Why Canadians Can't Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)

Winter cycling is really not anything like as hardcore as people imagine it to be, especially in the pretty mild winter cities you mention of NYC and Philly. NotJustBikes has a great episode featuring Oulu Finland which has harsh winters but still has a way higher modeshare of cycling in the Winter than cities in North America do in the Summer ▶ this video With well maintained/shoveled/prioritized bike infrastructure, cycling in the Winter is actually quite pleasant and no big deal at all. There's an argument if we're talking about Winnipeg or Saskatoon, for the couple of months that it goes down to -30 celsius, a lot of people might call it quits, but those extreme temperatures are only around for 2 months, not the whole Winter.

I take your point(s) that the argument cant be "Everyone just use bikes and trains". That's obviously not practical but to be fair it's not what is being suggested either. But in relation to the point you made about bad or cold weather being a factor for bikes being an impractical mode of transport. Please take a few minutes to consider the points and examples provided in this video (1). TLDW: There is a town in Finland (Oulu) where cycling is a primary mode of transport (over a fifth of of all trips are by bike and 77% of people cycle occasionally) even in winter when it gets down to -20 Celsius. Weather is always spouted as a reason for not investing in bike infrastructure which is really annoying because that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. It's the lack of safe and adequate bike infrastructure that stops people from cycling. Anyway, I thought it was worth adding that point of nuance to the discussion. 1. ▶ this video

You might find this interesting: ▶ this video People bike in bad conditions all over the world — the difference is that their infrastructure allows that. The bike paths are top priority when plowing, for example. Here in North America, bike lanes seem to be rarely cleaned and maintained even in very bike friendly cities. The last part of your comment is definitely true, and I hope this is explore more in America. It’s called the “fifteen minute neighborhood” in some places

It's utterly fascinating you wrote that and yet could not make the right conclusion. "In a small town, which is 12x6 miles judging by google maps yet has 590 miles of bike paths." + "not all, as the author of the video himself mentions that Oulu stands out among Finnish cities in this regard" The right conclusion here is that infrastructure and its maintenance is clearly the defining factor. This really shouldn't be surprising. Consider this: how many trains do you think passed through the areas rail tracks are at before the tracks were built? Or: how many trains need to pass through an area before we can justify the cost of building train tracks there? You simply can't point to just any winter cycling stats without first making sure the infrastructure is there. "Cycling in winter just ain't working out!" — no, you literally are not putting in the minimum of effort — "we've tried nothing and are all out of ideas" vibes. And here's the kicker: You assumed these statistics are from a city that's a cycling paradise, but I'm willing to bet Oulu is a car-infested shithole, just like all of the Netherlands is. No, I'm not kidding in the slightest. And it's pretty much confirmed in the video the parent linked: [1]. Sure, those areas are as good as it gets at this time, but they're nothing to what things should look like, so since your conclusions are based on faulty assumptions, they are automatically invalid. What these cycling-friendly areas are doing is slowly grinding away at the overbearing behemoth that is the already existing car infrastructure with the eventual goal of getting to at least parity. But they're still decades of work away. The simplest example is free parking. You expect to get to take up 2m x 5m of public space with your private property for free and forever, almost anywhere in every city in the world. If anyone so much as touches it, they're strictly legally liable. That's normal though, right? Yeah... Another, literally the snow plowing mentioned in the video: [2]. Imagine you woke up one day, got in your car to drive to work and... uh oh! There's 20cm of snow on the road! Can you imagine the uproar? I sure can't, because 20cm of snow is normal on cycle paths in 99.9% of the world. And you're comparing those two realities with each other. So "not a lot of people cycle in winter" is actually "not a lot of people cycle through 20cm of snow". No shit. Overall, the amount of information in the very video the parent linked you just straight up ignored makes me think you either didn't watch it, or didn't want to pay attention to a lot of the points made, like the one on population density: [3]. > yet those Finns make only 12% of winter trips by bike Yeah, during Finnish winters. How many countries do you think this directly applies to? If 12% of Finns during their harsh winters can cycle just fine in -20C weather conditions then what does that say about the cycling stats of e.g. California? > The secret is the lack of elevation... I like to quip that bikes have gears for a reason and it's worth learning to use them, but these days the existence of e-bikes and e-scooters nullifies this argument entirely. > ...and living in crumped cities: on average a Dutch person bikes 3km per day. Yes, we're talking about cities here. So, the purpose of pointing out that biking over long distances in say, rural areas, is not viable is what exactly? We can pivot to talking about trains instead if you'd like... [1]: ▶ this video [2]: ▶ this video [3]: ▶ this video

