Winters here do make it quite onerous. Like when it’s dark at 4pm, the temps are in the single digits (F), driving snow limits visibility – and you’re sharing a road with drivers who don’t expect you to be there, and also which has been narrowed by snowbanks – it can become a death wish. Yes, you could still do it, but the amount of gear and chutzpah involved just trying not to die is not for the faint of heart. Frostbite is the best case scenario, and no one will care that you died because they’ll just say you shouldn’t have been doing it, no reasonable person would, etc.
Hey if your workplace has the facilities (and you have sufficient social capital) to be able to scrub a protective layer of Vaseline off your face which you applied to fend off the predawn wind chill, then more power to you.
It’s not that you aren’t correct, the weather isn’t the primary obstacle, and not in itself an excuse not to ride, but it is a big part of enabling the prevailing attitude.
I would love to be able to safely bike to work. It is not currently safe to do so year-round. What we need is proper infrastructure along with a cultural shift. The fact that we don’t have that yet has fuck-all to do with my unwillingness to ride to work in my area in the dead of winter, when cars are prioritized.
Winters here do make it quite onerous. Like when it’s dark at 4pm, the temps are in the single digits (F), driving snow limits visibility – and you’re sharing a road with drivers who don’t expect you to be there, and also which has been narrowed by snowbanks – it can become a death wish. Yes, you could still do it, but the amount of gear and chutzpah involved just trying not to die is not for the faint of heart. Frostbite is the best case scenario, and no one will care that you died because they’ll just say you shouldn’t have been doing it, no reasonable person would, etc.
Oh no, the horrors of single digits temperatures. The horror of putting on a coat and a warm pair of pants! That’s so much gear.
With basic preparation, frost bite is not a risk.
Weather is not a concern, reckless and incompetent drivers are the concern
Hey if your workplace has the facilities (and you have sufficient social capital) to be able to scrub a protective layer of Vaseline off your face which you applied to fend off the predawn wind chill, then more power to you.
It’s not that you aren’t correct, the weather isn’t the primary obstacle, and not in itself an excuse not to ride, but it is a big part of enabling the prevailing attitude.
I would love to be able to safely bike to work. It is not currently safe to do so year-round. What we need is proper infrastructure along with a cultural shift. The fact that we don’t have that yet has fuck-all to do with my unwillingness to ride to work in my area in the dead of winter, when cars are prioritized.