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xkcd #2832: Urban Planning Opinion Progression
(imgs.xkcd.com)
Alt text:
If they're going to make people ride bikes and scooters in traffic, then it should at LEAST be legal to do the Snow Crash thing where you use a hook-shot-style harpoon to catch free rides from cars.
The Netherlands is flat. Lots of US cities are not bike friendly due to hills.
Good news! There’s a new technology called an ‘e-bike’, which makes this problem (and wind, and sweat, and physical condition) completely irrelevant.
Physical condition is still relevant. If nothing else, being lighter extends your battery range. I have a couple of E-bikes. My 230lb/104.3kg ass can only manage to extend the range of the bikes to about 30 miles per charge, without pedaling. My friend's daughter who is more like 105lbs/47.6kg, gets almost 50 miles per charge, without pedaling.
St. Petesburg is flat, but it doesn't have a lot of bikes. Moscow is hilly(and called city on 7 hills) and has more bikes. Sooooo, extrapolating US should be better for bikes than Netherlands.
Changing urbanism culture doesn't mean that everywhere needs to be exactly like the Netherlands, if a place is too hilly there are still better solutions than car-centrism.