Even the "decent climate" range is actually huge, <especially with ebikes>. Basically I can think of only a one climate where life on bikes is really hard: very hot and humid. Hot and dry is manageable since when cycling you naturally create cooling currents around you; you need to wear appropriate clothing (sunglasses + cap or helmet with shaded visor; appropriate long sleeved shirt, appropriate pants and shoes). link (for long sleeved shirts) Cold climates are super manageable with appropriate clothing, bar mitts and most crucially of all: <well designed bike infrastructure including priority maintenance, just like for car infrastructure>. ▶ this video Of course super extreme weather like -30C or +40C at some point makes any active transportation close to impossible, but the vast majority of people don't live in those conditions and the people that do live like that, only do it for max 1-2 months per year. 99.99% of these issues are actually failures of infrastructure design and implementation. For snowy conditions: daily snow plowing, debris removal, salting to prevent ice formation, etc, etc. For hot conditions: planting trees, removing asphalt (for example grassy tram/train lines; parking spots with grass pavers (link), designing tall buildings to shade urban sidewalks, etc. Also, infrastructure doesn't just need to safe, it needs to be maintained as critical infrastructure, just like for cars, so that the infra is not degraded in practice.

NotJustBikes' latest video is titled "I'm so Sick of this Lazy Excuse (for bad cities)" and the lazy excuse is the cold or wet weather. link A previous video "How is a bike tunnel this freak'n great" is about urbanism and cycling in Bergen, Norway and has repeated digs at people who say you can't have good cycling infrastructure unless it's sunny and tropical. link And a previous video "Why Canadians can't bike in the winter (but Finnish people can)" about the city of Oulo, Finland. ▶ this video And a previous video about Oslo, Norway, "The next great cycling city" link He used to work in tech, I think in ATI chip design consulting, and spent time lived in Sunnyville, California, where it was always room temperature and sunny outside - the best weather anyone could ask for - and everyone still drove everywhere all the time. He travelled short and long stay consulting visits all over the world for years, in Toronto, Sunnyville, Oxford, London, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Taiwan, China, and it's those experiences which gave rise to his opinions about cities and that YouTube channel

Electric bicycles basically solve the hill issue. Dutch people bike in any weather. We have a ton of terrible weather, both hot and cold but mostly wet. Our summer heat might not be very hot, but the summer heat is very humid, it feels hotter than it is. Also the Netherlands is not the only region where people bike a lot. There are places in Finland for example, with more hills and more extreme weather that have loads of people biking. ▶ this video

> everything is relative. biking in vienna in winter isn't similar at all to biking in winnipeg in the winter. Perfect is the enemy of the good: just because you can't cycle everyday, twelve months of the year, doesn't mean you shouldn't perhaps cycle for 6/8/10 months of the years when it is "possible". But on the topic of locations, how about Finland? "Why Canadians Can't Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)": * ▶ this video Or a fellow in Calgary: * link Or a couple that have live(d) in Ottawa and Montreal: * link Also look at the larger conversation of one of the most car-centric countries, the US: how many folks live in climate zones (say) 1 to 4: * link What does "winter" mean there?

> with nice weather See his video "Why Canadians Can't Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)": * ▶ this video See also Oh The Urbanity!'s various videos on the topic: * "Winter Isn't a Good Argument Against Bike Lanes": link * "Bike Lane Haters Are Wrong About Winter": link * "What Biking in the Winter is Really Like": link * "2,000 People Told Us Their Biggest Winter Cycling Challenges": link And most recent (April 2024), "How Winter Cycling Finally Clicked for Us": * link Of course ones doesn't necessarily have to cycle 100% of the time either: do it when you feel most comfortable with it.