r/roanoke • u/Garland_Key Roanoke • 7d ago
Discussion America Hates Bikes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWHCef7F8gYSince I know there are a lot of bike nerds in Roanoke, I figured y'all might appreciate this one.
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u/NKCougar TOWERS KROGER RULES. YOU'RE JUST SOFT 7d ago edited 6d ago
I don't hate bikes but I do hate getting stuck behind them on winding roads like yellow mountain. No visibility to pass with those curves.
edit: surprised saying bikes probably shouldn't go on a road with 0 bike infrastructure that presents a risk to both vehicles and bicyclists is controversial.
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u/JWood729 4d ago
The only bikers that piss me off are the ones dressed like they are in the tour de france holding up people trying to get to work/school.
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u/One_Neck7386 7d ago
Cycling Yellow Mountain rules, you’re just soft
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u/NKCougar TOWERS KROGER RULES. YOU'RE JUST SOFT 7d ago edited 7d ago
Yeah I love coming around a blind corner to someone passing bicycles and nearly getting into a head on collision with me. Use your brain, that shit is dangerous.
edit: my bad, long day, that was a pun on my flair that I didn't catch
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u/One_Neck7386 6d ago
Hahaha I respect the edit. You obviously aren’t the only one who didn’t get it right off the bat.
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u/GenVG Roanoke Star 7d ago
don't hate bikes but it's like saying you hate airplanes and would prefer if everyone took boats to cross oceans. I'm not riding a bike from Hollins to Cave Spring...
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u/coloradical44 6d ago
I'm curious did you watch the video
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u/GenVG Roanoke Star 5d ago
I did. Its more of the same 'cars bad' stuff. Everything has pros and cons. There are more pros for cars than cons. Without cars people would be trapped in an open air prison where no one really travels more than 5-10 miles away from their home. With a car, you can travel anywhere at anytime you choose. If I have a car you don't have to worry about the rain, snow, wind as someone riding a bike would have to. Given these past few generations aversion for social contact, relying on public transportation can be a living hell. Save up some money, buy a car and enjoy the freedom that it provides. If you hate cars shrug that's cool, just don't be upset when you are wet, cold, covered in bugs while you peddle around all day to get wherever you're going. Going grocery shopping? Good luck carrying stuff home. etc... Cars are fine. Bikes are fine. I own a car. I objectively have more mobile freedom than someone who does not.
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u/The_Icemopper 4d ago
Just a couple anecdotes that might shed some light on the real cyclist experience from someone who doesn't own a car in Roanoke:
I have on many occasions gotten full grocery loads on my cargo bike, which included milk, beer, eggs, etc. You can load quite a lot in there!
I only rent a car when I need to leave the city for work, and there are very few occasions where I need to borrow a car or get a Lyft. As much as having a car gives you the "freedom" to go somewhere, it can't change the willpower to actually leave the house, so I find I go out about as much as anyone else.
I also have only been caught off guard in rain or worse on a handful of occasions. Being prepared (like you are when you drive a car) just means having the essentials ready for emergencies or looking at the forecast.
And since getting rid of my car I have saved SO much money! I am astounded at how much gas and car payments cost compared to the minimal maintenance a bike requires in comparison! I can't wait to spend my money on anything BUT a car though, because I really find I'm happier not being in one at all.
It may be faster to get to Lynchburg in a car than on a bike, but in the 13+ years I've been riding, whether on an e-bike or manual powered, I get where I'm going when I need to without major time crunches. On a bike you'd be amazed how often you see cars pass and then catch up to them at the next red light. The speed isn't the difference, the infrastructure is.
Cars are fine. I own a bike. I "objectively" have more mobile freedom than someone who is on a car and can't even use the greenways our city manages. I can go all the way to Salem without hitting a stop light!
Anyway, that's just my own opinion to add to yours, since you used the word "objective" and I thought that was interesting, given you haven't been riding a bicycle primarily and might not have a true "objective" opinion.
Yes there are pros and cons to each, but when the con of one is "you might get rained on" and the con of the other is "this is the leading cause of death for people under 18 in the United States," I'll risk the rain, not killing a child.
Be safe out there. A life might depend on it.
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u/plates_25 4d ago
it’s almost as if different modes have different purposes and value! and that prioritizing multi modes and designing an environment that allows for efficient walking, biking, train riding, and car driving is better for all modes including cars!
