You need to pay more attention to biking in NYC. Drivers HATE bikers to an incredibly unreasonable extent.

As a pedestrian in NYC I wasn't fond of them either. At least once a month I'd have a near miss due to a cyclist barrelling through a red light at full speed. I know it's a only a minority that does things like that, but it unavoidably creates a bad impression.

I guess traffic will always elicit emotional reactions in people. I bike through a tourist-laden, relatively narrow, street on my way to and from work and, my god, the amount of people just wandering around aimlessly seemingly having no sense of their surroundings is astonishing.

I get that, but he's ESPECIALLY noticeable here. It's basically the Dave Chapelle "Wearing the uniform" joke.

They're super common in NL and BE. So I guess the inferred question is why can't they be common in NYC?

From the Article:

> As it happens, as a male cyclist I have indeed experienced that same line of questioning, but only while carrying children on my bike, and only from women who were concerned for their safety.

I would not want to ride a bakfiets in traffic in the US with children riding along. I would be concerned for their safety as well.

I mean, they can be, they just aren't now. For it to be common, it has to fit more people's use cases. Clearly, that's more likely to happen in somewhere like NYC than in Memphis, but I would think that most people, even people inclined to use bikes like that, would use it only on shopping days, and a more traditional two-wheeler for their commute.

As for other hypothetical reasons they are not normal now (hypothetical because I know very little about NL / BE / wherever):

* Are people in those places using them for work or leisure? I suspect that if they're that common, people are using them for work in jobs like delivering market goods (e.g., similarly to how we use bike messengers, but for larger 'messages')

* I've seen them used in Netherlands for carrying children and such, while it seems that predominately, more Americans are dual income families, with children being cared for in daycare / school during the days.

As for all things that aren't "normal", there's the chicken and the egg problem. There's nothing wrong with being anormative, but right or wrong, if you're deviating from the norm, you should expect people to ask questions. If you'd like to help normalize what you're doing, then answering their questions (where possible) seems like a fine way to start. Without getting into a meta-debate about vaping, I was an early vaper because I liked the idea of saving money, and they seemed healthier than cigarettes. If your first experience to vaping is by a guy who sneers at your questions, acts better than you, and then blows huge clouds in small rooms, you're probably going to be put off to it. If your first experience is with me, who vapes outside, is usually happy to answer any questions, etc., you're less likely to be.

Obviously, no one's beholden to take time out of their day to answer other people's questions, but the vibe I got from the author was that they were stupid for asking them, that he couldn't be bothered, and that overall, he didn't seem like a pretty good ambassador to the cause.

> * Are people in those places using them for work or leisure?

It's just a way of getting around. Bring the kids to school, pick up some groceries on the way back.

> * I've seen them used in Netherlands for carrying children and such, while it seems that predominately, more Americans are dual income families, with children being cared for in daycare / school during the days.

Same thing in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Children in Belgium start school at 2.5 years old, so... yea. Same thing in BE.

Cargo bikes are not as unusual as you think in NYC