251–260 of 345 posts
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Here in Minnesota it's common that suburban "subdivision" neighborhoods don't even have pedestrian sidewalks. And the inhabitants think that's a good thing. I cannot even.
It snows quite heavily in Minnesota, so during much of the year those sidewalks would be unusable or hazardous.
Based on the photo at the bottom they are going to fail the same way that many other US cities have failed when trying install bike lanes. You MUST put the parked cars between moving traffic and bikes. If you do not bikers are going to get hit and doored and will obstruct turn lanes. Pretty much everywhere in Europe gets this right. Traffic -> parking -> bikes -> peds. How did the US get everything completely backwar…
> Pretty much everywhere in Europe gets this right. Traffic -> parking -> bikes -> peds. Unless you also limit the length of the street that can be used for parking to keep it farther back from the corners, this would seem to substantially reduce the visibility of bikers to drivers (and vice versa), increasing the number of bike vs. moving car collisions. This seems intuitively likely to outweigh any benefit from red…
The bike path is still new, though, so hopefully people learn to slow down and check their mirrors.
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Downtown Mountain View (like the Caltrain/VTA station) to Google is quite bikeable distance-wise, except for a few poorly-designed sections. You basically have to go over the freeway somehow, and to do that, you have to merge with traffic cutting over the bike lane to get on or off the freeway. I did this exactly once, people are not looking for bikes so you just have to stand and wait for a break. Good luck during c…
Note that SCT is technically closed after sunset, although the rangers have said they're lenient on enforcing it due to all the commuters.
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Many, many people: - do not have showers at work - do not have safe routes to ride - are not experienced cyclists - average more like 10mph The discussion is not "how do we get hardcore bike nuts to ride to work". That's not hard.
I find it hilarious that Americans made it to the moon but think that commuting to work by bike is practically impossible. Meanwhile millions of people all over the rest of the world, from school children to seniors, are doing just that every single day. I moved to southern California last year (from the UK) and of course I ride my bike to work. My colleagues think that this is a really strange thing to do and some r…
I'm still a huge proponent of biking regularly, but safety is an unfortunate problem, and a lot of people are stuck in situations where there isn't a safe bike route to and from work for them.
And you are absolutely right, there are plenty of cases where there are safe bike routes.
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Towers surrounded by green space has been tried, with mostly negative results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier#Criticism Good urban space is mostly about how nice it feels to be on a street. You want a comfortable amount of walking space, destinations that are close together, and that's pretty much it. Surrounding buildings with parks makes walking harder and less pleasant. There's probably enough demand f…
>Towers surrounded by green space has been tried, with mostly negative results. on 2D surface the density can be done only by growing into the 3rd dimension. The only issue is how to do it. The ratio between height, footprint and total capacity i think reaches its worst value in the current style of development in the Valley (as a result of developers ripping best value in profit possible inside the municipally impos…
Land use in suburban areas is mostly premised on maximizing car traffic. That's why we have the big six-lane streets and the huge parking lots with sad, small strips of grass separating everything. If we optimize for maximizing people movement over car movement, the streets get smaller and so do the parking lots; transit and bikes get more accommodation. Room opens up for more destinations, and you get more access at a lower average speed and energy consumption, further improving the land value - all just by changing the design requirements. Traditional cities are very energy-efficient.
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Most people don't want their daily commute to be a workout.
They'd rather be stuck in traffic feeling dead inside.
What comes first, the bike commuters or a reasonable way to get clean at the end of a ride? I think the latter is pretty low on the list of priorities for a lot of companies, unfortunately.
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I'd like to see Bart or similar all the way down the el camino and encourage high density housing and offices. Create a nice long urban canyon with good transit. People could bike a few blocks off the stations.
> I'd like to see Bart or similar all the way down the el camino Isn't that about 1000 km long?
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I live in a neighborhood in Palo Alto that doesn't have sidewalks, and people here walk (and bike) all the time. The reason why it works is because many of the streets are extremely narrow, and we've worked fairly hard at making certain they aren't striped down the center. For whatever reason this seems to get motorists to drive more slowly and makes it safer for everyone.
Bicyclists in Palo Alto kill pedestrians. http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/04/22/pedestrian-str...
Drivers in Palo Alto kill pedestrians http://abc7news.com/news/driver-arrested-on-suspicion-of-fat...
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Sure, you're never going to get people who live 15 or 20 miles out biking the whole way to work, but there's lots of people who live You also have to keep in mind biking as a first-mile/last-mile complement to rail transit. If there's good bike paths to get to a transit station, that effectively extends the usable radius of the station. Already, lots of people bike to Caltrain and then bike from their stop to work (I…
The local solution is to own two old run-down bikes and lock them at either station. You still run a risk of theft or damage, but the investment is not that big.
Ah, it also has a basket that is quite convenient when I go to the supermarket.
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The local solution is to own two old run-down bikes and lock them at either station. You still run a risk of theft or damage, but the investment is not that big.
Some people don't understand that they don't need to spend 3000$ in the bike they use to commute. Mine costed me 10.000yen (100$). It works quite OK, and if one day it is stolen or broken, I will not be really sad. Ah, it also has a basket that is quite convenient when I go to the supermarket.
I could also eat sawdust at work for lunch every day, if sawdust was nutritious. I don't need to eat tasty food. Nor wear comfortable clothes that fit - sackcloth will do.
I'm happy to ride a really good bike. I want to be happy more often.