I once told my dad, who grew up in a Bangladeshi village, that my wife and I were going to a fancy restaurant that churns its own butter. “Why would you churn your own butter,” he asked. “You can buy butter at the store.”

Similarly, biking to work does not make you impoverished. Having to bike to work, or living in a society where most people bike to work, strongly suggests you are impoverished.

Your dad has a point about butter, but would the transport equivalent of not having to churn your own butter not be to have others chauffeur you around, rather than driving yourself? Or, if we think of it as highlighting mass manufacture efficiency, taking public transport?

In Denmark at least, most people bike to work, so the latter part is at least objectively false.

> In Denmark at least, most people bike to work, so the latter part is at least objectively false.

In case anyone is curious, the following PDF provides some statistics on this issue: https://trimis.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/project/docu...

Tldr: 20% of commuting trips are by bicycle, 13% by public transport, and 60% by private car/van. Of all travel miles, 5% are by bicycle, 10% by public transport, and 77% are by car/van.