It would seem that you might have a stronger argument if you could find cities that weren't in Holland. Someplace that has, I don't know, hills.

Hills are way over-rated in why not to cycle. Traffic is the killer, not the hill. There is nothing like having 3,000 lbs of steel brush by you at 20+mph faster than you are going to make you consider not riding a bicycle on a road.

Fortunately Seattle with it's grid street pattern is pretty easy to get around without riding in heavy traffic. It takes some facility with maps.google.com and some pre-planning so you don't get dumped out on an arterial for any distance, but once you figure it out, rarely do you have to ride on those roads.

But the culture change is coming, you can see it with more women commuters. In fact we have a few mom's who haul a trailer of kids to daycare, drop the trailer off and the kid, and ride into work. The word is it's faster than the car.

Hills, traffic, nasty cold weather much of the year. Do I want to leave my house 30 min earlier and have to take a shower at work? No and no.

It's the topography, stupid...

"Biking together through the elements bonds us in a way that would never happen if we were strapped into a car. Throughout my travels, I saw all kinds of romance on the cycle tracks— teenagers kissing at stoplights in Paris, older couples holding hands while pedaling in Amsterdam, and a post-wedding getaway bicycle in Copenhagen."

Yeah. Because nobody has ever made out in a car before. lol

We don't want to bike. And we don't want bicyclists getting in our way. Sounds like Europe would be a good place for the author to live.

The deal is this: A Seattle "progressive" buys a Rick Steves book and takes off for Europe for a couple of weeks. He never ventures out of the "old town" areas of the major cities, and comes back declaring his love for the "human scale" of Madrid. Which he saw 3% of.

That's what's behind the Seattle "progressive" push to remake the city. It's all about that European vacation, which bears as much resemblance to everyday life in Europe as the Griswold family's European Vacation so slyly memorialized in the National Lampoon movie.

The Seattle "progressives" don't understand how absurd and laughable they really are when they talk about Europe.

1. Increased risk of death per mile travelled.
2. Too many hills.
3. Freezing cold hands on winter mornings
4. Feel like a fool every time you stop at a red light and other bicyclists pass you
5. AAA will not respond to a flat bike tire
6. Soaking wet every other day for 10 months per year
7. Don't want to encourage Mayor Mike McGinn

5. http://www.betterworldclub.com/ will respond. Benefits and cost are similar to AAA, but they don't lobby for more highways.

Worrying about being hit by car, yet not worrying about the real reasons people die in the USA?

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
Heart disease: 599,413
Cancer: 567,628
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 137,353
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,842
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 118,021
Alzheimer's disease: 79,003
Diabetes: 68,705
Influenza and Pneumonia: 53,692
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 48,935
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 36,909

Aerobic exercise will reduce your chances of dying from #1, #3, #4, #6, #7, #8, #9...

And for the #2 kill, Cancer, it appears that some of them are prevented by aerobic exercise.
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1020/81/34452/exercise-powerful-stroke-and-colon-cancer-prevention.html

And to think you get all those health benefits for merely riding a bicycle to work.

For cold hands, I recommend decent gloves, they make them you know. I like the "Youngstown XT Extraction Kevlar gloves, about $35 on Amazon.)

A shower at work, is less hot water bills at home... it's a cost savings for you! Besides either way you still need a shower.

You won't feel like a fool after a month or so of bicycling. You'll be in shape. Do you feel like a fool when drivers pass you on the freeway in your car?

AAA may not respond to your flat tire, but I slow down and check with every stopped cyclist I happen to pass. And while I've stopped to repair an occasional flat, I've had others stop to help me out as well. Just bring a tube to fit your tires, a compact pump, and a couple of tire irons. You'll be back on the road in no time.

Also riding in the rain is way overrated as an issue. It rarely rains hard enough to bother me. Yes January isn't as nice as May but then riding a bus full of wet people isn't great either.

But driving a car with my latte and NPR to and from my gym and to my covered garage at work is just as pleasant in January as May.

Oh yeah, those hills you are complaining about? Riding up them will add years to your life.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110829070507.htm

It's not just "faster" it's working your heart harder that is key to this study.

You can keep playing that broken record, Gary. 97% of Seattle commuters disagree, though.

What's broken is that 63% of Americans are obese or overweight.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20100210/percentage-of-overweight-obese-americans-swells

They may be choosing the short term easy way to get to work, but they are also choosing the short term life.

What no one mentions - is it supposed to be a secret? - is how goddamn much fun biking to work is. There's nothing like the adrenaline rush of soaring down Stone Way at the legal speed limit. The hills & the weather may seem like a drag at first, but you can dress for the latter, and once you get stronger, cresting Dexter or Boren seems like a triumph. You feel like a superhero, & you have the calves to match. We're not just out there for our health or to save the environment; bike commuting is a blast.

Ok I'll mention it. Yesterday I was thinking.... "why am I rushing to work, I am on call, and I gave up my Sunday morning to do work." So I rode a few extra blocks down 16th to Prospect and through Volunteer Park and back out on Prospect. Then Prospect all the way to Summit and Roy. What a blast! The houses back there are all multi-million dollar mansions some with carriage houses! So going home, I reversed that route and yes I do feel like a million bucks after climbing from South Lake Union up to Volunteer Park. After that it was an easy cruise to the I-90 bridge.

