Why Canadians Can’t Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can) Reaction

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Why Canadians Can’t Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)

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What’s going on everybody simple back at it like i’m checking my height today we’re checking out why canadians can’t bike in the winter but finnish people can and i’m actually really interested in this because about six hours north of me is canada we have a lot of winters

Here in new hampshire that get pretty harsh and i know from experience that biking can definitely get pretty difficult so if you guys enjoy this definitely make sure you guys head on over to not just bikes channel and show them some support over there as well

If you want to get your requests up here as always check out the google form down in the description and make sure you guys hit up the creator consortium that is where we are filming reactions live all the time let’s go here in the netherlands our family routinely takes advantage of the network

Of safe cycling paths found almost everywhere these are so safe that even our young children can cycle themselves to school activities and friends houses and they have become an important part of the high quality of life we experience here unfortunately all of this is completely impossible back in canada because there

We have winter and of course you can’t cycle in the winter or so i’m told repeatedly by people who’ve never tried it yes it’s like this is the city of in finland it is considered the winter cycling capital of the world this is a city where 22 of all trips are

Taken by bicycle and where 77 percent of the population says they cycle at least occasionally and yet despite their harsh winters over half of these people cycle all year round and it’s not just the young and the strong who cycle in the winter here you’ll see even very elderly people

Cycling in minus 20 degree weather this is what the bicycle parking lot of a typical elementary school in olu looks like in january because 52 of all trips to school and university are taken by bicycle that is so crazy somehow even little finnish kids can cycle all year

Round so this does lead to the obvious question why are canadians such giant wimps america’s been asking ourselves that for a long time shout out to my canadians but maybe it’s not quite that simple this is the city of tampara also in finland despite the fact that finnish people

Call this a swimming pool far fewer people cycle in tempura compared to olu hold on a second i’m sorry the city of tampara also in finland despite the fact that finnish people call this a swimming pool my friends i know it’s winter for a long time but that is not a swimming pool

That is freezing cold literally that’s rough man i don’t think i’ve ever done a polar plunge i’d be afraid my heart would stop honestly i don’t think i have enough meat in my bones for that far fewer people cycle in tempura compared to olu so why see that’s

That’s when it’s hard all of the slushy like broken up stuff especially when it re-freezes and you’re just like riding through all the ruts it definitely sucks but it’s doable fortunately we don’t have to guess because researchers have studied and written papers about winter cycling and the results are very clear

In cities with cold winters there is almost no correlation between winter temperatures and the amount of winter cycling let that sink in the temperature and weather conditions do not significantly affect the level of winter cycling in a city it is a complete myth that people do not cycle

In the winter because of the cold so what does the research tell us well there need to be two things in place to get people to cycle like they do in olu first is there a network of safe bicycle paths no is it possible to get to where

You want to go without having to share the road or regularly cross paths with high-speed motor traffic no but why is there a dude canoeing through the ice i just noticed that first is there a network look at this guy down here how are you even breaking through that first of all

Because you can see all the stuff that’s just floating at you is it possible to get to where you want to go without having to share the road or regularly cross completely distracted motor traffic this is something that olu does exceptionally well olu has 875 kilometers of separated bicycle

Paths that connect every part of the city and they take care of the bicycle path for every resident see that’s the difference look how well this path is taken care of even out here in new hampshire they do the sidewalks last because people aren’t really expected to be walking around

When it’s like that out um maybe it’s because we have more traffic i don’t know it’s just more dangerous i don’t think that seems like a viable answer to it though i think people are just lazy honestly i enjoy biking in the wintertime it’s a little bit easier to breathe

In fact olu has only about 600 meters of painted bicycle lanes in the entire city which makes perfect sense because when it snows you can’t see white paint but you can see images cleverly projected on the snow from above that is super cool i love that we have street lights up

Anyway why not just have the street light projecting images done that is so cool and this is not some kind of super compact medieval european city either olu has plenty of car centric sprawl and many people live in single-family homes in fact it has almost exactly the same

Urban population density as my hometown of london ontario in canada like this is creepy how close these numbers are and why is it that every city has the ugliest flags except for amsterdam anyway there is literally zero reason why a typical mid-sized canadian city couldn’t be like olu if it was designed

Properly olu just takes the effort to connect every resident to the places they want to go with safe paths for walking and cycling and even better many of these bicycle paths are designed to be shortcuts that are faster than driving and a big part of it too um

Our bike paths we have started painting bike paths on the sides of the roads and you’re no longer allowed to ride your bike on the sidewalks in the areas that i live in right so it forces you out into the street but what do you do when there is no bike

Path and you’re still not allowed to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk now you have to ride in traffic right there is no other option so it makes it a lot more dangerous because people don’t people here aren’t paying attention to people on bicycles i’ll say it that way there’s people hit in

