Bicycles: efficient, environmentally sound transportation / a hell of a lot of fun.
Too bad then, roads are designed to serve cars. City bikers risk getting doored or crushed by multi-ton machines. Country bikers navigate narrow, ill-kept shoulders speckled with potholes and beer bottles.
US cities devote more than half their real estate to motorized vehicles, including millions of parking spaces. People who live in suburbs build whole houses just for their cars, while urban garaging can cost more per annum than other residents earn that same year.
Too bad, public policy promotes self-driving and electric cars rather than public transportation and safe bicycling.
Many years ago I rode a bicycle in lower Manhattan. It was a very frightening experience. I was a nervous wreck. I’ve been walking ever since.
Many years ago we lived in Denmark, and they biked (especially in Copenhagen) in all weather -- rain and snow. Our friends would take their kids to day care on the bike, then continue on to work. It is still a major mode of transportation there.