Why American don't ride bike?

PeteCresswell

> It's both, they choose to live in places where bicycle usage for
> commuting is impractical, and we design cities and suburbs to
> maximize convenience for cars at the expense of every other type
> of use. Often fear of living in cities contributes to the choice
> to live so far from work that a bicycle commute is impossible.
> Desire for extremely large homes is another reason.

Anybody else see the Nova show on China last nite?

They went into some detail about how and why bicycles have been
disappearing from the cities since about 1990.

Benjamin Lewis

GoogleGroups@FatBelly.com wrote:

>> It's both, they choose to live in places where bicycle usage for
>> commuting is impractical, and we design cities and suburbs to
>> maximize convenience for cars at the expense of every other type
>> of use. Often fear of living in cities contributes to the choice
>> to live so far from work that a bicycle commute is impossible.
>> Desire for extremely large homes is another reason.
>
> Anybody else see the Nova show on China last nite?
>
> They went into some detail about how and why bicycles have been
> disappearing from the cities since about 1990.

Sounds interesting; would you care to recap the salient points?

--
Benjamin Lewis

A small, but vocal, contingent even argues that tin is superior, but they
are held by most to be the lunatic fringe of Foil Deflector Beanie science.

(Pete Cresswell)

RE/
>Sounds interesting; would you care to recap the salient points?

Dunno how faithful this is, but here's what I recall:

1) As prosperity increases more and more people are able to afford cars and are
buying same.

2) As the streets become filled with more cars, riding a bike becomes less safe
- dangerous, in fact, in the perceptions of some.

3) As the streets become filled with more cars, riding a bike becomes unpleasant
(noise, being close to large moving objects, breathing smog - I guess).


There was more, but I can't remember if they explored the increasing distance to
work angle. I *really* wish I'd taped that show.
--
PeteCresswell

David Reuteler

"(Pete Cresswell)" <x@y.z> wrote:
> 14. Deeply afraid of Buffy coming around the corner in her Ford Expedition
> talking to Biff on a cell phone.

i don't know that buffy drives a car. in fact, that show is amazingly free
of autombiles 'specially for being in california. angel has a pretty nice
convertible and spikes got the gothmobile but i can't remember a single
instance of buffy driving. iirc giles had a car (a citroen?). and then
there was the car chase between the humvees and the citroen.

who's biff?
--
david reuteler
reuteler@visi.com

Benjamin Lewis

David Reuteler wrote:

> "(Pete Cresswell)" <x@y.z> wrote:
>> 14. Deeply afraid of Buffy coming around the corner in her Ford
>> Expedition
>> talking to Biff on a cell phone.
>
> i don't know that buffy drives a car. in fact, that show is amazingly
> free of autombiles 'specially for being in california. angel has a
> pretty nice convertible and spikes got the gothmobile but i can't
> remember a single instance of buffy driving. iirc giles had a car (a
> citroen?). and then there was the car chase between the humvees and the
> citroen.

I seem to recall Buffy driving her mother's SUV (or similar) at one point.
I think it was the episode where all the adults eat the cookies that make
them behave like children.

> who's biff?

That's the dog of the Berkeley programmer who wrote part of the Unix mail
system, of course. Buffy has to use the phone, since Berkeley is not
within easy walking distance of Sunnydale.

--
Benjamin Lewis

A small, but vocal, contingent even argues that tin is superior, but they
are held by most to be the lunatic fringe of Foil Deflector Beanie science.

(Pete Cresswell)

RE/
>i don't know that buffy drives a car. in fact, that show is amazingly free
>of autombiles 'specially for being in california. angel has a pretty nice

Forgot about Buffy-The-Vampire-Slayer.... was thinking more about
"Buffy-And-Biff-The-Arch-Prototype-Mainline-Wasps".
--
PeteCresswell

Sorni

David Reuteler wrote:
> "(Pete Cresswell)" <x@y.z> wrote:
>> 14. Deeply afraid of Buffy coming around the corner in her Ford
>> Expedition talking to Biff on a cell phone.
>
> i don't know that buffy drives a car. in fact, that show is
> amazingly free of autombiles 'specially for being in california.
> angel has a pretty nice convertible and spikes got the gothmobile but
> i can't remember a single instance of buffy driving. iirc giles had
> a car (a citroen?). and then there was the car chase between the
> humvees and the citroen.

All of which begs the question: where the hell is Carl Fogel lately?

Bill "too much brevity 'round here" S.

Mark Hickey

"(Pete Cresswell)" <x@y.z> wrote:

>RE/
>>Sounds interesting; would you care to recap the salient points?
>
>Dunno how faithful this is, but here's what I recall:
>
>1) As prosperity increases more and more people are able to afford cars and are
>buying same.
>
>2) As the streets become filled with more cars, riding a bike becomes less safe
>- dangerous, in fact, in the perceptions of some.
>
>3) As the streets become filled with more cars, riding a bike becomes unpleasant
>(noise, being close to large moving objects, breathing smog - I guess).
>
>There was more, but I can't remember if they explored the increasing distance to
>work angle. I *really* wish I'd taped that show.

Those points are all very valid (having lived in China in the early
90's and having been back over the years to see the amazing increase
in motorized traffic).

The Chinese believe that an affluent society is one that has cars -
lots of cars. Kind of got the cause and effect backwards IMHO, but
that's the direction they're going. Sad - it used to be SO easy to
cruise around Beijing on a bike (or in a car for that matter). Now
it's a bear to do either.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame

David Reuteler

Sorni <sorni@bite-me.san.rr.com> wrote:
> All of which begs the question: where the hell is Carl Fogel lately?
> Bill "too much brevity 'round here" S.

lol. ok, that's funny. it starts to make up for your participation in that,
umm, other thread.
--
david reuteler
reuteler@visi.com

Werehatrack

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 17:07:51 -0700, Benjamin Lewis <bclewis@cs.sfu.ca>
may have said:

>David Reuteler wrote:
>
>> i don't know that buffy drives a car. in fact, that show is amazingly
>> free of autombiles 'specially for being in california. angel has a
>> pretty nice convertible and spikes got the gothmobile but i can't
>> remember a single instance of buffy driving. iirc giles had a car (a
>> citroen?). and then there was the car chase between the humvees and the
>> citroen.
>
>I seem to recall Buffy driving her mother's SUV (or similar) at one point.
>I think it was the episode where all the adults eat the cookies that make
>them behave like children.

That's the one. "Band Candy" is the name of the episode, and as the
name suggests, it wasn't cookies.

Am I the only one here who saw Tony Head play Frank in RHPS in London?


--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Sorni

David Reuteler wrote:
> Sorni <sorni@bite-me.san.rr.com> wrote:
>> All of which begs the question: where the hell is Carl Fogel lately?
>> Bill "too much brevity 'round here" S.
>
> lol. ok, that's funny. it starts to make up for your participation
> in that, umm, other thread.

We shall never speak of that again.

Bill "other thread? WHAT other thread?!?" S.

David Reuteler

Werehatrack <rault00@earthweedslink.net> wrote:
> Am I the only one here who saw Tony Head play Frank in RHPS in London?

cool. missed that. only place i'd seen him before was in an episode of the
highlander tv series.
--
david reuteler
reuteler@visi.com

scituatejohn

I'd ride more if the roads were safer.



--

dvt

Sorni wrote:

> where is Carl Fogel lately?

That personality disappeared as rapidly as it appeared. Based on his
unending suspicion of other poster's backgrounds, I wouldn't be
surprised if he's still around under another name.

--
Dave
dvt at psu dot edu