Fort Collins, CO. We do have good weather here, but unlikely places like Portland have higher rates of bike commuting. I'll ride to work and grocery in just about any weather, but the family definitely has limits. We tandemed to dinner tonight at 25F. A very enjoyable ride!

I have a car so that I can ski.

 

Biking around in 25F... what a trooper! The wind chill on a bike gets to me at those temps.

 

I was carless for about two years recently. I had inherited an MB through a death in the family and sold it to pay off my mortgage.

I rode my bike or walked everywhere. I put baskets on my bike for shopping. A few times a year friends would take me out for groceries.

Virtually everyone smiled at me on as I pedaled past them.

I developed an even more intense hatred of cars compared to my initial (with car) condition.

Now I have a job that is about 14.2 miles round trip from my house. That is an uncomfortably long bike trip for me, so I am driving and despising it.

I am also on a diet of about 50+ lbs of produce per week. A car is really great for hauling all that weight around.

But, I am pining for the days when I did not have to pay for insurance, maintenance, repairs, and a finite resource whose use requires destroying the atmosphere and young American and Middle Eastern lives, among other things. I calculate my emissions to the gram and it breaks my nerves. I long for a simpler life--one that does not require so much destruction.

 

You have just demonstrated my initial statement "bike commuting must be the easiest way to impress people." Alaskans are wondering if I was overheating. Hawaiians are certain I got frostbitten. My personal bike commute records are -14F and 102F. I'm not particularly anxious to break either of those! (AZ Civic could probably break my max temp record any month of the year!) If your first trip is in extreme cold, heat, rain, etc, you probably won't do it again. Start in good weather and a very short trip. Build up slowly. Just figuring out the logistics is enough trouble at first. Even if you have a good system of bike lanes, you need to know how to deal with traffic. http://massbike.org/skills/traffic.htm is a good, concise primer.

hybrid content: To improve fuel economy, reduce the number and severity of cold starts and full a/c cooldowns. Clean out the garage and put the car inside! It will warm up/cool down a lot quicker, and no waiting to defrost. While you are in the garage, pump up the bike tires, lube the chain, and find the pack and bike lock. If the bike isn't ready, you won't ride. An auto stopped and left in the garage is even better than autostop!

 

Back in my high school days, I used to ride in much colder. It really isn't a big deal if you wear proper clothing. Both work and school were about a mile away for me back then. You also generate plenty of your own heat, cycling in the cold, and this helps out as well.

 

When I was but a tad, our car broke down in the middle of WW II. For the remaining two years of the war and for two years after that, no cars were available. We finally got one in 1947.

Fortunately, most things were in walking or biking distance - albeit long walking or biking distances - yes even in a southeastern Michigan winter. We did bus trips for longer local trips around town and took train trips between cities.

It demanded a lot of planning and effort, but I'm not so sure that it was more than the planning and effort needed to support an automobile.

But I do wonder how those trapped without an automobile today survive - especially in inner cities where services are fewer and much more highly priced and income (where it exists) tends to be much lower.