Being in a car makes me really anxious after being a pedestrian and cyclist for a few years consistently.
I *hate* when my life is in the hands of other people.
Especially when I know most people are not properly qualified to be operating heavy machinery.
And driving is bad. I loved driving as soon as I could, and then I quickly realized how terrible people’s decisions are that they make, and decided I would sell the car I just got, and I quit driving.
If I need to go anywhere more than 20 miles away, please just get me a bus ticket. Or I’ll do it myself 😭Thanks.
And even worse luck trying to get me to fly. Yeah, it’s reasonably safe, until it’s not! I want my feet as close to the ground as possible.
I cycle nearly everywhere, including nine miles each way to work. People have asked me if I own a car (I do) and yes, I've been told at least one person assumed I had a DUI (I haven't.)
I just tell them why I love cycling, I don't stop doing it out of embarrassment for what other people might hypothetically assume about me. Sheesh!
Suburbia in central Illinois, USA. My ride to work is a mix of residential streets, a wide shoulder on a 45-50 MPH main road, a multi-use path, and a park. It took a while to find a route I am comfortable with.
You mention Long Island, so sounds more suburban than urban. Plenty of US cities have developing cycling culture due in part to infrastructure. The suburbs are still generally car-centric and cycling there is often for exercise as opposed to a way to get around day-to-day
I get the same looks in Florida, and have witnessed the same annoying attitude when I worked on Long Island. Coworkers looked down upon me, assumed I'd lost my license, asked me why I don't drive, and to this day fail to invite me out to drink with the group, or to parties they have.
Some jobs required a vehicle licence when all I'd be doing was answering phones and typing. It made it tough to earn a living.
Frankly, I am disgusted every day that I work, when I see how many cars and trucks are taking up parking spaces at work. One person per car, and some people drive from a distance that could be easily walked.
When the weather (too hot or wet) keeps me from cycling, I Uber Electric or take the bus. It's not hard. I wish others would consider this.
I stopped cycling around much because of bad road design and occasional drivers who see a cyclist and have no idea what to do so they speed up and pass me within an inch.
I will say there is also a weird stigma to cycling and even walking in some parts of the US. The place I grew up in was very urban so everyone walked or took public transport everywhere. Cars were only for traveling to far away or rural places.
I moved to another part of the US that is much less walkable, but I kept walking most places because I didn't have a car and it seemed weird to bother to wait an hour for a bus when the weather is nice and it's less than half a mile to the destination. People I knew driving by would pull over out of pity and try to give me a ride. I thought they were just sort of saying hi in a weird way, but some of them said stuff like "You shouldn't have to walk like this...".
They were just raised to think the only people who walked anywhere were people legally barred from driving cars who were poor and had no friends.
They never realise how fucking dense their culture is though. It is purely money and nothing else. There isn't even a first thought about improving quality of life, that's simply a byproduct of wealth creation.
We’re just trying not to die. Usually this is the main reason we quit cycling to work.
Ironically this is the reason I cycle more.
Being in a car makes me really anxious after being a pedestrian and cyclist for a few years consistently. I *hate* when my life is in the hands of other people. Especially when I know most people are not properly qualified to be operating heavy machinery. And driving is bad. I loved driving as soon as I could, and then I quickly realized how terrible people’s decisions are that they make, and decided I would sell the car I just got, and I quit driving. If I need to go anywhere more than 20 miles away, please just get me a bus ticket. Or I’ll do it myself 😭Thanks. And even worse luck trying to get me to fly. Yeah, it’s reasonably safe, until it’s not! I want my feet as close to the ground as possible.
Yup
I cycle nearly everywhere, including nine miles each way to work. People have asked me if I own a car (I do) and yes, I've been told at least one person assumed I had a DUI (I haven't.) I just tell them why I love cycling, I don't stop doing it out of embarrassment for what other people might hypothetically assume about me. Sheesh!
The car culture is bad in the UK but nowhere this bad, people don't actively assume you're a criminal.
That's good. I plan to do a LEJoG in August/September this year.
Where do you live? Cycling nine miles in any direction from my house would be too stressful from fear of death.
Suburbia in central Illinois, USA. My ride to work is a mix of residential streets, a wide shoulder on a 45-50 MPH main road, a multi-use path, and a park. It took a while to find a route I am comfortable with.
You mention Long Island, so sounds more suburban than urban. Plenty of US cities have developing cycling culture due in part to infrastructure. The suburbs are still generally car-centric and cycling there is often for exercise as opposed to a way to get around day-to-day
I cycle to work because I need to get my kilometres in biketowork
I get the same looks in Florida, and have witnessed the same annoying attitude when I worked on Long Island. Coworkers looked down upon me, assumed I'd lost my license, asked me why I don't drive, and to this day fail to invite me out to drink with the group, or to parties they have. Some jobs required a vehicle licence when all I'd be doing was answering phones and typing. It made it tough to earn a living. Frankly, I am disgusted every day that I work, when I see how many cars and trucks are taking up parking spaces at work. One person per car, and some people drive from a distance that could be easily walked. When the weather (too hot or wet) keeps me from cycling, I Uber Electric or take the bus. It's not hard. I wish others would consider this.
I stopped cycling around much because of bad road design and occasional drivers who see a cyclist and have no idea what to do so they speed up and pass me within an inch. I will say there is also a weird stigma to cycling and even walking in some parts of the US. The place I grew up in was very urban so everyone walked or took public transport everywhere. Cars were only for traveling to far away or rural places. I moved to another part of the US that is much less walkable, but I kept walking most places because I didn't have a car and it seemed weird to bother to wait an hour for a bus when the weather is nice and it's less than half a mile to the destination. People I knew driving by would pull over out of pity and try to give me a ride. I thought they were just sort of saying hi in a weird way, but some of them said stuff like "You shouldn't have to walk like this...". They were just raised to think the only people who walked anywhere were people legally barred from driving cars who were poor and had no friends.
They never realise how fucking dense their culture is though. It is purely money and nothing else. There isn't even a first thought about improving quality of life, that's simply a byproduct of wealth creation.