@@tristanridley1601 you might, but most people don't. Almost all the cyclists I know also drive, and many of them are car enthusiasts, or low-key car enthusiasts as well. It's like the channel says, that *cars do have their place.* The place for cars simply isn't *everywhere.*

​@@AlexandarHullRichter another car enthusiast cyclist here to back up your point.

@@peterwallis4288 I'm an amateur car enthusiast and I absolutely hate car dependancy. I love cars and driving, but having it be the de-facto for literally every facet of life is just absurd. Being forced to drive 15-20 minutes to get to literally anywhere that I need/want to go to makes driving so much less enjoyable. Also, more people on the road makes driving more dangerous and tedious as well as causing an unaffordable level of road damage. The nearest restaurant to me is a 30 minute walk away, or a 10 minute bike ride on roads with no bike infrastructure and aggressive drivers. I would love to live somewhere where everything was within a comfortable and safe 5-10 minute walk or 10-15 minute bike ride, and I could occasionally go driving for fun.

@@adinrichter6034 yes, I completely agree. It's stupid the amount of time we use our cars. Recently, I've had a period where I had to use a bike because I couldn't pay for petrol. My financial situation is better now, but I hope I never go back to relying on my car for every little trip. It's so silly. It's a waste of fuel and money, it's wearing out the car and it cuts out so much opportunity for excercise. Fortunately, where I live is getting better for cycling. It's currently much better than it was 5 years ago.

@@tristanridley1601 As a pedestrian mostly living in Korea, I also hate fast cyclists, a.k.a. "rolling assassins", who don't hesitate to fly by me with a few centimeters to spare.

Vancouver has had a couple of bad days this year and the road system basically collapsed from the snow. Thing is, the Skytrain was running just fine through it all. Grade-separated rail is a secondary transportation network.

Redundancies are an mportant part of resiliency.

I think sadly some people would say this

I do all of my skiing in the summer. No way anyone can enjoy themselves with all of that snow around. Give me a nice asphalt road to ski down.

american culture covers both 👍💔

Sadly that is true though. very few people walk outside in the winter unless they have a dog or a car/ bus to get to.

@@planepower8523 but why is that? Because no one walks or that there aren't actual pedestrian infrastructure?

That name, are you actually a real person, or a bot?

@@grantmccoy6739 Why not both? 😂

I realized how much anxiety I'm missing out on by not having a car here when my aunt was talking about the jolt of stress the tow truck alarm gives her every time it goes by and I realized I've completed tuned it out and never notice.

I loved waking up in the morning, drinking my coffee, and watching everyone else try to dig their cars out of the snow.

I've always lived car-free, and I've often wondered why people hated winter so much. Part of it personal taste (I don't like being cold, but I like being hot and sweaty way less, I enjoy going to the winter cabin, etc.), but I think being car-free for my whole life has been a big part of it. Switching from sneakers to boots is a relatively minor change, compared to having to dig your car out every winter. I've dug my mom's car out of the snow enough times to know that it's not fun.

Agreed. I live in a central neighbourhood and recently purchased a building with garages. My car is in one of those garages. It gets used once a week to reach the uncivilized regions called suburbia to visit family. Rest of the time? It sleeps OFF the public road (my personal car shouldn't be dependant on public land for storage).

and then the Finnish guys turn out to be those which are able to tackle the winter ... even on bikes

Drivers routinely do this when no snowbanks are present as well, regardless the season.

Unfortunately you just need to take the space for yourself. You stop feeling uncomfortable about it eventually.

Not all of Montreal unfortunately. My area is very car dependent and we have a mayor who is stuck in the 1970s. Ville St-Laurent...

🤣 I think you angered this car owner ☝️

@@WillmobilePlus maybe if you got outside and got some exercise you would clear your head and be less angry. You have no arguments, just insults

What always drove (heh) me nuts was how if my coworkers ever showed up late due to snow driving, snow clearing, or even just regular summer traffic it was never considered their fault and everyone all the way up management would let them off or maybe complain some themselves as if it was totally unavoidable. But if I showed up ON TIME instead of my usual 5-15 minutes early because I got a flat tire, I'd have to hear for hours to days from every person in the company how I need to switch to a more "reliable" form of transport, even though I was on time more often than any other worker in the whole company. I no longer work there, but it still irks me how even supposed smart and data-focused people only care about incorrect perceptions and emotions and can't see past their nose

The thing about shoveling snow is that it's something you have to do for free for something that you're constantly paying for (the car) 😂

That's why Russians love the trains and hate driving.