My hometown at least twice a year um and it’s pedestrians on bicycles you know it it’s a really sad thing that people just don’t pay attention enough what else is really sad though is that they don’t utilize some of the land and they build houses so close to

The road that there’s really no option or no other places to maybe it’s just the design the urban design forging people to cycle even more just as it’s done in the netherlands and if that wasn’t enough olu also has over 300 underpasses that pedestrians and cyclists can use to avoid major

Roads these make it possible to cycle entire journeys without ever encountering a traffic light or even needing to stop this should not be a surprise to anyone a network of safe bicycle lanes is the single biggest predictor for the level of cycling in any city in the world it’s

Significantly more important than any other metric including culture distance hills and in this case weather after a safe bicycle network the next most important element is snow removal is the bicycle network properly maintained in the winter and this is the real key to olo’s success as there are

Very very very few cities that do this well toronto as an example is a city with fairly mild winters compared to finland and most of canada for that matter yet very very few people cycle there in the winter when you look at videos of winter cycling in toronto is there any surprise

Most of toronto’s bicycle paths are painted bicycle gutters these become dumping grounds for snow they’re routinely driven over by drivers leaving treadmill that’s exactly what our bike paths look like look how close you have to drive like you have an elbow over that line the whole time and there’s if somebody’s

Watching their cell phone and driving and they just happen you know what i mean that’s all it takes and that’s that’s what happens all the time unfortunately there’s so much space in between the only downside is we have these giant light posts everywhere in between the lanes so it’s not even like

You could ride up middle of lane it’s always split and one side of it you can’t ride on i mean look how small the sidewalks are it’s insanity parks that melt and re-freeze into impassable paths of jagged ice forcing cyclists to share the road with cars yep even the proper separated bicycle paths

Often get snow dumped in them by snow plows yep and only a fraction of the already minuscule bicycle network is maintained in the winter the city says they don’t look like that one looked like it was on like a what they call it a byway or pathway or whatever parkway probably a parkway

I feel like that looks similar to the one in connecticut but i would never ride a bicycle down that holy crap people do like 90 down there and it is a one lane road just like that but uh urban design here kind of sucks i guess the already minuscule bicycle is

What it is in the winter but i mean i’m in america so start plowing unless there’s more than five centimeters of snow oh this is the reason why few people cycle through the winter in toronto or any other canadian city and that’s the reason why you can’t ride on the sidewalks

The priority bicycle routes are all plowed within three hours of a two centimeter snowfall and they will be plowed multiple times per day if necessary snow removal contractors guarantee that the depth of the snow will never exceed four centimeters and they maintain the pass with hard

Packed snow that is free of ice and debris making it easy to cycle on to put it simply the bicycle pass and olu are considered important pieces of infrastructure that get people from point a to point b so they don’t want cyclists to start competing for space on public transit or

Worse to drive cars just because it snowed they make it a priority yeah they use fewer vehicles to maintain bike paths so that people can actually use them like it’s incredibly smart olu proves that cold is not the issue snow is not the issue winter is a lazy

Excuse behind that thing is so cool the discussion of safe road infrastructure go away the snow might explain why only 22 of trips in your city are taken by bicycle instead of say 42 percent but when less than 2 percent of your population rides a bike it’s not because of the weather

It’s because people don’t feel safe cycling the truth is cycling in cold weather is really not bad at all toronto routinely gets cold days but without much snow where the roads are perfectly clear so after getting sick of waiting on transit vehicles that were constantly stuck in traffic because canadian public

Transit is stupid and counterproductive a little bit of a mind i decided to try cycling to work in the winter and it was fine there’s nothing hardcore or extreme about cycling in winter i did it and i assure you i am not a particularly tough person just ask my brother you mean my

Brother he’s a total wimp at first i had some problems with ice but then i discovered studded winter time seems believable these things are like magic on ice i never slipped once when using them yeah it’s interesting to note though that most people do not use studded tires in olu because when you

Plow your bicycle paths properly they’re not slippery at all and the same goes for sidewalks seriously winter maintenance of the sidewalks and bicycle paths in olu is incredible this is complicated and expensive but it’s still a fraction of the cost of maintaining wide roads and highways for cars

Olu shows what is possible if your city isn’t bankrupt from maintaining too much car infrastructure olu tracks data on cyclists very well with automated bicycle detectors like these what’s interesting is that the number of people cycling in winter stays pretty consistent until the temperature goes below about minus 20 degrees and even

Then it only drops by 15 percent this may surprise you but one thing i consistently hear from people who try winter cycling is that they’re a lot warmer than they thought they’d be i thought cycling in the winter would be frigidly cold but you warm up surprisingly quickly

And cycling in the snow is actually quite pleasant drivers typically drive much slower the noise pollution of the city is muffled and it’s easy to maintain a comfortable temperature in all but the coldest weather conditions i definitely prefer it by far to cycling in the rain

