I think I saw a variation on this article that said he started cycling regularly when he was 68.
Our city has been taking steps to make bicycle commuting more friendly, but they haven't gone far enough. I really hope we end this absurdity with having too many cars; they are ruining everywhere nice.
I like to adapt food writer Michael Pollan's quote [1] about industrial agriculture to describe cars: by relying on automobiles to get around, we've taken one solution (walking or biking to get somewhere and get exercise at the same time) and divided it into two problems (being sedentary and creating pollution).
My biggest issue is lack of physical barriers between bicyclists and cars. I'm too afraid to take a bike because of it. I already don't trust other drivers when in a car. I also dislike it when riding a car because you frequently get weird issues around turn lanes etc that are shared with bikes that behave completely differently from cars.
Being afraid is natural, but it's not unduly dangerous to ride on city streets, even in large cities. Just look up the statistics for cycling injuries/deaths in your city. You are very, very unlikely to suffer a major injury.
Having said that, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, you want to be predictable. That generally means following all the traffic rules. When riding in stop and go traffic, keep your place and don't pass on the right. When turning left, take the whole lane (or walk your bike across the intersection if you are nervous to do that). Realise that you have really good power to weight ratio, so there is no reason at all not to use a whole lane at low speeds. Don't ride on sidewalks. Don't dart in and out of parked cars, etc. Keep your gears in good condition and make sure you are in an appropriate gear to accelerate when you need to.
The biggest danger in a city is riding beside large vehicles (like trucks or busses). Avoid riding beside them, even in multi-lane situations -- either ride in front, or slow down and ride behind them. Keep enough space between you and them that they can see you in the mirror (there is a blind spot directly behind the vehicle). Normal cars are not a problem, it's just vehicles that make wide turns.
The next biggest problem is people opening doors when exiting a parked car. Generally speaking, take a lane when passing a parked car. If you can't do that (because of traffic), slow down to the point where you can stop if required.
After that, the worst thing is usually stupid drivers that overtake you and immediately make a right hand turn. Not much you can do about that, so be sure that you are ready to brake when you get to intersections or entrance ways. Make sure your brakes are in good condition and learn how to brake effectively (front brake is where almost all your braking power comes from, shift your weight back to stop from going over your handle bars). You can brake considerably faster than a car, so it's not actually that dangerous if you are paying attention.
Most important is to practice in order to get your confidence up. Make a very short circuit that you can ride every day. Maybe walk it a few times first so that you are super comfortable with it. Ride at whatever speed you are comfortable with and don't feel bad if you want to pull over and take a break. It won't take you long until you can try riding in other places.
but it's not unduly dangerous to ride on city streets, even in large cities.
I love cycling (I cycle a lot), but unfortunately this isn't true. In the US, you are roughly twice as likely to die as in a car[1]. It is much, much, much safer than motorcycling! (Somewhat old data, though)
Double a really small number is still a really small number. From that link, I get 9.2 fatalities per 100 million person trips for a car, 13.7 fatalities per 100 million person trips for walking and 21.0 fatalities per 100 million person trips for cycling.
If you ride your bike 3 times a day, every day for 70 years, you have about a 1.6% chance of dying. This is not unduly dangerous.
Comparing fatalities based on distance traveled obscures the real risks, especially if you do that country-wide: Highways and other long-distances roads are a comparatively safe environment for cars. Accidents are comparatively rare, but often fatal. City traffic differs: speed is in general lower (< 50 km/h), distances traveled shorter and accidents will often not result in injuries for vehicle occupants.
Injuries for cyclists thus are far more likely. Even collisions at lower speed that basically leave a car dented and the occupants uninjured will result in injuries for cyclists: The classic dooring accident, run over by a turning car, etc. Even overtaking the cyclist with too little safety distance can lead to a fatal accident [1]
The stats in Berlin (2015) indicate that while cyclists are involved in about 4% of all accidents, they make up 21% of persons killed (pedestrians are even worse off: 1.33% involvement, but roughly 40% of all persons killed). They also make up more than 30% of all injured (30% of major injuries). Pedestrians make up for 13% of the injuries (24% of major injuries). So the group of soft targets that is involved in roughly 5% of accidents suffers 60% of all fatalities, 54% of nmajor injuries and 43% of all injuries.[2]
The data that was linked to was fatalities per 100 million trips. Unless I've missed something, that's what you want. I'm not going to say that cycling is as safe as not cycling, but it's still quite a safe activity. Your odds of getting seriously injured are quite small.