In Seattle I learned really quick that the last place you wanted to be if it snowed was on a Metro bus. They would lose traction and get stuck, and the articulated buses would jackknife. You'd get stranded every time.

That storm also showed how badly Portland needs new MAX lines that are underground and extend across the entire metropolitan area so that we don't have to drive for any reason

@@frafraplanner9277 A major problem is lack of redevelopment around stations outside of Portland. WAY too many here on the west side are surrounded by basically nothing (central Beaverton's two stations have multiple parking garages, surface level lots, car dealers, or are literally empty).

I agree. It's not only a problem in difficult times, it's stressful when times are good.

I basically just hibernate in the winter compared to the summer. It's much healthier to know when there are low productivity times and high productivity times. I'm more social in the summer too but love just staying in and catching up on books when it's cold out there.

In traditional agricultural life your year was split into two parts. The winter The time you spend preparing to not die during the winter. Spring summer and fall were spent growing food, harvesting firewood, building/repairing your home, etc. Winter was just spent literally trying to stay warm and not starve. It is very nice that we have come so far that we are able to do so much stuff in the middle of winter but I'm not convinced that it is good for our overall health. Winter is meant to be a time of rest.

as someone who has no winter I will say it's not fair if u get an off season. I want an off season

​@@maYTeus you can have summer off

Totally agree!!! I'm less fond of the extremely cold or snowy days, but 95% of the winter is awesome and I prefer it to summer riding. It the winter, I can ride in my wool sport coat being all fancy and not get overheated 🙃

Agreed. I prefer winter riding because the multi-use recreational path I use to commute is overrun with families and strollers and dogs and other cyclists during the summer. Come colder months, I have entire rides where I do not come across another soul for 90 minutes; it's bliss.

Take it from someone that face 40C on the summers... not even getting naked will help You with this. In the cold one can always put another layer of clothes. Above 27C... nothing really helps. Except biking. Going slow, on a 40C day, is WAY better than walking - I'm making my own breeze! And bike, usually, are point to point! I don't have to walk 5 minutes from the parking lot to the building. On the summer this is enough to get me dripping from sweat.

Could it be another reason why so many people bike in colder places like northern Europe?

So much this. I am currently a student and many of the local coffee shops are in areas with time restricted parking, yet too far and uncomfortable to walk or bike. If I want to study there, its laughably short 2 hour increments or risk getting towed.

Thank you!

You too angered a car owner 🤣 buttercup cant suck it up

@@theepimountainbiker6551 😂 100%

@@aarons3008 yeah, making people upset is really funny.

@@WillmobilePlus True. Typically we know what's best for our specific situation.

Absolutely! If you gear up for winter, you can use your bike all year and leave the car at home for more trips.

Is that assuming cleared bike paths?

@@leandrog2785 not even. Just clear streets

@@leandrog2785 if the bike paths were clear all the time it would be 100% like riding in the summer

Except for those days when a heavy gust of wind turns you coat into a kite... that's always so fun... lol. Do you ever use safety glasses or a face mask? I started using safety glasses cause my eyes would dry out or snowfall getting in my face.

@@WillmobilePlus I don't hate people that drive. I drive too. What I hate is that our cities are built exclusively for cars. Every other mode is given a lower priority. Making them slower and less convenient. This is why most people decide to drive. Many people wish they didn't have to drive but are forced to. Also driving is extremely dangerous. Especially in the winter. And all the parking and wide roads make cities soulless and boring.

I MUCH prefer the personal comfort a few hundred dollars a month in my pocket and good health biking everywhere brings. Car owners dont know what theyre missing out on

I think we evolved towards personal comfort on all aspects of life, not just when it comes to cars. It's just a human trait. Some value that more (and on different things) than others but it's always there.

The more low density suburbs that are built, the bigger a city becomes and the farther destinations will be.

or really when inhabiting any environment. The key word here isn't "cold", it's "inhabiting". As in: it's a place for people, not for cars.

@@alex2143 Agreed

would be difficult in rural areas. Just went onto a North Cape road trip in February last year. That municipality up there has a population density of 9 inhabitants / square mile. However 2500 of the 3000 inhabitants all live in the same 0.41 sq mi large village which is the administrative center; THe next such village is rather far down the road, like all the "larger" places up there

@@EnjoyFirefighting that's exactly how you do it. Make it so you can go to the store or visit your neighbors on foot or bike, and kids have a safe neighborhood to play in. Then all you really need is a bike path alongside the road to the next village and you've succesfully made the town bikeable.

