10-lane freeways and speeding cars? I wish. I live in Silicon Valley and the traffic here is unbearable.
Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
291–300 of 345 posts
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#292Based 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…
I'm in Sydney, we do not put parked cars between our bikes and roads but it works just fine with a gutter. https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Wynyard/@-33.8687896,15...
I think this is what people are citing as an ideal scenario (where possible).
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
It snows quite heavily in Minnesota, so during much of the year those sidewalks would be unusable or hazardous.
Likewise here in Wisconsin, but we're expected to shovel our walks. I once got a ticket for failing to do so. They only ticket people if somebody complains to the city, so I probably deserved it. Depending on where and when, sidewalks are optional for new subdivisions, and face a couple of dis-incentives: 1) You pay if the sidewalk in front of your house has to be repaired. 2) You have to shovel it. So, there are see…
Never lived in American suburbia, so I never though ot this: the cul-de-sacs are made so that a bike or even a pedestrian can not get through?
Over here (Finland), it is very common that a road is cul-de-sac for motor vehicles but you can get through riding bike or on foot.
There is also a common traffic sign to indicate this, for instance here in my neighbourhood:
https://www.google.fi/maps/@60.2285087,24.7129127,3a,15y,347...
The top sign indicates "no parking zone", i.e. you cannot park at curb unless it is marked as a parking space. The next sign is 30 km/h area (maximum speed limit in the area, no need to put a separate speed limit sign on each street) The bottom one indicates that the road splits to cul-de-sacs for motor vehicles on left and right, but you can get through by bike. (Here it is misleading, you can get through also to the left, not just to the right).
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#294Retrofitting American suburban sprawl to be less car-centric is going to be one of the enduring puzzles of the 21st century. The suburban model of planning championed in the 50's onwards became so deeply embedded in development projects and just the entire culture of small city planning across the country that a huge chunk of Americans are completely unaware that a less car-centric lifestyle is even possible, let alo…
There's nothing mysterious about the situation in silicon valley really. It's about space. Wikipedia tells me Copenhagen is 86.20 km [1] and San Jose is 466.109 km [2] but naturally silicon valley is several times larger than San Jose proper. If it was possible to just rent an apartment near where one worked, that wouldn't be an issue but we know how hard that is today. When where one's work is twenty miles or more f…
However, please do note that the Copenhagen city proper is geographically just a minor part of the metro area, and only about quarter of the metro population. The metro area is, as mentioned in your link, 2,778.3 km2, five times that of San Jose proper.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say pretty much everywhere. Probably only in Amsterdam. In Berlin it's mostly: cars | bikes | parking | pedestrians (raised sidewalk). In Warsaw (for example) it's: cars | parking | bikes (part of the sidewalk) | pedestrians (raised sidewalk).
You're wrong about Berlin. The vast majority of bike lanes are part of the sidewalk. They're really haphazard and frequently blocked (Amsterdam is probably the ideal, IMO), but cars are parked between them and the road.
That's a bold statement.
Probably it depends on the district. Most of my commute the paths are a part of the car lane.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
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$). It works quite OK, and if one day it is stolen or broken, I will not be really sad. Ah, it also has a basket that is quite convenient when I go to the supermarket.
So when its raining hard and you have to stop quickly and safely? will that 100$ bike be as good/safe as a sensible entry level MTB say 800/900$ with properly setup brakes?
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't say pretty much everywhere. Probably only in Amsterdam. In Berlin it's mostly: cars | bikes | parking | pedestrians (raised sidewalk). In Warsaw (for example) it's: cars | parking | bikes (part of the sidewalk) | pedestrians (raised sidewalk).
Warsaw is a pretty terrible example to follow. The bike lanes zigzag from road to sidewalk and back with no reason, and do things like deliver you into a huge roundabout where the bike lane ends without warning.
As a fellow Pole you probably know that bike lanes are not a part of well-designed infrastructure here but a political tool for local elections.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here in the US it's typical for every house to be responsible for its own sidewalk. So everybody gets it done somehow, by hand, or with a gas powered snowblower, or they hire a service. The same people who mow lawns in the summer, clear snow in the winter. Where the land is public-owned, e.g., parks, the city brings a little machine that's the same width as the sidewalks. Its main attraction is a heated cabin for the…
No. 90% of people get it done somehow. The failure of the other 10%, and inability to ride your bike more than ten or twenty houses of sidewalk down the line, stands as testament to concept of professionalized public infrastructure. We don't ask people to shovel the roads.
We rarely had an issue with people not having sidewalks shoveled before they left for work in the very snowy city I grew up in. Perhaps it's a YMMV situation.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
They'd rather be stuck in traffic feeling dead inside.
And some folks don't want to sit in their chair with a sweaty arse all day. 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.
You can ask about shower-only memberships if there's a gym nearby.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
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$). It works quite OK, and if one day it is stolen or broken, I will not be really sad. Ah, it also has a basket that is quite convenient when I go to the supermarket.
So when its raining hard and you have to stop quickly and safely? will that 100$ bike be as good/safe as a sensible entry level MTB say 800/900$ with properly setup brakes?
The cheap ones are usually bought used anyway and might need repairs, you're free to upgrade the brakes. I'm usually limited by road traction, not my brakes, though, and they're as cheap as it gets. Proper maintenance is more important than expensive components.