You can't take passengers in a bike. (Edit: Fixed, thanks agumonkey.)
You can't transport large or bulky items.
You are limited in how much you can transport (how much can fit in your backpack basically).
You can't safely store things. The value of a mobile location to store items is vastly overlooked by people who hate cars.
Cars are faster if you are going more than about a mile - even including parking.
You can't ride a bike in bad weather. Hard rain is very unpleasant, and snow is impossible.
If you live in a place with hills, bikes are just not practical.
Bumps in the road, potholes, etc, are very dangerous in a bike. There's a spot near me that has these "ripples" in the pavement that you can't easily see, and I fell after going on them, now I know to avoid them, but any new biker will also fall.
I take my 8 and 11y old daughters on my old granny bike. One on the handlebar, the other upright on the rear rack.
Besides you don't need passengers when everybody can take his own bike and chit chat while riding.
> You can't transport large or bulky items.
>
> You are limited in how much you can transport (how much can fit in your backpack basically).
False. Anecdote, I once bought a tree at a garden center. Everywhere I looked, people where struggling to put plants without spilling dirt on the trunk of their van/wagon. The only 3 who were fine were a pro with a pickup bed, a middle age guy with...a convertible and me...with a bicycle trailer made to carry kids.
> Cars are faster if you are going more than about a mile - even including parking.
Not so true. Cars are marginally faster or plain slower in many urban areas with lots of traffic lights and/or with heavy traffic.
> You can't ride a bike in bad weather. Hard rain is very unpleasant, and snow is impossible.
false. Hard rain is very unpleasant for drivers, most barely see anything. At least cyclists see where they are going. Also unless you live in a place hit by moonson, rain is rarely an issue. For the many days that forecast some rain, the actual chance of being riding at the exact moment it rains is not that high. There are not that manu days in a year hit by continuous rain all day long. Also I've commuted on snow for years, and more efficiently than many car drivers thanks to very efficient bicycle studded tires. In cycling we say there is no bad weather, only bad equipment. You wouldn't drive your convertible open during a thunderstorm, right?
> If you live in a place with hills, bikes are just not practical.
Not true anymore with e-bikes. Also fitness come with practice.
> Bumps in the road, potholes, etc, are very dangerous in a bike
You just learn to avoid them. Also skills increase with practice. Also there are bikes an bike. Using bigger tire volume help tremendously. Overall driving a car is much more dangerous. Despite the protection, odds of dying are statistically higher. Perception of danger in cycling is similar to people afraid of boarding a plane. Irrational. As is the perception of safety in cars.
Mostly true, though plenty of bikes can haul 1-2 kids or 1 extra adult. There is a guy in my neighborhood I see take his kids to school every day in one of these.
Cargo bikes or bike trailers are extremely nice in flat cities, and even in hilly cities, e-bikes make them feasible. I routinely haul 100lbs up hills in Seattle with a trailer behind an e-bike.
Here's an article by (admittedly a bit of a bike fanatic) about hauling patio sets, stoves, grills, etc.
This is a good point and I think your observation about how it's overlooked is important. Going on multi-store trips in a bike is mildly annoying since you often have to take what you got from one store into the next store because you can't leave it on your bike.
> Cars are faster if you are going more than about a mile - even including parking.
This is highly dependent on the city you're in. In Seattle, bike is, by far, the fastest way for me to commute. My commute is 6 miles (West Seattle to Downtown). Biking, door-to-door, is 25 minutes. It's 35 minutes by bus or car. This is because a large chunk of the trip is on a dedicated use bike trail without stop lights or traffic.
> You can't ride a bike in bad weather
Amsterdam has pretty bad weather (it rains 50% of days of the year), yet somehow they have extremely high cycling rates. For me (in Seattle, also lots of rain), the game changer was getting a proper bike poncho: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLM_mTUuHlc
I agree that a torrential downpour like what you might get in the midwest is not realistic to cycle in. But for light to medium rain, the poncho punches above its weight.
> If you live in a place with hills, bikes are just not practical.
Seattle and SF are both quite hilly, yet both have among the highest rates of cycle usage. This is a barrier for those starting from a low level of fitness, though. And even for otherwise fit people, it takes a few weeks for your legs to adjust to the new movement pattern.
E-bikes make hills trivial, though, which is why they are exploding in popularity (in Seattle at least).
> Bumps in the road, potholes, etc, are very dangerous in a bike.
Agreed. This is one of the reasons it's so important to have dedicated bike infrastructure. Road damage is proportional to the 4th power (!!) of a vehicle's weight. So cyclist infrastructure, once built, degrades extremely slowly compared to car infrastructure.
The "shortcut" feature of bikes is something that cities should design for. Making a car "go the long way around" is basically painless for the driver, and a well designed city they may not even notice.
But bikes and walkers should have the advantage of more direct routes that take less time. Steps on roads on Queen Anne Hill being a good example, but there should be more of that type of thing. Grade separate bike lanes, bike tunnels, etc. They can be surprisingly thin and sneaking them in works wonders.
You can't transport large or bulky items.
You are limited in how much you can transport (how much can fit in your backpack basically).
You can't safely store things. The value of a mobile location to store items is vastly overlooked by people who hate cars.
Cars are faster if you are going more than about a mile - even including parking.
You can't ride a bike in bad weather. Hard rain is very unpleasant, and snow is impossible.
If you live in a place with hills, bikes are just not practical.
Bumps in the road, potholes, etc, are very dangerous in a bike. There's a spot near me that has these "ripples" in the pavement that you can't easily see, and I fell after going on them, now I know to avoid them, but any new biker will also fall.