Tax dollars at work

[KD5NRH]

http://spectator.org/articles/60529/federal-grant-spent-300k-studying-how-ride-bike

Because, you know, it's not like Trek, Bianchi, Fuji and pretty much every other company that has done any useful innovating on the original boneshaker design would have already spent millions of their own money to come up with far more detailed answers to everything the .gov researchers looked into.

[Hawkmoon]

The National Science Foundation gave a three hundred thousand dollar grant to professors at the University of California-Davis to “improve the fundamental understanding of how humans interact with bicycles.”

UC -- nothing more need be said.

It seems the ultimate goal was to get more people biking and less people driving, in order to save the environment. If we just understood the complex dynamics between rider and bicycle, we’d be more likely to use bikes. The dynamics of driving a motor vehicle must be more understandable; that’s why we drive so much.

There is nothing complex about the "dynamic" between rider and bicycle, and it certainly isn't more complex than driving a car. I could have saved them $300,000 dollars. I drive instead of biking because (a) it takes me half an hour to drive to work -- it would take an hour and a half (minimum) to bike it; (b) there's no shower at work; and (c) rain/sleet/snow are infinitely more tolerable in an enclosed automobile than on a bicycle. No amount of academic studies can change any of those factors.

[Doggy Daddy]

UC -- nothing more need be said.

There is nothing complex about the "dynamic" between rider and bicycle, and it certainly isn't more complex than driving a car. I could have saved them $300,000 dollars. I drive instead of biking because (a) it takes me half an hour to drive to work -- it would take an hour and a half (minimum) to bike it; (b) there's no shower at work; and (c) rain/sleet/snow are infinitely more tolerable in an enclosed automobile than on a bicycle. No amount of academic studies can change any of those factors.

All of the above.  Plus, my neighbors take away my Spandex.

[Perd Hapley]

Not even trying to hide their bicycle privilege! I am offended that the government/education complex would promote the official orthodoxy of the bicycle, to the detriment of minority transportation communities, such as the unycycle and the pogo styck.

[brimic]

http://spectator.org/articles/60529/federal-grant-spent-300k-studying-how-ride-bike

Because, you know, it's not like Trek, Bianchi, Fuji and pretty much every other company that has done any useful innovating on the original boneshaker design would have already spent millions of their own money to come up with far more detailed answers to everything the .gov researchers looked into.

Well duh! Bike manufacturers are run by evil capitalists who rape the land and exploit the poor for profit. Only and unbiased expert working for the government can do a legitimate scientific study.