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When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

toddwschneider.com

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Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#151

Post by jandrese »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #87
dkhenry wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I have found is there is a tiny minority of people who _hate_ bikers. They tend to pop up and make wild claims about how dangerous bikers are, or how much they dislike how bikers use the streets since streets are for cars, and bikes are for children. What I have found in actually talking to people is most people support and encourage bikes, and would love to bike, but don't feel safe. Bikes make everything about…

>most bikers observe the traffic laws Not in Philadelphia, at least. I walk everywhere, and racking my brain for bike encounters I can only recall one of maybe 20 instances in which a bike actually stopped at a red light. I can recall at least a third of those instances where bikes were travelling the wrong way on a one way street, and another third with bikes on the sidewalk. That being said, I still think biking is…

I obey stoplights on my bike, but it's really punishing sometimes. Bikes don't trip the sensors so the light will ignore you until a car pulls up behind you. This can require three or four cycles of the lights if traffic in your direction is sparse.

Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#152

Post by arrmn »

anthonybsd wrote: post #135
staticelf wrote: post #97

I'm from Sweden and have been biking in NYC as a tourist. I must say, it is one of the most scariest places I have biked in my life. Huge cars, almost no biking lanes, a lot of people and other traffic. I admit I was also a bit drunk but still, in Stockholm we have biking lanes almost everywhere and you feel a lot safer. Also there is a lot more people that use the bike when you give them a lane to bike on. Please, c…

> Huge cars, almost no biking lanes, a lot of people and other traffic. When were you in NYC? We have more bike lanes than Stockholm these days. :) Proof: http://www.amny.com/transit/new-york-city-to-reach-1-000-mil... vs http://www.fourteenislands.com/bicycle-paths/

According to Google the Stockholm area is 188km^2 with 760km bike lanes and NY is 789km^2 with 1609km bike lanes.

Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#153

Post by dionidium »

dr_ wrote: post #4

As a pedestrian crossing the straw in NYC, you will typically wait for cars to stop, then walk about 2/3 of the way into the street, then peer into the bike lane to make sure no bikes are coming, then complete your crossing. Most of the bikers, from my experience, do not follow rules such as stopping at a Stop sign or for pedestrians or at their own bike designated stop lights. It may be nice to bike in the cities pa…

I'm a cyclist in NYC. Here's the other side of that: I see you. Let me describe a common scenario:

I'm biking toward an intersection. I see a pedestrian moving into the street from 30 yards out. They're looking down at their phone. I see them the entire time. I know they don't see me. There's no chance we're going to collide, because I see exactly what they're doing and have been tracking them as I approach the intersection. At the last second, as I pass by them, they become aware of my presence and jump back, surprised.

How do you think they tell that story?

I'm sure it has something to do with the maniac cyclist who almost hit them.

Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#154

Post by mikk14 »

anthonybsd wrote: post #135
staticelf wrote: post #97

I'm from Sweden and have been biking in NYC as a tourist. I must say, it is one of the most scariest places I have biked in my life. Huge cars, almost no biking lanes, a lot of people and other traffic. I admit I was also a bit drunk but still, in Stockholm we have biking lanes almost everywhere and you feel a lot safer. Also there is a lot more people that use the bike when you give them a lane to bike on. Please, c…

> Huge cars, almost no biking lanes, a lot of people and other traffic. When were you in NYC? We have more bike lanes than Stockholm these days. :) Proof: http://www.amny.com/transit/new-york-city-to-reach-1-000-mil... vs http://www.fourteenislands.com/bicycle-paths/

Looking just at the installed capacity isn't a great way, if you do not control for overall area. Better to compare the relative space dedicated to cars, trains and bikes.

Couldn't find data for Stockholm, but here is a NY-Copenhagen comparison: black lines are the relative NYC allocation spaces, orange bars is Copenhagen. Relatively speaking, Copenhagen has much more biking space: https://whatthestreet.moovellab.com/newyork/results?bike=0.1...

Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#155

Post by addicted »

nashashmi wrote: post #69

I cannot help but witness the effects of traffic calming: > a taxi trip in 2017 took 17% longer than the same trip in 2009. > The same regression applied to Citi Bikes shows no such slowdown over time, in fact Citi Bikes got slightly faster. Obviously when you dedicate more street space from cars towards bikes, bikes get faster and cars get slower. The article goes to mention this, but also downplays it. What the art…

Actually the article points to the fact that other studies have shown that bikes have either no effect, or improve traffic speeds, because one of the biggest misconceptions in traffic planning is the solution is to increase roadways, when in reality, the answer is usually to reduce.

Actual relevant reasons may be the growth of Uber, the change of speed limits, and/or the increase in population.

Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#156

Post by macNchz »

nashashmi wrote: post #69

I cannot help but witness the effects of traffic calming: > a taxi trip in 2017 took 17% longer than the same trip in 2009. > The same regression applied to Citi Bikes shows no such slowdown over time, in fact Citi Bikes got slightly faster. Obviously when you dedicate more street space from cars towards bikes, bikes get faster and cars get slower. The article goes to mention this, but also downplays it. What the art…

As I understand it traffic has gotten demonstrably worse in NYC over the past few years at least in part because there are so many cars on the road driving for Uber et al: http://nyc.streetsblog.org/2017/02/27/its-settled-uber-is-ma...

There have been some pedestrian safety changes made in Manhattan but traffic is really the biggest impediment. Most cars are moving less than the speed limit much of the day because of all the traffic.

Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#158

Post by dionidium »

nashashmi wrote: post #69

I cannot help but witness the effects of traffic calming: > a taxi trip in 2017 took 17% longer than the same trip in 2009. > The same regression applied to Citi Bikes shows no such slowdown over time, in fact Citi Bikes got slightly faster. Obviously when you dedicate more street space from cars towards bikes, bikes get faster and cars get slower. The article goes to mention this, but also downplays it. What the art…

If the intentions behind doing this weren't derived from anti-car sentiments

New York City isn't nearly anti-car enough! It's the only place in the U.S. that has any chance of reclaiming its streets for pedestrians and it should absolutely do so. Those who like to drive can choose literally any other U.S. city and, without exception, it'll cater to that preference.

But New York City should be implementing all kinds of car-hostile policies, including an all-out ban on private vehicles in some parts of Manhattan.

Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#159

Post by addicted »

jdanp wrote: post #31

I live in the East Village and am convinced that cyclists in New York City have no regard for human life. The NYPD seems to be cracking down on their lawless behavior, but I think a push away from cycling and towards ride-sharing (a la Via) is the solution for our transit issue. With our broken subway system and high volume of cabs, ubers, etc; it is clear that New York is a driving city - but not a parking city.

1 pedestrian death by a cyclist in about 8 years.

I’d say that’s pretty good regard for human life.

OTOH, cars kill a pedestrian almost daily in the city. Funny you don’t complain about them.

Also this is despite bike lanes being adjacent to the sidewalk and actually protecting pedestrians from the actually dangerous cars by providing a buffer (pedestrian deaths on avenues which installed bike lanes, such as 2nd and 8th dropped after installation, and in comparison to avenues that did not.)

Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City

#160

Post by fuckbikers »

dkhenry wrote: post #59
verelo wrote: post #20

Not much love for biking here; You'd almost think that most of the people on Hacker News are from Californian suburbs... Seriously though, biking in cities is great. It's one of those critical mass problems where the more people that do it the better the infrastructure gets, the more aware drivers become and there is a herd mentality where bikers tend to flow together making them more predictable and therefore safer…

What I have found is there is a tiny minority of people who _hate_ bikers. They tend to pop up and make wild claims about how dangerous bikers are, or how much they dislike how bikers use the streets since streets are for cars, and bikes are for children. What I have found in actually talking to people is most people support and encourage bikes, and would love to bike, but don't feel safe. Bikes make everything about…

> most bikers observe the traffic laws

Funny, this is the exact opposite view from mine. Just last week I was hit by a bike crossing a street with a walk sign. Those assholes wouldn’t stop for you if you paid them.

Citations? Forget about it. The streets will just get too dangerous for peds and cars.

The majority of bikers I know freely admit, and even take pride in, blowing through stop signs and red lights. “You’re not supposed to stop!”

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