08-17-2021, 09:38 AM
(08-16-2021, 10:39 PM)Acitta Wrote: Well, lots of people cycle year round in Finland, which gets a lot of snow, so I don't accept the argument that winter is a barrier to cycling. I cycle year round and most of the time it is not that cold. There is no bad weather, only a poor choice of clothing (something that seems common among car drivers I have observed).
I forget who did it (possibly City Beautiful?), but there is a video that explains that one reason Finnish people continue to bike in the winter is because Finnish cities do an incredible job snow plowing the pathways and sidewalks. We have a serious lack of snow removal here, not to mention a lot of our bike infrastructure is on or very close to live roadways which makes it incredibly dangerous. If a car hit some ice and slid into a bike lane, they could easily run over a cyclist. Finland has a lot of trails that are well separated from live traffic and they remove snow very quickly. Our mild winters also complicate things as things melt and freeze repeatedly.