[toss1]

Yup. I used to be an avid road biker, 10-40mi rides multiple time per week, hopping on 80mi day trips, Tuesday evening time trials, racing, etc.

But it has been over a decade since my road bike has seen pavement. I keep it to mountain biking on trails now because the traffic everywhere has gotten too insane, and the drivers just seem less and less aware/alert/smart/skilled.

And I've noticed in the last few month bad news of almost a half dozen champion bike racers killed on roads, the most memorable one in Italy, and one in San Francisco last week. The risk just doesn't seem manageable anymore.

This is the opposite of the direction we should be going, but it is what we have.

[jmoak3]

In a car dependent society such as our America, how do we expect a humongous and rapidly aging demographic to handle their loss of motor skills? By simply staying inside and becoming entirely dependent on kids they never had?

They’ll be out on the roads - get a bigger car and don’t bike. I’m sad about it as well but I don’t see many options unless you’re in a unique area.

For context, 1/3rd of Americans today are over 55.

Due to exponential growth and innovation everything any of us have ever known is one of a series of crazy experiments. I don’t think car dependency will turn out to be a good one.

[toss1]

>>I don’t think car dependency will turn out to be a good one

VERY True!

And a huge amount of it is due to the corporations influencing against any form of public transportation in past decades.

The only thing that (almost paradoxically) is may be helping progress, is the surge in e-bikes. It's both bringing a lot of people into biking, and/or enabling them to bike longer distances, so encouraging a lot more. And apparently, the net exercise amounts are similar, so it's still a health benefit. With all that, maybe we'll get to serious support for biking one day. Soon, I hope.