• phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      I did it every time in around 45 minutes. First week was heavy and slower, then I got used to it. I had windy days which cost me either more or less time, depending on of I had the wind in my back or not. I had rainy days where I could get wet, or if I had a poncho, get a bit wet. But it was always doable and a great exercise.

      Imagine this, my mother when she was 65 would regularly go ride with my sister. They literally said (and did) that for less than a 100kms (say, 60 miles) they wouldn’t even change into their special biking clothes as that wouldn’t be worth it. On many occasions they would do well over 60 miles in a day, just driving “slowly” in their bikes for fun to see the landscape and all. Super healthy for body and mind.

      This is what happens when you have a country designed for people instead of cars.

      • lightnsfw
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        10 months ago

        So it’s about half as slow as a car. When I was in my last years of college my school was 20 miles in one direction from home and then I worked in another town ~15 miles from there and then another 20 miles back home. If I had been trying to manage that on a bike/public transport it would have been much harder to schedule that and there’d have been no time for anything besides traveling and work/school. It was rough even going by car but that was the only place I could find in the field I wanted to get into that would hire me without having finished my degree.

        • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Sure, it won’t work for everyone but bikes and public transportation typically works well for most people if only they’d try it. Cycling is very healthy and much better for the environment and frankly, car dependent cities as we have them now simply are unsustainable

          • lightnsfw
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            10 months ago

            If it won’t work for everyone then we can’t ban driving for everyone.

            • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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              10 months ago

              Nobody is saying that cars should be completely banned. Cycling should be encouraged. Governments should sponsor buying bikes, build loads of GOOD cycling infrastructure (look at the Netherlands for examples for gods sake, cycling infrastructure in the Americas is a dangerous joke), make owning and using a car more expensive, make it easier to arrive to destinations by bike than by car. Invest heavily in public transportation.

              The US could have had all that the Netherlands has now but it doesn’t. It has huge and ugly cities that can only be used by car owners. If you don’t own a car you’re a second class citizen. You will mill out on good jobs. All that is insane to me. I never NEEDED a car. I can have one, but bikes are easier 100% of the time in sub 15 mile radius.

              • lightnsfw
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                10 months ago

                Yes, minimum driving age should be 18 and even then require adult supervision.

                Requiring an adult to be with them is functionally a ban for college students or young people trying to work.

                • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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                  10 months ago

                  I guess that’s a point but not the one you think it is. I think it’s telling of the abysmal state of public transportation and cycling infrastructure that a car is required to almost survive at this point, or at the least to be a functional member of society… It shouldn’t be like that

                  • lightnsfw
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                    10 months ago

                    It shouldn’t be but it is so that has to be fixed before you argue to raise the minimum age for driving.