>Cycling still works to commute between most suburbs and small town centres.

You'd be borderline suicidal to do that regularly in the US.

I cycle regularly in Cambridge, MA which is the most bike friendly city in the US. It is still extremely risky, whenever I need to drive with cars on the same road. American drivers simply aren't accustomed to accounting for bikes on the road.

I fear for anyone who bikes in a city without the infrastructure for it in the US.

I live in a smallish town (~14k in the limits). For the most part, cycling on major highways is merely unpleasant, there's a nice wide shoulder. Less important highways have less shoulder and less traffic. There's parts of the highway that I avoid, and parts where I won't go, but those are the parts with parallel streets in town, not the parts between towns.

It's also not so uncommon for their to be a trail with similar connectivity to the highway (lots of rail trails do this). I can ride to the next town/village over with about ¼ mile of actual highway riding. That's pretty recent, what with a casino paying for lots of trail and a new bridge being built on the US route, but there you go.

> You'd be borderline suicidal to do that regularly in the US.

That is very much location dependent. You are right that some locations are extremely poorly designed for this. The cost/benefit of improving the designs isn't always obvious.

Totally agree, I should have italicized between most suburbs and small town centres in the quote.

Biking to work in Mountain View was a pleasure and seemingly very safe. I'm now in a rural area with unmarked roads that barely fit two cars. The state highway between me and the nearest town has a paved shoulder that might be a foot wide. If I ride on it I commit the mortal sin of riding against traffic because I have a wife and kids and need to make eye contact with everyone coming my way before I even think of trusting them.

Seconded. I used to bike frequently when I lived in a small town. Now that I live in the suburbs of a big city my bike sits unused--there is exactly one place that I normally go to where I would feel safe biking and I drive past it enough that there's no reason to bike there.

Before I started working remotely there were 5-10 people who biked to work daily

This is the key part

>commute between most suburbs and small town centres

I commuted to work on a bike every day in Mountain View. If I tried that from where I live now it wouldn't work in my favor.

They commute into a major city on a bike

Agreed. I have two main paths between my home in city A and work 11 miles away in city B. Neither has bicycle paths, and only the longer one (about 18 miles) has shoulders worth mentioning.

I've almost hit bicyclists because I couldn't see them (their fault; black clothing with no reflectors) on both of those routes. You coudln't pay me enough to bike to work.

It is not their responsibility to ensure you drive at a pace such that you can stop before striking an obstacle that was hard to see. Should we require pedestrians using the road (like the one without shoulders) to dress in bright colors as well?

Frankly, yes. To paraphrase from a meme - the biker in black has to be lucky every time. A car only has to be unlucky once.

In a vehicle-bicycle/pedestrian incident at the posted speed limit, no matter who is at fault, it's the bicyclist/pedestrian who will be dead. If someone wants to be alive, as well as correct, they'd do well to make themselves as visible as possible.

But that's too practical a view to hold here on HN, I realize that.

EDIT - I just realized this is likely in response to 'their fault' in my original message. I stand by it though. Riding a bike at night on an unlit 50mph rural road with no reflectors while wearing black is, as the GP said, suicide by car.

You didn't mention night in your first message.

You'd still be criminally at fault, and if you can't stop in time for a cyclist you're over-driving your headlights, but the cyclists would be well served by buying a back light for visibility. Keep in mind that wild animals can't, and they'll have roughly the same visibility as the cyclist.

Yup, and there are thousands of animal strikes every year in my state alone. Every three days or so there's fresh roadkill on the side of the road when I drive into work.

Night, day, twilight - a bicyclist can only increase their likelyhood of surviving their trip by adding reflectors and wearing bright clothing.

In a lot of states, a cyclist riding at night without a rear light is also breaking the law and at fault.

Yep, and I've still managed to avoid hitting all of those I've encountered by driving slower at night in places where I can't see as far ahead of my vehicle.

I'm not disagreeing that it's your responsibility to not crash, but as noted farther up - people hit wildlife all the time.

It's pretty rare for somebody who hits a deer to be charged with reckless driving, so it's not like there is actually an absolute responsibility to never out drive your headlights.

Besides the legal aspects, anyone riding a bike after dark without any illumination is being irresponsible. Whether the car is at fault or not, it's not going to be the guy in the car who dies from it.

So far. Just hope that you're never distracted at just the wrong time. It only takes a couple of seconds to overrun your headlights, even at lower speeds.

A car with high beams cresting a hill behind you. A car with high beams cresting the hill in front of you. An animal. A drink. A radio station change. A text message.

But a light or bright clothes won't change that situation - if you're distracted or are coming up to the top of a hill reflection won't save the biker.

It’s the difference between having 4 seconds to avoid a collision, and having 30 or more (I’ve seen a few well outfitted bikers over a mile away before).

Reflectors make that big of a difference; they don’t look or move naturally, and thus play well to our night vision strengths, even to a distracted driver.

I agree that bicyclists should outfit their bikes to be visible in the conditions they will encounter. But it it's also our responsibility as drivers to maintain a sense of the unseen hazards of our environment so as to avoid killing people who aren't as savvy as us. I wouldn't personally cycle without lights or reflectors but the fact that tons of people do means that if I'm not sure then I must assume there's someone out there.

Also, sometimes people are walking in dark clothes on the road. Maybe their car broke down. Maybe they're trick or treating. Maybe they were out later than expected. Regardless, demanding other people dress like the world is a construction site so you can drive fast is impolite.

It's practical in the same way that a bulletproof backpack is practical for school. The person introducing the element of danger bears the responsibility for handling that danger responsibly.

Reflectors are required in all 50 states. Active lighting is generally required after dusk. If you don't have these then it's hard to blame "reckless cagers" for not being able to see you.

> I've almost hit bicyclists because I couldn't see them

This is absolutely your fault. You're driving too fast for the conditions. You're the one who can't see what's ahead; you're the one who has to drive slower.