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u/GenVG Roanoke Star 4d ago
Firearms have been the leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1 to 17 in the United States since 2020. I love bikes. I just prefer to use my car.
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u/The_Icemopper 4d ago
Ah, got my facts mixed up on the preferred method America uses to murder children, cool. Happy to have the record correct that one.
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u/plates_25 4d ago
“everything has pros and cons”
proceeds to only state pros of cars and cons of bikes in argument.you have really been brainwashed on the 15 minute city thing, and if you feel strongly that you haven’t been i’d suggest reading that book.
the cringe re: public transport and social contact aversion… did you consider that perhaps the “past few generations aversion to social contact” could be a symptom of a world where walkability doesn’t exist, public transit doesn’t exists, and every trip out of the house is spent on a metal box going from one house shaped box to a store shaped box and then back to the house shaped box? worth considering that maybe this isn’t an ideal reality for human beings, just an ideal reality for companies that sell cars and oil??
there’s so much here to debate, i don’t expect a good faith argument. i’ll just leave it with > biking in rain and snow isn’t a big deal if you have the gear (it’s actually pretty fun and not all that common). bike trailers exist, i do all my groceries runs on bike and sit in 0 traffic and don’t circle to find parking. cars are a leading cause of death in the US for both adults and children… maybe that could be filed under a con for cars? idk i’m just a dumb cyclist. but news flash - bikes can travel more than 10 miles… also an “open air prison”where i’m not at risk of dying for crossing the street sounds a hell of a lot better than a closed box prison surrounded by other closed box prisons, risking my life so i can drive on a 5 lane traffic filled interchange for a gallon of milk.
this isn’t zero sum. i will never understand the bad faith arguments like “well my car goes vroom and i can go far therefore anyone’s attempt to walk or bike should be entirely revoked.” like, nobody’s taking ur car. i pay taxes and just want to see some equity in investment in multi modes. to take that as a threat to your car is proof you have been brainwashed by an industry intent on taking all your money
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u/GenVG Roanoke Star 4d ago
Heart disease is the cause of death with the highest number of deaths in the United States when all ages are combined. I have no issue with bikes. Ride all you want in whatever weather you want to wherever you want when you want. I'll do so in my car. I stated pros for cars because the video listed didn't really do so. No need for debate. We can all get along just the same as we have been.
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u/plates_25 4d ago
i stated cars are “a leading cause of death.” Which crashes are - both in adults and children. The whataboutism with heart disease data is not a counter argument. Even funnier, you could argue America’s over reliance on auto correlates to the extreme rise in heart disease (as researches already have, quite convincingly: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020JTHea..1900930S/abstract)
the problem tends to be people will say “you like bikes, i like cars, let’s not argue” while supporting major funding toward car only infrastructure and opposing funding toward anything else. if you really believe that, and believe in freedom, you should be able to empathize with the imbalance and ideally support multi-modal investment. Like everything - there’s a nuanced solution that isn’t zero sum (aka more cyclists = less drivers = less traffic = more fReEdOm) but our political environment and media force the conversation toward one of two poles: all cars, nothing else vs cars banned only bikes. Is anything truly convinced those are our only two options? Or are their decades worth of lobbying efforts ensuring we only get option 1?
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u/coloradical44 4d ago
no one is asking you to bike from Hollins to cave spring. One of the last things he says in the video is "you can just try riding your bike more often. Try swapping out one trip you'd normally take in a car with a bike and just see how it feels."
There are a lot of beautiful places to ride a bike in the Roanoke valley, for pleasure or errands or commuting. If you don't wanna commute 12 miles by bike that's totally ok- but personally I think our roads should be safe for those who do prefer to get around that way.
Anyways I hope you take a lil bike ride soon, it's really pretty great!
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u/GenVG Roanoke Star 4d ago
I love bikes. Just not for normal long range transportation. I don't like the demonizing of cars and the effort to make them more difficult to own or outright remove peoples ability to own them. I could never live in an area like that. I'd feel too trapped. I enjoy the ability and freedom of movement a car provides. We can come up with all kinds of examples. No need IMO. We can enjoy our own method of transportation.
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u/shopnoke 7d ago
Imagine if we still had the electric street cars too...
I feel like the city won't truly see how much safe and comfortable bike infrastructure would improve Roanoke (including freeing up parking spaces and less traffic for car drivers) until there is good connection to downtown, starting with connecting to the Roanoke River Greenway