Yes some people like to talk about the gear you need for winter cycling so i’ll share what i would typically wear when cycling in the winter first i recommend a jacket this is like a big warm shirt that you wear over your clothes next you’ll need gloves

These are kind of like shoes but for your hands which is why both the dutch and the germans call them hand shoes i’d also recommend one of these woolen head coverings and shoes by many different names but they’re all wrong it’s called a toque now that you’ve got your specialized

Gear you’re ready to go cycling in the winter i can tell you that i did not know that a toque okay sure now when the temperatures get really cold like below minus 20 degrees you’ll want to wear more layers and a scarf but it’s exactly the same kind of

Clothing that canadians routinely wear when skiing snowmobiling or doing any other kind of winter activity you can even get pogies for your bike to keep your hands warm with the same kind of clothing that canadians routinely wear when skiing snowmobiling or doing any other kind of winter activity

You can even get pogies for your bike to keep your hands warm just like they do for snowmobiles oh that’s great thankfully several canadian cities have stopped giving cyclists the cold shoulder and are warming up to the idea of winter cycling though progress is still glacial insert joke about snow

Yes edmonton alberta recently built a network of protected bicycle lanes downtown and now plows the protected bicycle network with the same priority as major roads when i was in yellowknife which is here i was impressed by the quality of the new bicycle infrastructure they were installing and montreal saw an 83 percent increase

In winter cycling in 2020 over the previous year’s average likely due in part to the addition of more separated bicycle lanes they’ve also started to use not just snowplows but ice crushing machines like this one to clear the bicycle paths and i really enjoy the driving music in the manufacturer’s marketing video

That is so sick but while this is good progress all of this pales in comparison to olu edmonton only plows a small 8 kilometer bike network downtown and only within 24 hours most of yellowknife’s bike network is still painted bicycle gutters and montreal puts away their bike share bikes for the winter

Unfortunately winter is still used as the number one excuse for inaction in canadian cities even in cities that get very little snow in the winter meanwhile olu gets more snow than almost any major city in canada canadians also love to exaggerate about the cold but most canadian cities only

Get a handful of really truly cold days per year just like finland but when your only exposure to winter is the walk across the parking lot to your car you never get used to the weather and you get an exaggerated sense of how cold it gets yep

Because it is a known fact that if you are cold like say it’s cold outside right and there’s a nice blazing fire and you go stand next to that fire and warm yourself up when you walk away and it’s still the same temperature that means you’re feeling that

Temperature difference you see what i’m saying so when you’re like 80 90 degrees and you walk away and it’s zero that’s a 90 degree difference that you are feeling and that’s why people think that it’s so much colder than it actually is it’s not it’s just facts

It’s just fact is that you could do the same thing if it’s really hot outside and you go inside and it’s air conditioned it’s like you know 60 degrees 57 degrees inside and you walk back outside and it’s 100 degrees it’s going to feel blazing hot because your body isn’t used like

Ultimately like everything else with cycling it just comes down to safety and convenience for that doesn’t significantly change that a great place to learn more is the winter cycling congress that happens every february this event brings together advocates and professionals with a goal of making year-round cycling a normal and

Practical activity a viable transportation option for people of all ages and abilities regardless of winter weather conditions this year the congress is being held online on february so it’s easier than ever to let’s go more information on that is in the comments and at wintercycling.org but whether you attend the winter

Cycling congress or not we need more people to learn the truth about winter cycling it’s not the cold it’s not the snow it’s a proven fact that people of all ages will ride a bicycle in the winter but only if the city is designed for it and more places should be designed this

Way so that cities can be as healthy productive convenient and sustainable as olu in the town i grew up in i wouldn’t even ride a bike half the time in the summertime i’d rather just walk because it’s easier to walk there’s actual paths meant for walking

Everywhere but most of them you are not allowed to ride a bicycle on so it makes it extremely difficult to get to where you want to go that is a distance without a vehicle here it really sucks and i like i said i’m in new hampshire

So i’m like six hours from the border sucks i’d like to thank my supporters on patreon who pay me to call out wimpy snowflake canadians who can’t handle a little bit of cold if you’d like support i’d like to thank you as well olu i’d like to thank my supporters on

Patreon who pay me to call out wimpy snowflake canadians who can’t handle a little bit of cold that’s awesome if you’d like to support the channel and get access to bonus videos visit patreon.com not just bikes Big old intro or out intro outro see i didn’t use my bald spot for that one a little bit of b-roll footage of him riding that’s pretty cool i’m gonna check this out um let me know what you guys thought about this one down in the

Comments below uh let me know where to go from here if you guys did enjoy it make sure you head on over to his channel and show him some support over there as always make sure you check out the creator consortium google forms down in the description as well

Hit up one of the other videos before you take off and i’ll catch you on the next one