bike paths in a nearby city, maybe I could slowly work up to it and use the motor when I just can’t. That, or a stationary bike until I can make it to the point of being able to do it outside. Lol.
Iunno, I just know I loved riding back in the day, and I’d like to not keel over
I recommend something like this: https://lectricebikes.com/collections/ebikes/products/xp-black
More than enough range for a day’s riding around the city, on the cheap end but still reliable, and most importantly folds up to fit in your car alongside anything you might pick up along the way. Maybe look for used ones too, they’re fairly common and you might get a good deal vs. new.
Ebikes are actually fantastic for exercise, even more so than acoustic bikes. The biggest thing it does is erase hills for you so you don’t exhaust yourself, and they’re just plain fun.
Same. Even just taking walks around my area can be scary (though I also don’t know how to ride lol). I could go to the store, but only that one store. My actual grocery store + most things are in a strip mall with no sidewalks to be seen, not even a curb to slow down cars thay come too close.
I can in theory but the hills are brutal where I live.
My former boss once challenged me to ride my bike across our main local highway to go get us some pizza. He said if I could accomplish that and get back in less than 4 minutes, he’d pay for it.
Then he told the other coworkers to watch as I did exactly that. 3 minutes 53 seconds later, and I was back with a fresh hot pizza.
For comparison, it would probably take like 15 minutes in a car, having to stop at red lights and waiting at the drive through and all that good fun traffic shit.
Disclaimer: When I ride my bike, I don’t obey any traffic signs, I’ll ride straight through the median if that’s the shortest/safest path. Whichever way is quicker, safer, easier, IDGAF.
Good thing they won’t need to bring back a bunch of groceries.
Good thing they live 4 minutes away from a grocery store. You can fit quite a lot on a bike very easily, and living that close you don’t need to make big infrequent trips anyway.
Good thing i live in South Florida where if you stay outside for 4 minutes you die from heat exhaustion
that’s not a good thing buddy
Peope can’t just say “I don’t like the weather” and leave.
Wednesday things like housing, Healthcare, and food, which depend on jobs. And those can be very difficult to find in a new place.
I work in municipal employee and an expert in Texas development regulations. If I leave Texas, I lose most of my value as an employee.
sounds like American problems that you created for yourselves! Enjoy! (or not)
Oh shoot
Good thing that bikes can carry groceries for at least a week.
Americans are the only creatures who don’t understand the concept of a grocery basket outside of a car
Most Americans buy a lot of groceries at once because most Americans don’t have quick access to grocery stores, and buying smaller portions of groceries costs a fortune.
I can buy a week’s worth of groceries for a family of 4 for about the price of 10 days of groceries for one person. But it requires being able to haul a lot more than can fit on a bike. And for many of us, the store is also a long way away with no public transit and in a place where the temperature may be lethally hot for months at a time.
sounds like hell
I tried saying “bippity bopping boo” just now, but it didn’t move my house 20 miles closer to the grocery store.
man, it’s so wild hearing that the nearest grocery store is 20 miles away. You guys have created unnecessary problems for yourself. It’s so shocking how rough you guys have it and how non-chalant you are about something which is a no-brainer for the rest of the world.
never seen more chumpier chumps than Americans.
Believe it or not, not everyone lives in dense urban areas or the suburbs.
And the scale of the US isn’t something most Europeans understand. How long does it take you drive across your country? In the US, a drive from Southern California to Maine is over 48 hours and around 5000 kilometers.
The Texas Triangle megalopolis (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio) is bigger than lots of European countries.
oh this tired argument again!
You don’t drive across the country daily do you? How long does it take to drive across the country? that’s irrelevant.
the whole of zoning and design of US is bad.
You can’t bring this up when the argument is how far is your local grocery store is to your house. Unless you drive cross country for your groceries!
“Not everyone lives in dense urban areas or suburbs”
Your argument is “that’s how it has always been and we have to solve around it” when the solution is to not to have it that way.
the US is hopelessly into spread out development. There’s no solving your way out of having to drive 10 minutes to get groceries without substantial changes to mindset and zoning policies. It’s so absurd!
With a pannier rack and baskets to hang on the rack, I can carry all the groceries we need for 1-2 weeks if I so wish on my bike, no problems whatsoever.