If you live in most American cities, biking is basically a life hazard on par with smoking imo

And good luck not having your bikes regularly stolen in places like SF or NYC. You better ride the most revolting beater you can find, and even then.

eh...decent hardware fits on an old steel frame. and while yes, it does suck to lose a bike...I still end up way way ahead of someone paying to park, fuel, and maintain a car. and I'm much more fit and enjoy my commute more.

I’ve had a $300 used bike service me just fine for over 11 years now.

There was a period right during/after the pandemic where things were really bad but it’s settled to a fairly decent situation.

If you ride a $500 bike then you will probably be fine factoring in a $50-$100 theft cost at most.

Finally, most bike theft is covered under rental insurance, which isn’t all that expensive to begin with, and is highly recommended anyways.

Might want to check the deductible on your renters insurance. For me it'd be a total loss. Basically only worth it if someone drives up with a moving truck and just steals half the house or if someone gets hurt and sues me for medical bills.

This sounds right, but the actual statistics show that—for the average American—every minute of cycling increases expected lifespan by at least one minute.

Obviously this is an average and won't hold true for every American in every locale.

> every minute of cycling increases expected lifespan by at least one minute

I just found a hack, I'm going to spend 12 hours a day cycling and extend my lifespan by at least 50%. All joking aside, cycling as travel is a fantastic way to add physical activity into your daily life.

The average American is biking for leisure. If they had to bike on their commute it totally changes and instead of a planned low-risk leisure route you're on the highway to hell in the thick of rush hour traffic. It's completely incomparable.

I bicycle commuted for years in an American city. It is as safe as your local council decides it should be, and my commute always felt safe. Don't give in to the belief that unsafe cycling is inevitable.

I mean, it's inevitable for a lot of Americans unless they're willing to devote a significant amount of resources and / or time to try and convince local politicians to spend a bunch of money and fix decades of misguided urban planning, while potentially trying to dodge pushback from local interests who think that changes to make biking safer and more convenient is a zero-sum situation that comes at the expense of others.

I would never bike commute where I live currently, and I don't think that will change any time soon despite it being a relatively left leaning urban area.

Alright, here's my anecdote in kind.

I biked for over a decade without incident for leisure.

Then I started bicycle commuting. Within one year I had not one but two occasions where I was knocked unconscious by angry rush hour drivers. I no longer could plan my destination but rather had to fight the entirety of traffic trying to get downtown at the same time at once. I still have trouble with one arm and the other time I believe I got a concussion after the driver destroyed my bike hitting me broadside and drove off.

I have about 3-4 years of biking as only transport including working as a full time professional bike messenger. I have never been hurt outside of rush hour. I have never been hurt on a planned leisure route. Only when I cannot pick the destination.

The hostility in my experience is like 10x dealing with angry to/from work rush-hour traffic headed to a dense job-rich area, especially with folks like soccer moms desperate to pick up their kiddy from daycare in time, etc.

Hard won wisdom, I am glad you made it through your injuries. I generally will only cycle in my area on weekdays around 09:30 to 13:30 or so in order to avoid any rush hour or high traffic times as much as possible. It makes a significant difference.

As you note and in my experience the school drop off / pick up times are the scariest as you near schools and arteries on the school destination paths. There are frequently backups and gridlock situations at these times, coupled with palpable driver anxiety and hurriedness, which just seems like a recipe to get killed or maimed as a cyclist

Yes, it is as safe as your local council decides, which in the US is somewhere between really unsafe and Mad Max.

What does this have to do with my comment? I was replying to the statement that

> If you live in most American cities, biking is basically a life hazard on par with smoking imo

That said, I used a bicycle as my primary mode of transportation in the Atlanta, Decatur, and Northern suburban areas for several years. It wasn't really all that bad despite a near-total lack of cycling infrastructure (this was before the Beltline).

Just remember that this is a societal choice. Biking can be safe and efficient. In Vancouver BC they have prioritized modes of transportation other than driving, including creating a dense network of cycling paths and slow-streets.

There is a big difference between what is, and what must be. Improvements are possible, which is what the linked article is all about. These are baby steps, but if you want to bike more (and get healthier and live longer and live happier and pollute less) then demand more from your local politicians.

It's more of a choice by the elites which deprioritize the needs of the actual populace. Often they do this by mixing the zoning of cities with surrounding suburban areas who have deeply conflicting interests and lifestyles

Biking means you’re close to your destination. In most American cities, offices are downtown, where cost of living is extreme. I save thousands a month by commuting 20 minutes.

Until cities get affordable to live in, us “poor” will continue to exist in the reality that is now, and commute for two times the square footage, and a backyard, for less than a studio apartment.