• Pipoca@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This sub is pointless until it can provide a solution to having to get somewhere 30 miles from here when it’s 10 below outside for most of the winter.

    -10F or -10C?

    -10C really isn’t very cold. The average low in Oulu, Finland in February is -12C, and ~10% of all trips there in the winter are via bike because they have an extensive network of well-plowed bike paths.

    Biking in -10C is really just a matter of having appropriate gear to block the wind - similar to what you’d wear skiing like a jacket, mittens and a neck gator/ski mask. -10C isn’t warm, but people do outdoor winter sports literally all the time in -10C. It’s fine.

    -10F needs better cold gear, and is probably going to be pretty uncomfortable for most people. You definitely have to worry about preventing frostbite, and I definitely know skiers who would stay inside.

    But most places don’t really stay -10F. That’s like Fargo or Fairbanks cold, not Buffalo or Boston cold. Chicago has only gotten down to -10F in three years in the past decade. Relatively few people live in places that regularly stay -10F.

    Although there’s a standard solution for 30 mile trips that works in basically all temperatures: a bus or train. Which isn’t really practical in American style suburban sprawl, but is very practical in denser walkable European towns and cities.

    • Harvey656@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      -10 degrees Celsius is about 14 degrees fahrenheit, which by all measures is still fucking cold to human beings.

      Edit: missed the -

      • Pipoca@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        As someone who lives up north, 14F is definitely cold. I don’t think it’s quite down to fucking cold yet, that’d be more like 9F and colder.