[QatzelOk]

From the comments section of a lukewarm yahoo article about municipal bike-sharing in a few American cities:

What are those who live in snow country in the winter?

What about pregnant women?

What about elderly women and men and carrying groceries home?

Just because countries like Holland have bikes doesn't mean its a smart thing to do.

The people in those countries udoubtedly wish that they had cars to drive.

A friend who moved back to Holland didn't get rid of her car she just bought two bikes. One to ride while the other is in the repair shop as most of them usually are since they take such a beating.

The world is entering into a period of collective insanity.

This is not really a measured response to an article about bike sharing. I realize the comment-writer was probably responding to other comments more than to the article itself. But it is still a bit bizarre to respond to bike-sharing with inane prompts like "what about if you're carrying a piano?"

It's sort of cartoon script material. So I'm thinking it's the result of successful media brainwashing. The driver who identifies with his product (a car) lives in fear of that identity being devalued by reality.

Is this what car addicts are afraid of?

[ThereBeDragons]

Then elderly and pregnant women should drive and everyone else can bike.

Wow, holy shit a lot of these commenters are retarded.

[Suska]

The people in those countries udoubtedly wish that they had cars to drive.

In Sovyit Hollant weh wate in line all deh just to ride in car, leetle skoda with sissteen pyeplez inside. But at end off nyight we ar ahl waysted so weh tyake tren hom sadly, dhen tram an it kyost us several dollar! Weh wish so much to hyave flashy car whith spinning rims, instyed we can go from Yedinburg to Praha byi tren sadly.

Just lyuk et dhes conditions weh liv with every deh!

[Cartertonian]

"what about if you're carrying a piano?"

I'm sure it's an entertaining sight around the streets of Montreal to see Qatz balancing his Beckstein Grand in the basket on the front of his bike...

I work in a large city and if there were aa bike-sharing scheme I would certainly use it - IF there were also a comprehensive cycle-lane network. Sadly, in the city where I work one must dice with death every journey.

At home, I live in a village in the country. Even to pop out for a pint of milk involves a five mile round trip, which might be a nice bike-ride were it not for the kids needing the milk for their breakfast in the next five minutes in order to be out the door to school on time, etc, etc, etc...

[killim]

Grandma OPEC assisted by Granpa OILSPILL and daddy WAR will someday together with mum ECONOMY convince them that cycling is healthier, funnier, faster and cheaper for close and regular distances. Especially in overpopulated areas similar to the Netherlands.

The commentator in this Yahoo post only demonstrates his ignorance. While i personally think the wedding comment is far better

However to falsify some stupid arguments:

-Pregnants use bicycles
-Yes there is snow and even ice (which is far more dangerous) in the Netherlands
-Especially the elder and younger people use the bicycles
-Dutch households have cars, but many don't need them (they use them only to park with their caravans on our Autobahn )

[QatzelOk]

.
.
More insight from the comments section:

The problem I see with it is the bicyclist want everything for nothing.

Require all bikes to have license and tax the hell out of them to pay for the upgrades of the roads, remember folks the roads were built for automobiles and truck not bikes and if you don't believe me then why don't they allow bikes on the interstate.

Another thing get over and quit riding the lines.

Most bicyclist are the rudest people I have ever meet.

Go Green people go to hell.

.

[Zagadka]

In Los Angeles, drivers flip the fuck out if it rains more than an inch.

[Godstud]

What a joke!
QatzelOk, takes only the most ridiculous and thoughtless posters and uses it as an example of the norm. NO point in mentioning the good posts, eh?

The car isn't going to outlive its usefulness in the near future, since public transportation is inefficient and insufficient for most people, while bicycles have many deficiencies that aren't going to be over-come.

1) A bicycle is not an all-weather vehicle. Excessive rain, snow and ice can make cycling dangerous.
2) Many people cannot use a bicycle safely because of disabilities, pregnant, some elderly, etc.
3) You cannot transport much on a bicycle(groceries, plywood, etc.)
4) Cars are also a luxury item which isn't available to people in every country unless they are wealthy, a point made rather sloppily.
5) Cars can also be a necessity.
6) You are limited in range. I'd ride a bicycle to work if my back wasn't injured(see 2) and work wasn't 35km away.

Technology will eventually make a vehicle to replace the gas-guzzling internal combustion vehicles, but we're not there yet, and complaining about it by calling people "car addicts" for not instantly riding a bicycle instead of a car, is cartoonish and unrealistic.

[Cartertonian]

...and work wasn't 35km away.

Don't forget, Qatz wants to cram all of humanity into dense-pack cities, where you live in some grim, grey apartment block across the street from the grim, grey factory wherein your communist oppressors break your spirit for twelve hours (minimum) a day for the glory of the Revolution...

[QatzelOk]

Don't forget, Qatz wants to cram all of humanity into dense-pack cities, where you live in some grim, grey apartment block across the street from the grim, grey factory wherein your communist oppressors break your spirit for twelve hours (minimum) a day for the glory of the Revolution...

A dense city


Lack of density (small children may need adult supervision when viewing this one)

.
.
.

