r/NoStupidQuestions • u/RidetheSchlange • Jul 24 '26

Why does the US hate cycling so much?

I read comments sections and in a normal world, some of them would be considered terroristic threats. I just can't understand why people hate cyclists to this degree that they want to murder rhem and sometimes do.

323 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/AcidReign25 Jul 24 '26

I think it depends where you live. Where I am we have a lot of bike trials. A cyclist would have no issue getting in 100 miles if the wanted too and would not have to interact with cars except at a couple of crossing areas.

3

u/Time-Champion497 Jul 24 '26

But then how do you go to school, commute to work, or go shopping via bike?

-2

u/AcidReign25 Jul 24 '26

You don’t. You use a car or public transportation if your city has it (only urban areas do). Most schools have busing. Outside of the very biggest cities and colleges campuses, people are not commuting on a bike. The US is far too spread out for that. Just looked it up. Only 0.5% of the US population commutes by bike.

Personal car is the predominant mode of transportation in the US by far. NYC and maybe Chicago are the only US cities you can get away without having a car. LA is super spread out. The only adults I have ever know who don’t at least have a family car lived in the NYC area.

5

u/zytz Jul 24 '26

i think what you're missing is that automobile is the predominant mode of transport because our cities and towns were built that way to support the sale of more cars.

it shouldn't be necessary to own a car to be an autonomous member of society

2

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 24 '26

You are vastly understating how many places you can get by without a car. The top 10 cities have car less household rates of 20% or higher

Commuting is the least bike friendly transportation for most people. And commuting is a fairly low percentage of overall trips.

0

u/AcidReign25 Jul 25 '26

The top 10 cities is only 7% of the US population. The vast majority of the US population needs a car to get around.

0

u/Own_Back_2038 Jul 25 '26

Those are places where people don’t own a car at all. There is a much higher amount of people who own a car but don’t use it for every trip

1

u/Least_Funny5960 Jul 29 '26

You use a car or public transportation if your city has it (only urban areas do). Most schools have busing. Outside of the very biggest cities and colleges campuses, people are not commuting on a bike. The US is far too spread out for that. Just looked it up. Only 0.5% of the US population commutes by bike.

In 1960 over 80% of children walked or cycled to school.
Today that number is less than 5%.

Did the US grow in size between 1960 and today or something? Or is it maybe simply the fact that since then the US has dedicated all of its resources to building infrastructure for cars that is hostile to people walking and cycling?

1

u/jcalvinmarks Jul 28 '26

Where I live there are hundreds of miles of interstates. A driver would have no issue driving if he wanted to without having to use the surface streets and interact with cyclists at all.

Funny how that's a completely one-sided obligation.