Riding to work is a blast!

Beccaa says it best. The reason to bike is because you love it! To each their own. If you prefer not to bike, that is just fine too.

Cut your health care costs by "moving around"

http://www.geekwire.com/2012/everymove-lands-26m-create-mileage-rewards-program-health/

Coming to a business near you, which is trying to fight the annual 7% increase in health care costs/year. (note every geometric progression blows up eventually, ie, your employer will stop covering you.)

GaryP, it's good you have a hobby to promote, but it's not anything close to a commuting solution for the masses here. Never will be. The weather and the topography will always limit it to a relative handful of fitness freaks.

I'm not claiming everyone should commute by bicycle. I'm claiming that a lot more people could add bicycling as an option if a) they had access to a shower/towels/locker b) secure parking c) routes that were safe to ride on.

The city is working on the routes with the neighborhood greenways project. And employers are adding a & b as a way to attract quality applicants.

Check out the list of companies and the number of riders.

http://commutechallenge.cascade.org/organizations/

Children's Hospital was only allowed to expand if they kept the car traffic down. They added a & b and a cash reward for riding and look at the numbers of people riding.

It ought to be mentioned that, in the past 10 years of self-righteousness and propaganda from the bicyclists, the percentage of people in Seattle who own cars is unchanged at 16%, according to the Census Bureau.

McGinn tried to lie about that, but he got caught. And the city's goal of having 9% bicycle commuting? That hasn't worked out either. The one mass transit element that works, the bus, is being cut back in favor of a much more expensive fixed-rail boondoggle.

If I were a bicyclist, I'd lobby for three things. First, I'd want a bicycle license fee, with all proceeds directed to bike facilities. Second, I'd make nice with the motorists and form common cause in pressuring the city to maintain the streets.

Finally, I'd be opposing the expansion of Sound Transit, the monster that's gobbling all of the transportation funding.

I actually own more cars than I did 10 years ago, but I also ride my bicycle more than I did 10 years ago. These are unrelated statistics, 100% no correlation at all.

However the percentage of bicyclists commuting has grown in the last 10 years. https://public.sheet.zoho.com/public/bikeleague/2000-to-2010-bike-commuters-largest-70-2-1

And yes road repair is my #1 gripe with SDOT, both for drivers and bicyclists.

Since you are not a bicyclist you can rail all you want on the bicycle license issue, but it's going nowhere. It's a 100% red herring. Auto driver licensees only fund auto driver licensing. They are a necessary requirement for operators of dangerous equipment. Bicyclists aren't a public menace.

I know bicycle licensing is going nowhere. As someone who is sick to death of you people, I'm glad it's going nowhere, because it makes it so easy to portray your crowd as a bunch of spoiled children who won't pay their way. It's even better when that's true, which in this case it is.

"who won't pay their way. It's even better when that's true, which in this case it is."

Except it's not. And that has been pointed out to you in other forums. Auto Licensing fees only pays for running the licensing bureau.

And when you ignore the actual funding data for roads, who uses them, what wears them out, where the real money comes from it makes you look like a paid writer.

And here I thought you'd prefer to have a thoughtful discussion on the facts. Oh well.

And that has been pointed out to you in other forums. Auto Licensing fees only pays for running the licensing bureau.

I love the "progressives" of Seattle. You implicitly claim moral and intellectual superiority, and then turn around and make utterly stupid and brainless claims.

The WA Dept. of Licensing spent about $280 million in the last biennium, and brought in more than $2.9 billion. Vehicle licensing bureau costs are paid by the surcharge tacked onto the licensing fees. King County tacks on all kinds of charges, the latest scam being $20 a year to subsidize buses. The idea that car tabs pay for only the licensing bureaus is a laughable "progressive" attempt at a lie.

A "thoughtful discussion on the facts?" Oh please. Who are ya kiddin'?

"Who are you kidding?" You apparently.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-should-my-bike-subsidize-your-car/2012/03/07/gIQAXiiw1R_story.html

http://www.newcolonist.com/rr69.html

Your car wears the road way more than my bicycle.

Our property taxes, our car tabs (I also own some), our drivers license, our income taxes, our gas taxes, our sales taxes pay for transportation in this state.

I'm already paying and I'm not wearing out the roads by bicycling instead of driving on them.

Your car wears the road way more than my bicycle.

Same can be said about motorcycles, but they pay. Only the parasite bicyclists are given special privileges.

And skateboards, and roller skates, and walking and tricycles....

Yep, lets impose usage taxes on every possible use of public stuff. Are you the mouthpiece for tax collection agencies? Did you sell your soul to the makers of databases and license plate stamping machines?

It's human powered vehicles that are given a pass vs things which spew a waste stream into the air. (electric counts because 80% of electricity in the country comes from burning coal.)

You are't allowed to walk in the streets, or use a skateboard, or a tricycle there. If bicyclists had any smarts, it would be they who pushed for a license fee. It would vastly improve their odds of getting public sympathy for funding their special projects.

Instead, you whine and demand. Yep, you got your mayor. And look what that's done for ya.

Great story. I'm thinking about biking more and was encouraged by the number of comments. They are tribute. To a well written story.