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What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

fastcoexist.com

31–40 of 96 posts

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "hallway with lanes"? The thing that isn't obvious at first glance (but is more obvious in further design depictions) is that it is setup like a miniature version of a typical street in which to the immediate sides of the bike lanes are "bike parking" spots and on the far sides of those spots are pedestrian "side walks". It seems like a fair design to me.

Really? You're using up an absolutely vast area in your building for bike paths. You also are forced to build everything into a ramp shape so that the bikes can get in. Oh and alternative solution (put a bike garage on the ground floor). Is cheaper and probably nicer to live in since the people on the top floor can use lifts instead of riding an extra couple of k up hill.

The whole point of the conceptualization is to explore what cities/buildings might be like if we built bike-first. Of course it's not "practical" versus the cheapness of first floor bike garages. It's meant to be a vision of what we might do if we rebuilt things from first principles.

Certainly you could do both: have a good lift to your floor in the evenings that you could ride your bike into and then in the mornings coast your way all the way down as a fun way to start your day. Some people would even appreciate the extra uphill climb every day as an easy way to stay fit in their own home buildings.

Another thing to note here is that the conceptualized buildings are a lot wider than they are tall. The impression being that even if you had an elevator to your floor you might still want to ride your bike to your unit as the floor itself will be long enough to warrant that sort of thing.

Again, the goal here is to question design principles and it is a fair and interesting design because it asks questions about our assumptions. We currently don't build buildings more than a quarter mile wide because once inside them we assume everyone has to walk. Thus we tend to build taller buildings instead. Shorter, wider, ramp-like buildings are an interesting idea and this concept gives us a vocabulary to discuss them.

Do I expect to see these in cities any time soon? Definitely not. But it is still a neat design worth discussing, especially if it allows us to re-question old city design assumptions.

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#32
post #25

One problem that immediately stands out to me is how sweaty everyone would be. I'm in shape but riding around a city on a hot day would have me drenched.

In this vision of the future, I believe all of the bike paths will be indoors and air conditioned.

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"no cars allowed is nice in theory but not workable" I think cities existed before cars.

well they did, but you wouldn't want to live in most of them. what about ambulances? fireworkers? once your place is on fire, or your dad is having heart attack, you want help to arrive in eco-friendly manner half an hour too late? even places like Zermatt in Switzerland, which prides itself in banning all cars except electric has medical, technical and police guys routinely cruising the village in... you guessed it,…

Well, I recently watched a small restaurant get robbed at gunpoint. It took the police ~15-20 minutes to arrive because they had to drive from downtown. Cars allow a single officer to service a much larger radius, which unfortunately in this case meant that the city simply hired fewer police officers, resulting in little net benefit.

By the time the officer arrived the thief was probably in his living room counting the money because he himself drove off with the aid of an accomplice waiting outside.

The situation you describe in Zermatt sounds like an interesting compromise, though.

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#34
If exposed to weather it is an automatic fail. Sorry, that is just how it works. From any transportation alternative that is no enclosed it always comes down to comfort. One day it is too hot, another too cold, or too wet, and on and on, until the excuse is no longer needed as the alternative mode is parked.

So any bicycle or pedestrian friendly environment needs weather protection as part of its design. It does not need be fully enclosed but that type of protection may be required depending on climate. Perhaps a convertible system where panels retract?

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#35
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "hallway with lanes"? The thing that isn't obvious at first glance (but is more obvious in further design depictions) is that it is setup like a miniature version of a typical street in which to the immediate sides of the bike lanes are "bike parking" spots and on the far sides of those spots are pedestrian "side walks". It seems like a fair design to me.

You consider it a fair design. I look at it as a waste of space. All it does is replace "car" with "bike". It even says so, with "Residential bike parking should have the same space-syntax relationship to the front door and kitchen as car parking does in a contemporary house in the suburbs." Look at how much hallway space it needs to have a cycle path, plus bike parking. It adds, what, 2-3 meters of hallway width? Pl…

By "fair design" I don't necessarily mean "practical", I'm implying "interesting" and "conversation starting" and "worth examining/talking about".

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#36
post #19

> and maybe even wheel their bike through stores as they shop, with a sleeping baby in the bike carrier, or use the basket to hold groceries Anyone who has ever actually had a bike for more than a week and who actually shops for their own groceries will know this is a terrible idea.

Why?

I use panniers for my groceries, however, the grocery store won't allow me to just bring my bike inside, so instead I have to take the panniers off my bike and put them in a cart. Using my bike as the cart would make sense.

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#37
I had thought the custom on HN was to post valuable, constructive comments, and not to find fault or to post typical Internet forum sniping and hyperbole.

Perhaps it's my impression, but I've rarely seen anything constructive recently. Almost everything in this discussion, for example, is reaction and sniping ("useless", "absurd", "stupid", etc.). It's a way to hang out and socialize online; there's nothing wrong with it. But personally, I've read enough Internet sniping for a lifetime; it's not thoughtful, informative, insightful or constructive; I don't learn anything and leave uninspired.

Perhaps it's just my impression or it's temporary; perhaps it's a bigger change (related to YC and its leadership distancing themselves from HN?). Is there anywhere online where the sniping is eliminated and the discussion more valuable?

EDIT: Sorry, I know it's off-topic, but there's no other place to post it (that I know of).

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#38
I live 43 miles from my job, all on major interstates, in a big metro area. What good would this do? Unless you designed the city for mixed living/working/shopping in the first place, most US cities could never change to be bike first. This isn't SimCity where you can raze the whole town.

Re: What a City Would Look Like If It Were Designed for Only Bikes

#39
post #3

A bike ramp into the apartment is useless. You can just take the elevator with your bike, or you know... Just make a garage for bikes on ground floor. The article doesn't really say much about how to design a city for bicycles, which mostly comes down to providing good roads where you aren't bothered by cars.

It's certainly not useless. It allows you to bring your bike right to where you live and you can avoid having to make an extra stop in the basement or somewhere else to store/retrieve your bike. Even when I've lived places with bike storage I kept my bike in my apartment. It's far more convenient and security even in an apartment garage is not perfect.
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