Here is some land that the dense city example wouldn't need to sprawl into.

[killim]

Qatzel you won't find such a piece of nature in and around of Njimwegen.

It looks more like that:

[QatzelOk]

It still looks better than what car companies and oil did with America's suburban farmland and forest:

[Godstud]

North America is also different in that we don't have the 1000+ people per square km(32 in the US and 3 in Canada), and you conveniently ignore the fact that the lovely pictures of the countryside exist in abundance. You focus on the worst example you can possibly find and ignore ALL else, while showing only the very best picture from a high density city. Why don't you show the concrete city center with no green, has pollution, crime and all those lovely inner city problems which are common in most cities of the world instead, or would that damage your argument beyond repair?

[ThereBeDragons]

You focus on the worst example you can possibly find and ignore ALL else, while showing only the very best picture from a high density city. Why don't you show the concrete city centre with no green, has pollution, crime and all those lovely inner city problems which are common in most cities of the world instead, or would that damage your argument beyond repair?

Strip malls are everywhere. An average, ordinary strip mall is hardly out of the ordinary in suburban America.

Also, the concrete center may not have green, but the fact that people are packed more densely in urban areas means more green left over.

[Godstud]

More green left over? I'm sorry, I live in Canada where there is so much green it's overwhelming and I can drive hours between cities. I don't see "urban sprawl" being a problem here and so I dismiss this as a regional problem. While I am not a fan of these strip malls, I can certainly see why they exist ,from an economic standpoint(it's far less expensive). Ignore economics all you want, but they do factor directly into why there are these places.

I also have seen the city center where this wonderful inner city life you speak of is crime-filled, polluted, stifling, expensive, crowded and uncomfortable. it's nice to show the very best, but the fact is the picture QatzelOk showed is the exception, not the rule.

Why are Motorphobes, like QuatzelOk so afraid?

[Jarlaxle]

I just finished a 4500+ mile road trip, going through seventeen states. There is so much "green" it's unimaginable to someone like Qatz who has spent his whole life cloistered in a city. Several times, I drove over an hour without seeing more than a single house. Further west, there are places where you can drive hours & not even see that.

And the Smoky Mountains are incredibly beautiful.

[QatzelOk]

You focus on the worst example you can possibly find and ignore ALL else, while showing only the very best picture from a high density city.

I showed a bland city that is dense. I don't find its architecture particularly beautiful. And strip malls aren't "the worst" example of suburbia: they are in every suburb, and they replace all other public spaces. It's amazing how few public spaces there are in the low-density suburbs. Just fat people out picking at their decorative lawns that no one sees.

Why don't you show the concrete city centre with no green, has pollution, crime and all those lovely inner city problems which are common in most cities of the world instead, or would that damage your argument beyond repair?

Because I've never experienced this mythological downtown that you seem to be afraid of like a boogyman.

I live in Canada where there is so much green it's overwhelming

And where the very best farmland is under the bungalows and strip malls and asphalt of the suburbs of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. We have cannibalized our best dairy farmland in order to build ugly suburban throwaway trash.

I know. I just biked for seven hours through the best farmland/suburbia in Quebec all the way to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu. The farmland and forest on the south shore of the St-Lawrence river is as beautiful as all that bland catolog suburbia is ugly: in every way.

The suburbs insult every sense: sight, sound, smell, touch and... when you have to eat at Tim Hortons - taste.

[Godstud]

I know. I just biked for seven hours through the best farmland/suburbia in Quebec all the way to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

Well I drove that far and know you're lying since it's not like that around Vancouver.
Because it's like that where you live it's like that everywhere? Most of the land around Vancouver was swampland and hardly this "best farmland" around. The farmland that's the "best" stretches for hundreds of Km to the east(Fraser River Valley) and not limited to a small geographic area. It is used for farming and for vineyards and other things. Your city is not Vancouver, nor 100,000 other cities. Your generalizations are fatally flawed and ignorant.

Because I've never experienced this mythological downtown that you seem to be afraid of like a boogyman

You've never been to your city's inner city? Are you living in your mother's basement that you don't know of this REAL place, or are you in your own fantasy world? I suppose there's no crime, homeless or poor people there either, right?

The suburbs insult every sense: sight, sound, smell, touch and... when you have to eat at Tim Hortons - taste.

Troll troll troll... you hate suburbs and everyone should ride a bike and use rollerblades instead of cars. I get it. It's quite a fantasy world you live in.

If you don't like suburbs, don't go there. If you don't like cars, don't travel in them.

[Suska]

If you don't like suburbs, don't go there. If you don't like cars, don't travel in them.

public spaces and access to them is everyone's business, the state of one's culture is too

[Godstud]

Well, cars give people access to places that are inaccessible otherwise. Denying this and asking everyone to walk or ride a bike is absurd and borders on retarded.

Cultures change constantly, and cars in their present form may become less popular, but they'll never truly disappear until some other transportation system that is as efficient or as versatile is created. Pretending everyone can just walk, rollerblade, ride bikes and take public transit is delusional, to say the least.