I've stopped a few times during winter commutes to park my bike and help push cars stuck in the show.

Nice comment. Echo chambers absolutely. That idiot NJB's bans everyone who show just a little dissent with his opinions. If there's anyone who can be called "bike cultist" with a great degree of accuracy it's him.

Yeah, but we are running out of time. Cars represent around 60% of greenhouse gases of the ways of transport (not including manufactoring) plus air pollution that are killing people. I truly believe that there are good reasons to demonize car infrastructure.

You cannot "over-demonize" a mode of transportation that is the single-minded focus of North American city design + municipal management. Motorists are not victims, they are the overwhelming majority and receive EVERY possible accommodation imaginable. For or all intents and purposes, they are the perpetrators of countless societal ills yet they receive every perk and accommodation imaginable from municipal governments while shouldering absolutely none of the responsibility. Ottawa, for instance, has +12,000km of active roadways meanwhile only has ~900km "cycling infrastructure", a vast majority of which being multi-use pathways (not even dedicated cycling infrastructure). The pervasiveness of personal car infrastructure/use SHOULD BE DEMONIZED because personal vehicles and the infrastructure required to accommodate them are objectively bad in EVERY quantifiable metric. They cause severe environmental degradation (unquantifiable cost on the healthcare system + quantifiable costs on the local environment), they are a massive source of noise pollution (which has its own widespread health effects), they are a drain on personal finances (US drivers spent roughly $10,000 a year on vehicle ownership + maintenance in 2021), the infrastructure to support them is the largest financial line item on municipal budgets (see Ottawa's 12k km's of roads to maintain), and just to top it all off they consistently kill people on a regular basis. I agree that there has to be mutual understanding to accomplish positive urbanist goals. Yet that understanding has to come EXCLUSIVELY from motorists and no one else. Motorists are the group that causes, and has the potential to cause, the most direct/indirect harm and as a result, it is their responsibility to shoulder this "mutual understanding". It is not the responsibility of cyclists or of pedestrians to coddle motorists because of their infantile desire for individualism & "convenience" (quotes as I would argue car ownership in not convenient). It is not up to the vulnerable road/transportation users to accommodate or "come to a mutual understanding' with the people/mode of transportation that are literally maiming and killing them. All of this comes from a car owner and a huge enthusiast. But as a piece of the transportation network pie, it MUST come dead last.

​@@tanneryoung619 Dude, nothing you're saying is news to, or would be refuted by, anyone in this comment section (aside from several hyperboles and your excessively idealistic slant). That said, good luck encouraging positive policy change if your strategy is simply to demonize the car-loving majority. A huge population of North Americans will always hate urbanists and pro-urban initiatives as long as there are enough people online being as haughty, opinionated, and alienating as you are right now.

​@Goapy Beleive your little fantasy if you want. The US EPA says that total ghg emissions for transportation is 28%. Industrial and electric emissions are 22% and 25%. Do you demonize them equitably? Or do you think your hatred of carbrains is holy? There are those who hate bicycles the same way.

@@WillmobilePlus, "slugs like me" don't have better things to do, we're retired. I still arrive at my destinations warm, dry, and sometimes faster than those who drive, and a lot faster than "No See Transpo."

@@WillmobilePlus In Montreal we absolutely encounter trips where cycling (or taking the metro) is as fast as or faster than driving, especially when you take into account the challenge of finding a parking spot at each end. It's not every trip by any means, but it's pretty common. That's because the city wasn't designed solely around the speed and convenience of cars. (Of course, it does vary by neighbourhood. Newer areas are more car-centric.)

@@WillmobilePlus Because a common argument again cycling is that it's only viable when you're young as that's when you're the fittest. It has got some basis in reality but fitness also depends on whether you're active in general and cycling is an activity where driving a car all the time will make you feel like you can barely lift your arm when you get old (exaggerating with the latter, of course, but still not to be dismissed).

@@WillmobilePlus, I have better coffee at home. No, I am talking about 10km away where my favourite pubs are. (If a destination is a block away, I walk.) Also, if you're not retired, then you're not "a slug like me," you're probably a working stiff, which might explain your antipathy to cycling, but I think you have your priorities bass-ackward. You should cycle to work and be accommodated for your effort. I was at NDHQ and at the House of Commons. For me, my vehicle is my third choice when it comes to transport.

@@WillmobilePlus, I gather you do not know Ottawa.

