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Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

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Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#161

Post by sandworm101 »

awjr wrote: post #58

I find the focus on congestion within the transport space to be perplexing. I'm guessing it is to do with the visibility of congestion. Waze recently did a survey and identified the Netherlands as the best place to drive ( https://www.waze.com/driverindex ). The Netherlands is also the only western country with a negative obesity trend expected to hit 8% by 2030, currently at 10% vs the UK's 25%. The USA I believe is…

Netherlands is a special case in terms of human-powered transpo. It is flat, engineered, and has relatively tame weather. Some of us do not live beside calm waterways and associated setbacks and level grades so loved by bikes. The nearest waterway to me is more gorge than river. The road in front of my house has a 30* slope in places and, at the moment, is covered in ice. Bikeing to work in my town is a fundimentally different experiance than the average netherland commute.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#162

Post by randyrand »

mojowo11 wrote: post #110
danesparza wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for 'it was an unpleasant ride'. I think that's the biggest friction point many ride sharing apps face.

Riding in an Uber Pool has always been perfectly pleasant for me. Quiet and awkward in some cases, but not unpleasant. Some basic restrictions about not cramming people into the vehicle like it's a clown car should alleviate most concerns about unpleasantness, I'd think.

I took an uber pool on a normally 30 minute drive. It took 1.15 hours. Made 4 other pickups and drop offs on our way back.

I'm okay when ride sharing means 30% longer trip times. But 150% longer was too much for me.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#163

Post by jdminhbg »

randyrand wrote: post #160
ced wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heat isn't the only issue. From Wikipedia for the Netherlands: Ice days (maximum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)) usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days (minimum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)) occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May.…

32F is definitely warm enough to bike. I've Skied for 8 hours in 20 degree weather with no complaints. Exercise keeps you warm.

It's also cold enough for black ice.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#164

Post by b3b0p »

hobbyjogger wrote: post #127
criddell wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the cycling idea, but for big chunks of the US it couldn't work. I live in Austin and ride my bicycle to work whenever I can, however my office has showers. Without showers here, I'd never do it (and would hope that nobody else would either). Frankly though, the obesity problem is almost entirely about diet. More exercise would be great, but wouldn't address the actual problem.

Yeah, people tend to overlook the role climate plays in these comparisons. There's an enormous difference in cycling's viability as a primary means of transportation in a place like the Netherlands where average high temperatures rarely exceed 75, as opposed to Texas where a typical summer will have a prolonged period of temps in the 90s and multiple 100+ days. The average high temperature in Amsterdam's warmest two…

I also live in Austin. I moved downtown and got rid of my car 1.5 years ago. I bike everywhere, including work every day (3 miles) and I don't have the sweats and showers problem. Unless you bike to work in the middle of the afternoon, it's not going to be above 90F. Also, it's not a race, you can take a slower relaxing pace, kind of like fast walking. If that's still an issue it's like saying you can't go outside because you are going to sweat. Maybe there is something I just don't get, but I've never had the sweats or needed a shower. If every time some one has a drip of sweat they have to shower there would be showers in every restroom. I've gotten sweaty eating too much or too many spicy foods.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#165

Post by analog31 »

jdminhbg wrote: post #163
randyrand wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

32F is definitely warm enough to bike. I've Skied for 8 hours in 20 degree weather with no complaints. Exercise keeps you warm.

It's also cold enough for black ice.

During the winter, I ride a bike with studded tires. It makes a huge difference -- even black ice is navigable with care. Knobbly ice is actually worse because it pushes the bike around.

I live in Madison WI, and was curious about how it compares to Amsterdam for weather: About 15F hotter and 15F colder, give or take, also with more day-to-day variation.

Winter cycling is definitely its own beast -- not just weather but also darkness and the attack of road salt on the bike. I've got a dedicated winter bike that comes out when the salt trucks come out.

Much as I love riding throughout the year, I don't even mention it when I'm encouraging people to commute by bike. For anybody who's on the fence, getting them to try riding once per week during good weather is a great start.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#166

Post by analog31 »

linkregister wrote: post #150
ced wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heat isn't the only issue. From Wikipedia for the Netherlands: Ice days (maximum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)) usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days (minimum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)) occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May.…

Bike paths and roads are diligently cleared/salted in the Netherlands. So many people rely on bike paths to get to work or their train that I doubt ride sharing or taxis could handle the load.