I wonder if horizontal bikes couldn't be awesome for elders trying to get healthy again. Avoids dangerous falls, probably a bit less demanding for your body. Just not where there are cars.
If he's been doing serious road biking since that age it's probably not something that he's doing on regular streets. Or, he's not just hopping on a bike and taking a leisurely ride down the street for groceries anyway.
>If he's been doing serious road biking since that age it's probably not something that he's doing on regular streets.
Of course he rides on regular streets, he's French. Seeing an elderly woman riding to the shops or a group of lycra-clad pensioners attacking a mountain pass is perfectly normal there.
It is a peculiarly American belief that bicycles are somehow incompatible with motor vehicles. Cyclists need no special facilities, just sane traffic laws that are actively enforced.
You can drive to Plano, Texas and find packs of bikers attacking the open road as well. That's not a video of Marchand in lycra speeding down a Paris boulevard.
Is it a particularly European belief that Americans are unenlightened savages? I mean, we are, but you don't have to assume it.
I don't believe that Americans are unenlightened savages. I believe that they have a very limited cycling culture, due largely to the dominance of car culture. America was fortunate enough to be the richest country on earth during the 20th century, so it developed a car culture sooner and more pervasively than any other country. At a time when cars were an unaffordable luxury for most Europeans, many Americans regarded cars as a basic necessity.
The public discourse about cycling in America is dominated by myths, because very few Americans have practical experience of regular cycling. Those who do cycle tend to be self-taught, because of the limited availability of cycle training and the lack of a strong tradition of club cycling. America is having to rebuild a culture of cycling from scratch, for no other reason than the ubiquity of the motorcar.
Yes, America has a "limited" cycling culture, but we're a nation of 300 million people; within that there are pockets of very real cycling culture informed by decades of experience from elsewhere.
Some of us do cycle, too. There are miles and miles of good trails running through some cities you wouldn't expect.
I dunno, I've ridden the roads in Plano before. The fact that most roads are multi-lane definitely make things more amicable to biking there since cars can move around cyclists. In denser urban areas (yes, yes, Plano is semi-urban with all its corporate infrastructure) where the lights are denser and the roads have fewer (or one!) lanes it is much more difficult.
Also, more pertinent to Plano, what if you want to replace your car entirely? Grocery stores are still pretty spaced out and you are SoL if you want to get into Dallas proper! The DART is incredibly slow, so that's out, and biking from Plano to a night on the town with your friends is Deep Ellum or Greenville Ave is a tall, dangerous order.
What basis do you have for either of those claims? What sort of irregular streets do you think "serious" road bikers use, and why do you think serious road bikers don't also use a bike for shopping?
Aged 35 he finished seventh in the Grand Prix des Nations in 1946.[3] He returned to cycling in 1978[2] and continued training after his 100th birthday.
My point is that the guy has very clearly been training and seriously cycling for a long time. While you can do it on normal city streets, you are often served better to do that on dedicated bike paths or on the open road.
You can reduce the impact of cars all you want and even make your city bike friendly but that's not going to change your ability to really train. It's not crazy to think that his health benefits are from this elevated level of training and not just leisurely cycling.
I do. Dress warm and live in a place that aggressively salts when possible. While road salt is ineffective in extreme cold, snowfalls are pretty rare at those temperatures too. I can generally bike right through the winter here in Hamilton, Canada.
I really hope we can end this absurdity with prioritizing slow methods of transportation. Cycling instead of driving costs an extra hour per day of commute time, and I am already living in the most premium (read: close to work) location I can afford. Time that I depend on for higher-intensity exercise and more thoughtful dinner prep.
Our city has been taking steps to make bicycle commuting more friendly, but they haven't gone far enough. I really hope we end this absurdity with having too many cars; they are ruining everywhere nice.