“Surprising” how proper infrastructure encourages both of them.
Netherlands is bike county…
No one wants to have a heartattack at 40 degrees outside, and also coincidence, not really, them infrastructure
This has more to do with mentality and culture than bad weather.
I don’t think Portugal’s percentage is accurate. Or, at least, not in northern Portugal. (Maybe Lisbon and the Algarve are different.)
For everyone walks to the local grocery store, or to a restaurant, or just around the center of town.
I think Portugal’s survey takers thought it meant, specifically, to talk a walk for the purpose of taking a walk.
Define bad weather
We are more adapted to walk in ‘bad’ weather (what is bad? Everything from 20C to -15 for me) than in ‘good’ (you don’t really want to go for a walk when it is sonny and the temp is 25C and warmer)
Correlation≠causation
Absolutely. The main thing that influences cycling and walking is proper infrastructure. Weather and other factors are not an insurmountable challenge.
Which is good, since infrastructure is something that can be changed.
Mentality is very important, trust me. For a lot of people in my country is humiliating to walk or cycle if they can go by car or public transport.
Cycling infrastructure is also an issue.
I’d say cold weather encourages movement. If you moved so much in the heat you’d die
In Italy it’s about car lobbyists, not weather
Speaking of my country (Italy) most cities are built at least partially on hills (Rome, Florence, Naples, etc.) which historically made cycling hard, especially if you are supposed to go to work by bike. Things are now easier thanks to e-bikes, which are nonetheless rather expensive.
The notable exception is the Pianura Padana, whose cities and towns are mostly flat, but its air quality is one of the worst in Europe.
Maybe it’s flatlands, short distances amd temperatures that allow for a 15 min bike ride with no shower afterwards?
I’m currently in Estonia. I walk a lot daily to help my health. It feels fine, just have to have proper clothes, underpants, gloves, beanie and a jacket with hood. I used hygienic lipstick to help me when it was too cold so my lips won’t get cracked.
I also enjoy to cycle during the summer and would do it likely during the winter but it requires proper bike type (or wheels at least), good clothes, maybe a balaclava, and mud guards over the wheels, cycling infrastructure in my place sucks though
Having proper infrastructure encourages walking and cycling. Having good weather encourages it even more.
There is no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothing.
Heat is no fun to walk or cycle in. Especially if it comes with high humidity. You sweat but sweat doesn’t cool you – it just envelopes you and you get even less breeze on your skin and you feel like you are being boiled in your own sweat. Before you know,.you are on the ground with heatstroke – a real emergency situation.
Hot weather encourages laziness.
Hahahha not even close number 2!
German weather isn’t bad though. We just have very walkable cities.
Of course the Netherlands is at the top, that’s just the daily commute for many of us.
People do cycle in Turkey but usually in the more rural or vacation-y areas for the quick trip to the supermarket or something. In the city or even busy roads, you must have a death wish to cycle. People prefer scooters (think Vespas not escooters)
People cycle in the snow and rain in Finland because we have good infrastructure for it in cities. Weather has little to do with it.
Spanish people when this guy tells them that weather so dry and hot that their land is literally turning into desert is good weather:
My subjective experience in Bucharest, Romania: at the first drop of rain people get the cars out to avoid being hurt by the evil liquid falling from the sky. They also forget how to drive and become particularly angry for no reason.
Proper infrastructure, flat terrain, moderate temperature conditions, care about health.
What a dumb ass title.
35 degrees in the sun is bad weather for walking and especially running and cycling.
Proof that shitty public transportation encourages car use
Oh yeah, why Spanish and Portuguese don’t walk or cycle anymore ? Maybe because summer there is just intolerable! Is that a good weather for you? Or more simply the infrastructures are not as developed, the land less flat than in the Netherlands, etc.
Netherlands for instance doesn’t get a lot of snow or seriously low temperatures. In the summer, at 25C dutch people start spontaneously combusting. Their climate is pretty consistent, temperature wise.
Compare that to Romania for instance, can get -25C in the winter and 40+C in the summer. In the cities, with all the concrete the temperature can go over 60C in the summer. I welcome all the cycling enthusiasts to come on over and do some commuting on the bike. I ride a motorcycle and still I arrive anywhere like I came out of the pool.
