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Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

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Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#321

Post by Natsu »

tmalsburg2 wrote: post #319
Natsu wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe for you, but I have been run over and otherwise injured while biking. The accident wasn't my fault, but I really don't like anything where my legs (and clothing) will suffer if I miss a single pothole. I do not enjoy it, either, not one iota. It was the only realistic option when I was a kid and even into college so I've done quite a lot of biking, but I got rid of the damn thing as soon as I could. I'd much ra…

Cycling in the US really is more dangerous than in Europe. I see two main reasons: 1.) Drivers are not aware of cyclists and don't know how to deal with them. When I cycle on roads with considerable car traffic, it regularly happens that cars drive dangerously close to me or that they cut me off. In Germany, drivers know what distance they should keep and to look for cyclists when turning. 2.) The condition of the st…

My accident was in a parking lot, even, rather than on the street. Someone came around a blind corner rather quickly. At least it was a golf-cart type thing, rather than an actual car, or I would've been more seriously injured.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#322

Post by JupiterMoon »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #131
JupiterMoon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually most of the the trains (not the metro for some reason) in Copenhagen have lots of bike space and one can take one's bike for no charge. Lots of people use bikes and mass transit together.

Do mass transit companies charge for bikes? All the ones I've used have had it free.

In the UK many don't even allow them. Especially at peak hours.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#323

Post by jessaustin »

ptaipale wrote: post #313
jessaustin wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. This is common in USA if the cul-de-sac is a retrofit to a previously-through road. (If not by design, then in the breach, because someone has knocked a hole in the fence and it hasn't been fixed.) However, in the sorts of housing-only developments that have culs-de-sac designed in, the…

Right, so the point is that property owners do not want to have anyone walk by on foot, because they fear they could be trespassers or loiterers that are not welcome in the area? And this is why a cul-de-sac stops not only cars but everything, with a fence. But then that also stops e.g. children from moving about on their own in the neighbourhood.

It's kind of ironic, but regular foot traffic is a bigger deterrent to crime than isolation. After all, no one is home all the time.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#324

Post by ptaipale »

mcv wrote: post #318
ptaipale wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you're going to compare metro areas, you should do the same for San Jose: 6,979 km2. This is in fact even larger than the Randstad (4,300 km2). I'm not going to bike from Amsterdam to Rotterdam (in fact, I find that too far to commute no matter what method of transport I have). If the housing problem in Silicon Valley is really so big that it's hard to find a house within 10 km of the office, I can see how it's go…

Yes, of course, but anyway Copenhagen is not really quite as dense as the small area of the city proper would lead you to believe.

(Looking at Wikipedia, the San Jose metro area actually seems to be very concentrated in the city proper, with almost 1.9 million in the city proper and only 56 000 outside it. )

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#325

Post by justinlardinois »

jrock08 wrote: post #258
linkydinkandyou wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bicyclists in Palo Alto kill pedestrians. http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/04/22/pedestrian-str...

Trucks in Palo Alto kill pedestrians http://sfbay.ca/2015/04/19/bcn57palo-alto-pedestrian-dies-in... Drivers in Palo Alto kill pedestrians http://abc7news.com/news/driver-arrested-on-suspicion-of-fat...

Pedestrians in Palo Alto kill pedestrians http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/09/23/man-stabbed-ou...

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#326

Post by calbear81 »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #73
calbear81 wrote: post #67

How about a bike lane with a small barrier along the Caltrain tracks? You already have the land, you can build some overpasses at major street intersections.

This makes sense technically, but not psychologically, if you're talking about a bike lane that's very close to the tracks. The trains are very large and very loud with their horns. It's already intimidating when I'm biking on Evelyn, pretty close to the tracks. Intellectually, I realize the chance of the train derailing is pretty much zero, but it doesn't feel that way. Adding such a bike lane would be better than w…

How about an elevated bike lane that sits above the train tracks like 20 ft. above but with the train running below it?

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#327

Post by ptaipale »

scoot wrote: post #218
nickbauman wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Having tried to walk from a business hotel in Roseville Minnesota to the nearest restaurant I discovered just this - and passing motorists looked at me like I was bonkers! Heck, you couldn't even get from the hotel to the adjacent office block without walking on the road, or cutting across scrub. Santa Clara is only marginally better. However retrofitting cycle lanes is a much easier prospect than retrofitting sidewa…

I remember some very friendly people in Rohnert Park, CA. We (four middle-aged men) were on a work trip and decided to walk from the Doubletree hotel to the local Walmart, some 500 meters away, just to get some exercise after 16 hours of flight and 8 hours of meetings.

Several people driving by stopped to ask: "Do you need help? Did your car break down?".

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#328

Post by mcv »

Pxtl wrote: post #83
hyperion2010 wrote: post #62

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…

That approach works in cities that have established massive cycling communities - the Montreals and Copenhagens. The mid-step approach for North American cities is an extra-wide bike-lane clear of the door zone with dotted zones that require drivers to shift into the bike-lane if they want to turn right. Basically, the bike lane is effectively a "bike lane and right-only-turn-lane". It's less protected than the parki…

If you require cars to use the bike lane, it's not a dedicated bike lane anymore. You bring cars and bikes together, and risk collisions between the two. It works only if car drivers are very aware of the presence of bikes, and trained to watch out for them. I think this is more likely to work in cities with an established bike culture than in car dominated cities.

When cars dominate, give bikes their own bike path.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#329

Post by mcv »

ptaipale wrote: post #324
mcv wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to compare metro areas, you should do the same for San Jose: 6,979 km2. This is in fact even larger than the Randstad (4,300 km2). I'm not going to bike from Amsterdam to Rotterdam (in fact, I find that too far to commute no matter what method of transport I have). If the housing problem in Silicon Valley is really so big that it's hard to find a house within 10 km of the office, I can see how it's go…

Yes, of course, but anyway Copenhagen is not really quite as dense as the small area of the city proper would lead you to believe. (Looking at Wikipedia, the San Jose metro area actually seems to be very concentrated in the city proper, with almost 1.9 million in the city proper and only 56 000 outside it. )

Is it? I thought all of Silicon Valley was pretty densely populated, and that's more than just San Jose.

In any case, biking works best when distances aren't too big. Amsterdam is probably the bike capital of the world (more bikes than people), but biking from a suburb on one side of the city to one on the opposite side is pretty rare (except for the more dedicated biker, obviously). You're a fool if you take a car into the city center (many people don't even own one), but around the edges, cars work fine.

Although my wife, who is not a dedicated cyclist at all and usually commutes by car, has had a time where she regularly cycled 17 km to Schiphol.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#330

Post by mcv »

loco5niner wrote: post #320
mcv wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Amsterdam, bikes and cars are separated from each other wherever possible. That way, bikes can ride as recklessly as they like without endangering cars. Bikes and pedestrians are harder to separate. Pedestrians can go everywhere, and especially tourists have a tendency to not watch out when they're crossing a bike path, or even stay on the bike path for no good reason. The worst place is behind Central Station, wh…

But then you'll need a separate path for everyone on roller skates.

Skating isn't a big form of transport here. Most skaters are recreational and stick to the parks. Though I did encounter a (remarkably fast!) skater in bike traffic recently, and people always give them a bit more space. (Actually it was a mixed bike/pedestrian path still in a park, but bikes try to dominate it and use it as their main thoroughfare.) Bikers would probably get annoyed if skaters try to claim their extra wide space in the most crowded bike traffic, though.
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