Your cycling fallacy is…
“It’s too wet / dry / windy / hot / cold to cycle where I live”
The response
If it’s too cold, or wet, or hot to cycle, then it’s generally too cold, or wet, or hot to go out at all. When the streets are designed well, you are no more at the mercy of the weather when cycling, than you are when walking.
The Netherlands and Denmark routinely experience very cold winters, but good management of conditions, including clearing snow from major cycle routes, ensures that cycling remains practical as a mode of transport for most people. People still walk there when it's rainy, or cold, or hot – and they still cycle too. Research suggests that in cities with high-quality cycling infrastructure, people continue to cycle regularly even if the weather is bad. It is only in places with poor or absent cycle networks that cycling levels drop off in adverse weather.
While there may be some places with such extreme conditions that cycling is genuinely difficult, for most places this isn't true, and in no way justifies failing to provide a safe and attractive environment for cycling.
Photo by A View From The Cycle Path (Copyright, used with permission)
People cycling in the rain in Utrecht
Photo by BicycleDutch (Copyright, used with permission)
Further reading
- Some People Feel the Rain, Others Just Get Wet: An Analysis of Regional Differences in the Effects of Weather on Cycling — www.wiwi.uni-muenster.de
- Oulu – The winter cycling capital of the world. Finland — Eltis, the urban mobility observatory
- Too hot to cycle? Thousands of bikes still ridden to a beach near Assen — A View From The Cycle Path
- Fair Weather — Bikeyface
- Snow. What tyres to make it safe? — A View From The Cycle Path
- School cycling in winter — A View From The Cycle Path
- It's too cold to cycle... — A View From The Cycle Path
- Rolling in the rain — BicycleDutch
Deutsch
- Schlechtes Wetter – eine schlechte Ausrede — ZEIT Online (Blog)
- Gute Radinfrastruktur der Woche #10 — Das Andere Bundesministerium für Verkehr
Español
- Evolución de los desplazamientos en bicicleta en Sevilla entre 2006 y 2017 — Ayuntamiento de Sevilla
- Contador de desplazamientos ciclistas por la Avenida Gasteiz de Vitoria — Visio-Tools
Français
- 10 conseils pour faire du vélo en hiver — Le Monde (blog de transport)
- A Montréal, on continue à pédaler, même en plein hiver — Le Monde (blog de transport)
- ROULER SUR LA NEIGE ET LE VERGLAS ? — Pro Velo
Čeština
Русский
日本語
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