I have managed for ages without a car. Usually hear “but that only works in big cities”. I have never lived in a city. Spent all my life in various sized towns. Yes the bus route is shit, no I don’t use it. Its faster to cycle to the next town over than it is to take the bus or drive and locking up a bike is free.
Lucky you but perhaps everyone’s situation is different?? I used to bike to work (city) but now I can’t afford to live within a reasonable biking distance of my current job (not city) so I drive. Thankfully it’s only twice a week but I also have family, friends, and hobbies…most of which are out of biking range…
I WISH I could go back to using my bike for everything but I can’t so I hate the stupid “I do it so clearly everyone can” mindset so much of the anti-car crowd seems to have.
That’s fair but it’s still significantly less doable outside of the city in the US. Most of our towns sprawl, they’re built for cars. Residential is far from the office parks and those office parks are surrounded by 4-6 lane roads with no bike lanes. I feel lucky to have found a place with a bikeable a grocery store.
It’s bad and I hate it but that’s reality for most people.
“Need” is irrelevant when they already exist and aren’t going away any time soon.
But as for why it was built: it’s a busy business town. Residential is all in the south (away from the highway and major roads) and the north is almost entirely offices, hotels, restaurants, and a giant mall.
It’s my second least favorite suburb but I don’t have much of a choice but to work here unless I completely change careers. The only viable competitor is in the same town.
Is that highway as in motorway, rather than just any road? I presume that is just a difference in American/English. The very idea of having one of those in a town is insanity.
You must not live in the US. I don’t really use my car these days because I can take the train into work and live close enough to the town center that I can bike there. But to get to the next town over? I have an ebike, and there’s a well-kept bike path to the next town over (a very uncommon thing in rural US) and it is still significantly longer to bike than it is to take a car to the next town over. Like, 3-4x longer to bike than drive, even if I’m going 15+ mph on the bike.
that explains it. in America it’s way way worse to go without a car. suburban sprawl is literally the devil. look at some of it on google maps and then see if you can bike there
Things are different here in the US.
In a city, cars get lined up and go 0mph. In more rural areas (even only an hour out of a city) it’s a lot less likely to have traffic, so cars end up averaging 25-30mph if not more. Especially given that there are usually multiple miles (12 in my case) of road between towns, the cars end up being quite a bit faster unfortunately. Riding a bike will usually 2-5x the time it takes to get anywhere within a 15 mile radius. And because of how big the US is, in rural a 15 mile radius can get me pretty much one town over, two if I’m lucky. I’m not even in that rural a place, only an hour drive from a major city.
I have managed for ages without a car. Usually hear “but that only works in big cities”. I have never lived in a city. Spent all my life in various sized towns. Yes the bus route is shit, no I don’t use it. Its faster to cycle to the next town over than it is to take the bus or drive and locking up a bike is free.
Lucky you but perhaps everyone’s situation is different?? I used to bike to work (city) but now I can’t afford to live within a reasonable biking distance of my current job (not city) so I drive. Thankfully it’s only twice a week but I also have family, friends, and hobbies…most of which are out of biking range…
I WISH I could go back to using my bike for everything but I can’t so I hate the stupid “I do it so clearly everyone can” mindset so much of the anti-car crowd seems to have.
They didn’t say that everyone can ditch their car.
A significant amount of people could though.
I also hate the “it only works in cities” line that I hear all the time. I have never lived in a city.
That’s fair but it’s still significantly less doable outside of the city in the US. Most of our towns sprawl, they’re built for cars. Residential is far from the office parks and those office parks are surrounded by 4-6 lane roads with no bike lanes. I feel lucky to have found a place with a bikeable a grocery store.
It’s bad and I hate it but that’s reality for most people.
What town needs a 6 lane road, how terrible are your road engineers?
“Need” is irrelevant when they already exist and aren’t going away any time soon.
But as for why it was built: it’s a busy business town. Residential is all in the south (away from the highway and major roads) and the north is almost entirely offices, hotels, restaurants, and a giant mall.
It’s my second least favorite suburb but I don’t have much of a choice but to work here unless I completely change careers. The only viable competitor is in the same town.
Is that highway as in motorway, rather than just any road? I presume that is just a difference in American/English. The very idea of having one of those in a town is insanity.
They’re often called ‘stroads’ or street-roads.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroad
I have heard of those but assumed it was just in major cities. They don’t exist here.
Yes. And I’m not sure why you think it’s insane when that’s how it is basically everywhere in the world they’re built lol
No, no it isnt. Motorways go around towns, not through them.
You must not live in the US. I don’t really use my car these days because I can take the train into work and live close enough to the town center that I can bike there. But to get to the next town over? I have an ebike, and there’s a well-kept bike path to the next town over (a very uncommon thing in rural US) and it is still significantly longer to bike than it is to take a car to the next town over. Like, 3-4x longer to bike than drive, even if I’m going 15+ mph on the bike.
A bike going 15mph will easily overtake a line of cars doing 0. But yeah I live in the UK
that explains it. in America it’s way way worse to go without a car. suburban sprawl is literally the devil. look at some of it on google maps and then see if you can bike there
Things are different here in the US. In a city, cars get lined up and go 0mph. In more rural areas (even only an hour out of a city) it’s a lot less likely to have traffic, so cars end up averaging 25-30mph if not more. Especially given that there are usually multiple miles (12 in my case) of road between towns, the cars end up being quite a bit faster unfortunately. Riding a bike will usually 2-5x the time it takes to get anywhere within a 15 mile radius. And because of how big the US is, in rural a 15 mile radius can get me pretty much one town over, two if I’m lucky. I’m not even in that rural a place, only an hour drive from a major city.