The train is a big deal. Judging from comments I've read on web forums (granted, a pretty noisy and biased data source), most Dutch with longer commutes will combine cycling and public transit. In contrast, an American with a (say) 10 mile commute, must choose between cycling and driving. Those who do commute by bike in the US are dealing with more extreme weather and longer average distances, with little or no bike infrastructure.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#167

Post by kchoudhu »

cortesoft wrote: post #151
my_username_is_ wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely the city could find a series of roads that could be made into one-way streets, and have segregated bike lanes on the other side?

There are a number of issues with this. One, Los Angeles is VERY sprawling; people are traveling from every direction to every other direction, there are no easy routes you can make that will cut very much traffic. You would need to turn a LOT of streets into one-ways with bike lanes. Two, the traffic density and management is crazy here. So many traffic lights and stop and go traffic. Major streets are constantly cr…

This also makes otherwise walkable neighborhoods very difficult for pedestrians to navigate. Red lights need to cycle much, much faster.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#168

Post by antihero »

awjr wrote: post #58

I find the focus on congestion within the transport space to be perplexing. I'm guessing it is to do with the visibility of congestion. Waze recently did a survey and identified the Netherlands as the best place to drive ( https://www.waze.com/driverindex ). The Netherlands is also the only western country with a negative obesity trend expected to hit 8% by 2030, currently at 10% vs the UK's 25%. The USA I believe is…

Segregated cycle lanes need to absolutely be a priority. I was considering cycling to work (London), and literally this morning walked outside for a break to see a load of paramedics and some poor person under a truck at the junction outside my office. Needless to say, this soured my view distinctly. City cycling in London is really dangerous, and courts are highly favourable towards drivers.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#169

Post by Retric »

antisthenes wrote: post #135
rhino369 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC is a pretty good counter example. As you say the type of work matters, and DC has never an industrial town. It was also a planned city. It was intended to not be dense from the start. Something like 40% of DC is federal government land. DC also is doing a decent job at using mass transit to re-densify areas. The orange line corridor is making suburbs become dense. That is pretty unique in America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b... For a city that was "intended to not be dense from the start", it sure is up there as far as density and would be #16 on the list if it counted as a part of a state. DC is incredibly dense by American standards and is actually one of the very few places in the US that you can get by without a car (which is, of course, priced into exorbitant rents and pro…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris

  DC has 158.1 km2 with 681,170 people or 4,308 people per km ^2.

  Paris has 105.4 km2 with 2,265,886 people or 250,065 people per km2
In other words DC has less than 2% of Paris's population density. Note, Paris is a turist destination so many shot's look like DC, but this is the real city: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/04/15/17/278DF7CF0000057...

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#170

Post by dx034 »

antihero wrote: post #168
awjr wrote: post #58

I find the focus on congestion within the transport space to be perplexing. I'm guessing it is to do with the visibility of congestion. Waze recently did a survey and identified the Netherlands as the best place to drive ( https://www.waze.com/driverindex ). The Netherlands is also the only western country with a negative obesity trend expected to hit 8% by 2030, currently at 10% vs the UK's 25%. The USA I believe is…

Segregated cycle lanes need to absolutely be a priority. I was considering cycling to work (London), and literally this morning walked outside for a break to see a load of paramedics and some poor person under a truck at the junction outside my office. Needless to say, this soured my view distinctly. City cycling in London is really dangerous, and courts are highly favourable towards drivers.

I cycle here everyday and don't find it very dangerous if you're careful. The city has done a lot for cyclists in the last years (highways are only one example) and the fatality rate is relatively stable for several years now, even though cycling numbers increase by ~20% each year.

Most lorry drivers are very aware of cyclists now, so if you don't try to pass them on the left (where they can't see you even if they wanted to), they'll be careful to stay away.

I also don't know where you get the argument with the courts from. Any evidence for that? I've never seen police pulling over a cyclists, but I've seen several occasions of police pulling over cars that stood in cyclist areas (the ones in front of traffic lights).

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