The guy who wrote this article does not sound like a cyclist at all, where as you do.
The real question is why are bicycles not popular in more places. In Australia especially, wide roads, the cities are not that big, the weather is mostly nice, and so few people cycle.
I think the biggest reason is the lack of good safe bike paths and infrastructure most places. As someone (in the US) who bikes nearly every day as my primary form of transportation I'm quick to admit that bike commuting is dangerous. I love it, but it requires constant vigilance and careful attention not to get hit by a car or a door (and I live in Portland which is much more bike friendly than most US cities). Bikers frequently share lanes with fast moving cars and it's very common for bike lanes to end unexpectedly, leaving the cyclist in a dangerous spot.
I'm willing to accept these risks, but for most people it's not worth it. My wife also enjoys biking, but hates to ride on busy streets for fear of ending up on the wrong end of a distracted motorist. This limits her options to weekend pleasure rides on dedicated bike paths.
The trick to getting more people to cycle is to invest heavily in bike path infrastructure so that more people will feel safe using it as a primary form of transportation.
- Spacey or dedicated lanes are a major requirement. And in my fantasies I'd like two kinds of lanes, speedy and casual. Riding around 25kmph for commuting can be dangerous if the lane thins out, people ride/run slow, kids play around.
- Also, secured parking spots. I refrain from riding when I don't know where I'm gonna park. Too easy to pick/steal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGttmR2DTY8 . Or a <20 bucks tagging device (in 2013 it's probably easy for many manufacturers)
I am from Portland, as well. And the "bike friendly" claim seems like a joke after having lived in Amsterdam for nearly two years.
I don't think we (Portlanders) have a clue what bike-friendly is. It would be nice if biking in Portland were safe enough that you didn't have to wear a helmet - like it is here in Amsterdam. (I happen to be back over here in AMS for a month).
I don't know about Australia, but Netherlands is basically a flat country where its tallest mountain (hill?) is 320 meters above sea level. Therefore, cycling is particularly easy.
And things are often at reasonable biking distances. Here in Palo Alto the city is flat and the weather is even more agreeable than the Netherlands, however, people mostly drive because they either live in a different town and commute to Palo Alto, or they live in town and commute somewhere else.
Longer distances make it a bit harder, but they can work if there's an integrated cycle-path network, and ideally some integration with transit. For example, Palo Alto to Mountain View is only 6 miles (10 km), a distance that's very common to bike in Copenhagen, and yet nobody bikes it in the Valley. Part of the issue might be that there aren't great routes. You either bike down El Camino, a rather intimidating proposition, or else you have to piece together a complex route by weaving through residential neighborhoods.
The bike->train->bike option can also increase the practical bike-commuting area, but it's hampered by Caltrain not running often enough or to enough places.
I made the Palo Alto <-> Mountain View ride 4/week for four years. My ride was bout 9 miles, which is longer than I'd expect most people to ride, but I couldn't afford to be closer.
Biking on the same roads as cars is generally not fun. I first used Middlefield most of the way, but that meant biking in with the cars. It wasn't until much later that I discovered Bryant street, which prohibits through motor traffic but allows bike traffic through. It's pleasant enough, but you are still sharing a road with cars and I've seen many simply blow through the stop signs on those residential streets (there are rarely any other people around anyway). Even with Bryant, half my ride was on a major auto thoroughfare.
The position of bike lanes on American streets is stressful for bicyclists. You basically have cars on either side. On one side you have cars driving and who want to make right turns across your lane. On the other side you have parked cars with drivers-side doors that completely block the bike path when open. These people also want to cut across your lane to enter traffic.
In my roughly eight years of bicycling around the bay area I've only been hit once by an auto, and that was one where he was fully at fault for making a left turn into me when he acknowledged he saw me in the opposing lane and thought I was slowing for him (I slowed because it looked like he was going to turn without having right of way). It was low speed and I wasn't injured. However, bicycling around the bay is not fun, despite having a few decent bike paths.
I've also biked in Amsterdam and I can attest that we have a long way to go. I believe we need to change our cultural attitude towards bicycling first, then the rest will follow.
This is true, NL is a small country and we really have to be conservative with our space. I was amazed to see, when I was in the US, how widely spaced out everything is, especially the suburbs. Those distances do add up quickly and perhaps make for less interesting bike rides. I'd probably still get one if I lived there, just because it's easier to get around for small distances, but I've heard for some people the nearest supermarket is a few miles away, then yeah, going by car makes a lot of sense.
You can't easily change such geographic/cityplanning type of differences either, I think.
It takes a long time. Vancouver, BC was very successful with this because they built a new transit system back in the '80s (Skytrain) and then clustered density around the stations. It's been extremely succesful, and there is also a complimentary system of bicycles boulevards for people to ride bikes.
Here in the US, however, the car rules, for better (but mostly) worse. I had an incident on my bike last Monday in Palo Alto with a car where I fell and broke my hand.
Trying to code with a broken hand is rather... interesting.
I would question whether Australian cities are not that big. Sydney covers an area comparable to Greater London. I've lived in Perth, Sydney and now London and I've progressively cycled less through each of those moves. Perth is a cycling paradise with an integrated cycle path network, Sydney ok depending on where you're commuting, and London is a nightmare even with the token 'cycle superhighways'. For me it all comes down to what is the least frustrating way to get to and from work.
They are popular in old cities in Holland. It's not so much that people prefer riding a bike in Holland to riding a car in Australia, with its _wide roads_. They prefer a 5 minute bike ride to a 30 minute hellish experience equal in complexity only to navigating the mars rover from earth. It isn't so much that bikes are so great, as that cars are a horrible horrible form factor for old cities.
And if you look at other old cities, you see the exact same form factor. Except those cities aren't flat, so instead of bikes they ride around on scooters. Think Rome, Greece, Paris.
Secondly, our other cities (Suburbia mostly), have all these nice bike tracks, because this is how our children navigate to school, their sports club and friends, independently from about 5 to 12 years old. (as they grow older, you increase the radius you allow your child to navigate and explore freely)
These bike lanes are safe, because it's our children riding there. Unsupervised. But their parents will use their car for everything, because in those cities you actually have the choice. And dutch people are just as lazy comfort creatures as everyone else, if given the same choice.
It's not so much that it's great to ride a bike in Holland, as that it's safe (because its how our children navigate) and that in old cities navigating a car a complete waste of time, energy and money. You will _literally_ sweat more.
Erm, when was the last time you were in Australia? Cycling is huge here, especially in Brisbane. The local council has spent a great deal of money putting in bike lanes and paths all over the place, and they're very well used. Every workplace I've been in for the last 5 years has had a large group of riders who commute every day on a bike, and most of those also cycle for leisure on the weekends.
Additionally the council has put in a bunch of rental bike stations all over the place, although most people prefer to just use their own I think.
I ride to work 4-5 days a week, and it's fantastic. It's faster than the bus (by a factor of 2, IF the bus shows up on time, or shows up at all), good exercise, cheap, and environmentally friendly. Our workplace has an End Of Transit facility (fancy name for bike lockers, racks, and showers), which has a long waiting list of people trying to get in.
The real question is why are bicycles not popular in more places. In Australia especially, wide roads, the cities are not that big, the weather is mostly nice, and so few people cycle.