They are in the major east coast cities and some west coast cities. I'm sure they aren't currently viable in plenty of cities, but that doesn't mean the infrastructure shouldn't be built to allow for bikes.

I live in one of the worst cities for cycling in the US and I do all of those things regularly.

I bike to Costco and Ikea all the time, but sure you do have to get big stuff delivered unless you have a trailer (https://www.bikesatwork.com/blog/move-it-by-bike-moving-serv...). I used to commute to downtown from the suburbs daily. When I was young my dad used to bike me to daycare/school all the time. If you need to be somewhere in a suit you bike in pants + undershirt and add the rest when you get there.

All of these things are possible, admittedly there is a real limitation of needing to live within a 15-20 mile radius of work. The best data I can find suggests about 23% of commuters have a commute of more than 20 miles. So I would say cycling is a perfectly reasonable solution for the majority of people.

Well show me some data then. Like I said, it seems like the majority of people live within a reasonable radius of work to make cycling feasible. I'm not saying it's easy, and there are plenty of people it doesn't work for, but I seriously doubt it's 80% of people.

Alright, since we're apparently in the "no data needed zone", I'll go off of my daily life:

I bike two miles to work, I work, I bike home. I walk or bike to a grocery store, and carry my goods back. I walk or bike to bars, and come back.

If a car is absolutely essential for getting into work, either you or your company is doing it wrong.

EDIT: Ah yes, and this is in probably one of the sprawliest, least bike-friendly cities in the US.

It's not wrong to live more than 2 miles from your job, or to have a family, or to want or need to transport more than you can on a bicycle, or to refuse to risk your life more than necessary by mixing cycling with automobile traffic.

A friend of mine was killed riding her bike when a cop ran into her. I live in a relatively small city, and traffic was not busy at the time.

It's a simple fact that cycling with automobile traffic is far more dangerous than driving. Take that risk if you want to; it's your life (though if you're killed by a car, it could be your fault, and it could ruin the driver's life too). It's not wrong to refuse to take that extra, unnecessary risk!

If you think that everyone should do what you do or else they're "doing it wrong", you are thinking wrongly.

There is something very, very wrong/unsustainable at a systems level if people are forced to use cars (or some other singular mode of transportation not based on their own power). Perhaps we need to have goods delivered to us, or have our own supplies of things, or be able to remote in, or whatever...

Indeed, if biking is so dangerous, I propose that there is something wrong with the traffic rules--there's a great writeup about how streets were (at the beginning of the 20th century) almost completely mixed-mode transportation and that car companies pushed for redefining norms to plant the idea that they were only for cars.

You've been brainwashed.

In college I didn't have a car so I walked/biked/bussed everywhere. Going to the market was still a hassle and I only had to buy for 1 person. I still had to go often because there was only so much I could bring home in one shot. Now, when I go to the market, I'm buying at least a week's worth of groceries for a family of five. I would need a pretty big bike trailer to get all those goods home. And since it would take quite a bit longer, I'd also probably need to add something to handle the frozen/refrigerated things. So, I bike for leisure and not for utility.

My dad used a bike seat for me, which was doable since my brother and I were different ages and weren't often going to the same place. There are of course bike trailers for hauling 2-3 children around and don't forget pedicabs which regularly haul around 3-4 adults.

After you get used to it you don't really feel exhausted. Yes commuting 20 miles by bike is definitely an upper limit, at least for me, but I do know people with longer bike commutes.

So assuming you fuel yourself with pure beef, the most unsustainable food I could find, you'd need about .85 kg to get 2000 calories. On average the production of beef releases about 13.3 kg of CO2 per kg of beef, so we're looking at 11.305 kg of CO2 per commute. The average CO2 produced for a medium sized car is about .5 kg per mile. So for the same 40 mile commute you're looking at around 20 kg of emissions. So even if you choose to only eat the most unsustainable food it's still better than driving. If you switch to pork or poultry you can reduce that 11.305 kg of CO2 by about 75%. Cars just don't even come close.

What is up with the downvoting of perfectly reasonable comments like this? Is there some anti-car mafia on this thread?

Your mindset for all of those questions is mistaken. You're thinking that we all live in vast urban sprawl. A lot of us don't live there. Come see what life is like in a functioning city with good planning and density, like Manhattan.

1. Take your kids to school on a bike?

If you're living in a dense metro area, your school in within walking distance. So yes. You could bike there, but more likely you'll walk with them. If they go to a further away school, they'll take the subway or a bus.

2. Ride in a business suit?

Yes, I see it all the time with Citibikes. Even on Wall Street.

3. Go to Ikea or Costco?

Sure you'll go there, but you'll have your items delivered like any sane person who doesn't live in BFE.

4. Going to ride in from the suburbs?

People do it every day. You'd be surprised how many showers and locker rooms are right next to corporate bike rooms.

Just because you can't imagine something doesn't mean it isn't normal in another part of the country.

We already know it works just fine in Manhattan, but it doesn't work at all is most other cities.

Not everyone wants to live in a dense city like Manhattan (or any of NY city).

You gotta love the usual hand-wringing from suburban dads.

Someone should conduct a study asking what most people are doing with their cars in a series of given cities. I'd imagine most people could replace their vehicle with a bicycle but I'm not sure.