[BestGuess]

That's not fair. More like "cannot afford" as in can't afford to live anywhere close enough to anything paying enough to afford to live near enough to work for it. Add to that XXXL trucks and giant SUV's that can't see crap and irrational hatred for bikes on the road and you've got a double whammy of being both too scared even if you're close or too far to be practical. Add on top the insane weather most of the country has, and total complete lack of path maintenance for bikes even when you've got bike paths. This ain't like some country like finland where I've seen videos where they plow and prepare roads for bikes half the time sidewalks and bike lanes are just impassable mounds of ice and sludge if you're up north.

Now course everyone and their mother may wanna chime in and go off about some anecdote in their city for them but you really gotta ask yourself how normal is your personal experience really? Just lookin it up various averages say 41 mile commute, 16 mile commute, 20-30 minute commutes, don't matter what estimate I pull up the average is way too high to make biking feasible.

So no it ain't "americans dumb ha ha" it's "most people can't do it" and redesigning the whole country to be able to is gon take a hot minute

[nradov]

The South Bay Area has nice weather for cycling and decent bike paths along the major rivers/creeks. But local governments have allowed some of those paths to be taken over as homeless encampments. Now some women I know are afraid to ride through there.