In virtually every municipality, there are more drivers than non-drivers. Even the most transit- friendly ones.

I'm in Victoria, and similar murmurs haunt us. No one here has any right to gripe about winter, yet they do.

Yup, can't possibly bike in the 6 month long constant downpour of Vancouver winters 🙄

That increases the windchill and my face freezes. ;)

I totally agree, this winter I’ve seen a huge increase on the roads, now, if everyone would just do three things,,,, Buy a headlight Buy a taillight Buy a f@#$Ing bell! Cheers from Ontario!

I rode BIKETOWN during the first storm (because MAX wasn't running) and I experienced all the things you said here too

I LOVE the muffled sounds and that distinctive crunch sound of the bike tires on snow and ice ❤️

Damn. I wonder what it’s like driving in Yellowknife.

Cars are the reason disabled people can’t get around. If cars were removed from our streets, there would be no risk of people in wheelchairs getting hit by a car, and they could easily get around on electric wheelchairs throughout the city. They can’t do so now because cars take up all the space on our roads. That’s my argument.

Waiting for a car to warm up takes forever. I have saved so much time on the bike just from that! And plus I feel so much more comfortable temperature wise on my bike in winter than in the car.

And not even bike lights would help?

What I mean to say - part of the reason why we have notions of bikes being redundant in snowy cities is the maintenance performance prioritizing certain modes of transportation in the first place.. in most places, it’s even cars before pedestrians

@@tristanridley1601 but the roads are fine, who cares!

@@tristanridley1601 sounds like you’re a prime candidate for a job at city hall with that attitude shahsh

@@WillmobilePlus who said I hate cars? I didn't I did say that unironically. I currently do not own my home, I live where I can, but I have to take care of the snow. Front yards and driveways are a waste of space. You're telling me we couldn't all have either alleyways and garages out back or have our homes built closer to the road, and have underground parking garages for everyone? Expensive yes but would be preferable in my eyes... would much rather just shovel sidewalk A snowblower is a great idea... still gotta go out there and maintain your patch of asphalt

U ve gotta buy one of them engine powered snowploughs, my parents are quite old and they live in the suburbs in a cottage so they have to clean their own driveway too, my father had a real hard time doing that on his own, often he called me for a hand. But a couple years ago he got himself a motorised snowplough and now he even enjoys cleaning the snow after heavy snowfalls because its so easy and fun to do

At least in Quebec, winter tires are mandated by law

It's very bad if you have knee problems, also if you are not used to skiing, it's very easy to break some bone. Ski holiday accidents are the most likely cause for a broken hip in under 30 year olds - in Germany, which does not have a lot of winter!

@@steemlenn8797 Skiing for transportation (cross country skiing) is probably safer than a ski holiday (mostly downhill skiing). I believe the higher speeds of downhill skiing result in more frequent and more serious injuries than cross country skiing.

@@stuartwithers8755 good point. But on the other side you don't have guys trying to manouver their 2 ton city tank around you.

honestly yeah , but also you can't deny that skiis and sleds were litterally built for it ...

Need better infrastructure!

@@IHateStroads it's things like this that make me wish I didn't live on the east coast 🙃

Where are you? The protected bike lanes in the Plateau (St-Denis, Rachel, etc.) are plowed pretty well. It's the painted bike lanes that are really an issue.

@@OhTheUrbanity I have yet to have a reason to go to the Plateau, Living around Atwater Metro there are some stretches of the Lachine Canal that would be handy to use for where I need to go. But I gotta wait till around April to use it because it's completely ignored and unusable till the ice melts.

@@dragonskunkstudio7582 Unfortunately the Lachine Canal is run by the feds (Parks Canada) and not the city, which explains the lack of snow clearing (montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/lachine-canal-path-wont-be-cleared-for-cyclists-this-winter). We encountered the same problem with some (but not all) of the multi-use pathways when we lived in Ottawa.

@@OhTheUrbanity Maisonneuve goes through different municipalities is that why it's not maintained either? But either way cyclist get roadblocks in winter that's a fact that cannot be denied. It doesn't matter how inconvenient cars are do not blame cyclist for not having a fair safe chance to use the roads in winter.

@@dragonskunkstudio7582 yes. Westmount and Montréal-Ouest aren't part of the city of Montréal proper and they don't clear the path.

Damn. Must of been a scary situation. Sorry man. Glad you are out of the car and making the streets safer.

That was half a joke for some friends who used to live there!