I will tell you the same thing I have told everybody else I have come across that somehow has in in their mind that bicycles are an answer to anything. Only a small minority of the population really enjoys riding a #bicycle on a regular basis. Beyond that small percentage, the people who ride bikes do so because they feel they have no other better options, or they only do it during the nice summer/fall days for recreation. The problems with #bikes are they do not shield you from the elements, they limit the range you can comfortably travel, it is nearly impossible to bring home a couple bags of groceries or any significant purchase from a bricks-and-mortar store on a bike, and they offer virtually no protection if you are in a collision with a larger vehicle.
But more to the point, when Americans feel threatened with the idea that they might be forced to use a bicycle for basic transportation, they blame the "damn liberals" (even though a lot of people who are liberal on most other issues hate the idea of using anything other than a car to get around with every fiber of their being, though they will not say that to their liberal friends). So if and when Americans get it in their heads that "the libs" are going to try to force them to give up their car and ride a bike, they will vote for the worst Republican running, because they know that one thing Republicans will NEVER do is try to take people out of their cars, they are too beholden to big oil. Nobody ever wants to talk about it this way, but I will bet that close elections have been lost because a certain percentage of voters sees the Democrats as the party that wants to take their car away, and they might even be right to feel that way about some of the far-left elements in the party. Viewed that way, it's not a win/win, it's a lose/lose because it helps elect people who will never expand #BikePaths and who will continue to support the fossil fuel industry, and who are just terrible people in general.
@Lunatech It does not matter what people enjoy and it does not matter if they want to drive. Ten billion people cant all drive - it just is not possible. The more we try to make that happen the more people will die painfully. There is no need to sell anyone anything or market bikes. Eventually driving will become so painful and so self destructive that they will beg for a bicycles.
@eastbaynian You are out of your mind if you think that most Americans would ever beg for bicycles. I say this will all seriousness, I would rather be dead (and probably will be) before I'd stoop to that level of existance. But here is the thing, you apparently just can't envision that first of all something could happen to reduce the population (like, say, Covid + a bunch of stupid people who think that vaccinations and masks are evil), or else that we will develop some new form of energy that really will make it possible for everyone to have powered transportation. Just a couple hundred years ago no one could envision the widespread use of electricity or instantaneous worldwide communications, yet here we are.
However you are making my original point for me. When you say something so obnoxious as what you just wrote to me, that is exactly the sort of rhetoric that causes some percentage of voters to vote for Republicans. There's a lot of ways that Republicans would probably like to kill me, since they have no regard for human life other than their own, but it least it won't be freezing to death on a fucking bicycle while trying to get to work or school. I don't know how I can make this more plain but when you talk that way you are just minting new Republican voters. And I guarantee you they are not the least bit interested in building bike paths for you, to them you are just another form of liberal vermin that deserves te run over by a big gas-guzzling SUV.