32 comments
“Surprising” how proper infrastructure encourages both of them.
Netherlands is bike county…
No one wants to have a heartattack at 40 degrees outside, and also coincidence, not really, them infrastructure
This has more to do with mentality and culture than bad weather.
I don’t think Portugal’s percentage is accurate. Or, at least, not in northern Portugal. (Maybe Lisbon and the Algarve are different.)
For everyone walks to the local grocery store, or to a restaurant, or just around the center of town.
I think Portugal’s survey takers thought it meant, specifically, to talk a walk for the purpose of taking a walk.
Define bad weather
We are more adapted to walk in ‘bad’ weather (what is bad? Everything from 20C to -15 for me) than in ‘good’ (you don’t really want to go for a walk when it is sonny and the temp is 25C and warmer)
Correlation≠causation
Absolutely. The main thing that influences cycling and walking is proper infrastructure. Weather and other factors are not an insurmountable challenge.
Which is good, since infrastructure is something that can be changed.
Mentality is very important, trust me. For a lot of people in my country is humiliating to walk or cycle if they can go by car or public transport.
Cycling infrastructure is also an issue.
I’d say cold weather encourages movement. If you moved so much in the heat you’d die
In Italy it’s about car lobbyists, not weather
Speaking of my country (Italy) most cities are built at least partially on hills (Rome, Florence, Naples, etc.) which historically made cycling hard, especially if you are supposed to go to work by bike. Things are now easier thanks to e-bikes, which are nonetheless rather expensive.
The notable exception is the Pianura Padana, whose cities and towns are mostly flat, but its air quality is one of the worst in Europe.
Maybe it’s flatlands, short distances amd temperatures that allow for a 15 min bike ride with no shower afterwards?
I’m currently in Estonia. I walk a lot daily to help my health. It feels fine, just have to have proper clothes, underpants, gloves, beanie and a jacket with hood. I used hygienic lipstick to help me when it was too cold so my lips won’t get cracked.
I also enjoy to cycle during the summer and would do it likely during the winter but it requires proper bike type (or wheels at least), good clothes, maybe a balaclava, and mud guards over the wheels, cycling infrastructure in my place sucks though
Having proper infrastructure encourages walking and cycling. Having good weather encourages it even more.
There is no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothing.
Heat is no fun to walk or cycle in. Especially if it comes with high humidity. You sweat but sweat doesn’t cool you – it just envelopes you and you get even less breeze on your skin and you feel like you are being boiled in your own sweat. Before you know,.you are on the ground with heatstroke – a real emergency situation.
Hot weather encourages laziness.
Hahahha not even close number 2!
German weather isn’t bad though. We just have very walkable cities.
Of course the Netherlands is at the top, that’s just the daily commute for many of us.
People do cycle in Turkey but usually in the more rural or vacation-y areas for the quick trip to the supermarket or something. In the city or even busy roads, you must have a death wish to cycle. People prefer scooters (think Vespas not escooters)
People cycle in the snow and rain in Finland because we have good infrastructure for it in cities. Weather has little to do with it.
Spanish people when this guy tells them that weather so dry and hot that their land is literally turning into desert is good weather:
My subjective experience in Bucharest, Romania: at the first drop of rain people get the cars out to avoid being hurt by the evil liquid falling from the sky. They also forget how to drive and become particularly angry for no reason.
Proper infrastructure, flat terrain, moderate temperature conditions, care about health.
What a dumb ass title.
35 degrees in the sun is bad weather for walking and especially running and cycling.
Proof that shitty public transportation encourages car use
Oh yeah, why Spanish and Portuguese don’t walk or cycle anymore ? Maybe because summer there is just intolerable! Is that a good weather for you? Or more simply the infrastructures are not as developed, the land less flat than in the Netherlands, etc.
Netherlands for instance doesn’t get a lot of snow or seriously low temperatures. In the summer, at 25C dutch people start spontaneously combusting. Their climate is pretty consistent, temperature wise.
Compare that to Romania for instance, can get -25C in the winter and 40+C in the summer. In the cities, with all the concrete the temperature can go over 60C in the summer. I welcome all the cycling enthusiasts to come on over and do some commuting on the bike. I ride a motorcycle and still I arrive anywhere like I came out of the pool.