As an european I feel like 8-10 miles (13-16 km) is a rather long bike commute which would take at least 45 minutes on an ordinary bike. I ride my bike a lot and would occasionally do such a commute but most people aren’t willing to do that at all, sadly.
It takes about 45 minutes to travel that distance in a city (Berlin in my case) and you arrive all sweaty. I used to do this a couple of times a week when our office was on the other side of town. I would bring a clean shirt obviously. It's doable but not for everyone.
Ebikes make such a distance very easy. A friend of mine lives on the edge of Berlin (Friedrichshagen) and his commute is a full hour with an e-bike. A bit over 20 kilometers.
I walk to work these days. Much more relaxing and I listen to podcasts. I don't mind if it takes a bit of time. Anything up to 5, 6 kilometers is fine with me. I gave up my bike last year (I was renting one) as I don't need it anymore.
The issue with biking in Berlin is similar to what the Amish in this article are experiencing: it's dangerous. Traffic is not well adjusted to bikes and city planners keep producing these crazy traffic situations with their ineptness. Construction sites. Buses that have to cross the bike lane to the bus stop, etc.
And that's before you consider that the rule that Germans love rules has one giant exception: traffic rules. Jumping a red light. Not a problem. It was orange a second ago and who can tell the difference? Taxis driving 90 in a 50km zone (i.e. the city limits): happens constantly. 30km speed limits? More of a guideline and those signs are used very sparingly. Speed cameras are science fiction. I've never seen one in Berlin.
I've seen several, but they are carted around and look like some trailer parked innocently on sidewalk, I was curious about one "futuristic" looking trailer thinking it was maybe a bike garage or something but after careful observing it was indeed a speed camera.
> 30km speed limits? More of a guideline and those signs are used very sparingly.
Yeah, unless they are near school zone. Then they are almost invisible and you have a radar with flash to make sure that you know you are speeding.
There are more outside Berlin. I drove one road where it had a side road every 1km or so. And of course constant 60-80-60-80-60 signs. And a radar exactly there where you finally said "fsck it" and didn't slow at that next 60km/h.
It is time that matters 15km can easily be 30 min on a regular Bike a commute is considered too long when it is above an hour. It is not length but how secure you feel and how fast you can peddle. We should strive to make bicycle infrastructure straight and easy, and make cars take detours.
> We should strive to make bicycle infrastructure straight and easy, and make cars take detours.
This is the key to encouraging Active Travel. So much infrastructure is designed primarily for motor traffic and provision for cyclists tends to be just tacked on and not really thought about in any depth.
One big problem with cycling is when you get a road with lots of light-controlled junctions that makes you keep stopping and starting - the loss of momentum can turn an easy ride into an exhausting one. It's particularly galling when you can see that there is room for cyclists to safely go through a red light (c.f. Idaho Stop style laws) and so you have to decide between being a law-abiding citizen of the road, or instead treat red lights as advisory. Sometimes, it's even worse than just slowing you down as junctions can be quite dangerous if you're setting off at the same time as motorists - I aim to anticipate the lights changing and get a brief head-start so that I can be highly visible in front of the drivers and across the junction before anyone has a chance to turn across me.
But your friends are not going to be happy with the BO after said 9.3 miles if he's a hot, humid day. There needs to be a shower on the other side of the trip.
It is not length but how secure you feel and how fast you can peddle.
It's also how dirty/sweaty you get on the ride. In the USA, bike showers are a rare amenity from employers.
My last employer said they had showers for bikers, which seemed like a great amenity, until I actually looked at them -- the shower room was down a little used utility corridor that was only unlocked during 8-6pm business hours, so if you got to work before or after that time you couldn't get in. There were no lockers, so you couldn't even leave a wet towel there for the day, you had to take it up to your desk.
I had a 14 mile ride to work, 90% on a separated bike trail so it was a great commute, but I rarely rode to work due to the poor bike shower situation since after an hour's ride I definitely needed a shower before work. But I was lucky enough to be able to share a drive in to the city with my wife on most days, then I'd bike home since I usually left work later than her.
Also, most workplaces in the US don’t have showers available. My commute is 7 miles (11 km). On average it takes me about 40 minutes for the ride and another 15-20 minutes to shower and change my clothes.
40 minutes might be a slow pace for many, but there’s a couple of decent hills, a bunch of stop signs and lights, and my steel frame bike with my panniers filled with the stuff I need for the day is pretty heavy.
An e-bike could change the equation significantly.
My commute to the office is 37km, though nowadays I mainly work from home. I tend to go in once a week, so I do one journey by train (the office is right next to a train station which is handy) and take my bike on board and the other journey I cycle if it's not raining too much. In the pre-COVID times, I used to go to the office everyday and built up my stamina/fitness enough so that I could do both journeys by bike (weather permitting). It's not particularly difficult doing that kind of distance (I'm over 50) but it helps if you treat it as fitness training - 80 minutes cycling instead of 80 minutes in a gym.
If you don't regularly do 16km rides it would be really heavy to do one out of the blue. Every time I've biked that much it was a true voyage :') and I was young that time.
And I'm from Holland and used to bike every day when I lived there. I wasn't exactly fit (we don't have that American reverence for sports or fitness in Holland) but not terrible either.
Question is whether this could harvest enough energy to store it in a small battery to continuously provide power. But really sounds frightening if you change the setup of a few appliances and then suddenly half of your autonomously powered devices don't get enough power anymore because the noise is not high enough anymore.
could be very useful in-doors where solar is not possible and wiring is not practical. A lot of sensors do not have to be on all the time - occasional reading is more than enough.
Coincidentally today I baked the first bread that I was really happy with! I have followed this guide and the videos for a few weeks now and I feel like I’ve got a deeper understanding of what’s going on now. Other recipes can also work but it feels much better to know why you’re doing something instead of blindly following someone. Thanks Hendrik!
For short typing sequences I retain the pen between the thumb and the palm while touch typing and the switching between keyboard and pointer is faster than with a mouse or trackball.
Before typing a long text, I drop the pen on the tablet and I pick it up later, which takes about the same time as releasing then grabbing again a mouse or a trackball.
