This is the classic urbanist anti-bike tragedy of the commons that is referenced often.

People use cars because they are (rightly) concerned about safety. People avoid using bikes because there are so many cars. It’s very hard to ban cars or restrict car usage because it seems like no one wants to use bikes, but it’s a self-reinforcing system.

And the losers that neither (gross generalization here) the bike people or the car people care about are the pedestrians. We are lucky to live in an urban environment where our family of 5 usually walks everywhere. Crossing the street with children is an unwelcome adventure. But you are absolutely right I would ride an ebike with the kids if it did not seem so dangerous.

Solution: make cars safer (as in, less likely to harm others) through road design, and things like automated emergency braking and self-driving.

Then the cars are safer both for the occupants and pedestrians/cyclists, so paradoxically people might be more inclined to walk or cycle.

I'd sooner see a more practical solution that works on the roads and cars we already have.

Aggressively limit speed and enforce it until you're onto the fast roads.

If cars could only roll on at 10mph I'd feel a lot safer and I'd probably be able to use my bike and make better time for the local stuff.

Yeah, I think I’ve seen a statistic that getting hit by a car going 30km/hr, you’re probably going to be fine. If you get hit by a car going 50km/hr, you are most likely going to die. I can’t think of any reason to allow cars to travel over 30km/hour in urbanized areas, outside of designated arterial roads.

Enforcing speed limits requires constant labor and doesn't scale.

Making adjustments to roads requires some upfront capital and scales to every car on those roads.

Check out this great resource of traffic calming measures from the Institute of Transportation Engineers[1].

Chicanes, Chokers, and Corner Extensions are just three examples of measures that can be taken temporarily and cheaply.

1: https://www.ite.org/technical-resources/traffic-calming/traf...

Well, while we're talking sci-fi: personal teleporters.

I mean it's happening already, cars are getting safer aren't they? Driver assistance features are gaining adoption. It takes time.

You obviously do not live in Chicago or Minneapolis. Winters make this a nonstarter

I have an Urban Arrow since the beginning of last February and live in Minneapolis. I’ve used it about 5 days a week for getting my pre-k kid and newborn to the places we need to be, since we bought it. Each day it’s between 6 and 26 miles. That upper end comes from busy days, probably once or twice a month I get above 20 miles in a single day. Definitely not doing that on the coldest days. Studded tires really help.

One unexpected benefit is that the muddy/wet boots don’t muss up the bike like they would if I was loading them into a car. Just drips out the bottom grate.

Lots of other small benefits but not so related to winter.

You think that people don't ride bikes in the winter in Finland or Sweden? Riding in the snow with "snow tyres" for your bike is normal. There are whole YouTube videos about the phenom.

Minneapolis average January temps: about 9°F / –13°C (low) to 24°F / –4°C (high).

Stockholm January average: 25°F / –4°C (low) to 32°F / 0°C (high) — closer to Chicago than Minneapolis.

Having been splashed by busses in winter you have to be a special kind of crazy to ride a bike or motorcycle in Minneapolis or Chicago.

There is usually a week in January in Minneapolis where the high temperature for the day does not break -10F. Air temperature, not wind chill.

Minneapolis at least has a skyway for pedestrians in winter. Chicago loop, not so much.

Interesting choice since Minneapolis comes up pretty often as a pretty good biking city, by US standards at least. https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/cities/minneapolis-mn

It is quite good in comparison to many US cities. There is a fairly good distribution of segregated bike pathways through the city, and despite the skepticism in this thread - those pathways do get plowed quickly in the winter. There are fewer people on the paths in winter of course, but winter commuting comfort mostly comes down to wearing appropriate clothing.