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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

#161

Post by jff »

antisthenes wrote: post #110
kazinator wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can definitely kill someone with a bicycle. And a punch. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/gay-basher-ge... http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/10/stanley-park-pedestrian-d... This is just recent local news from my neck of the woods, off the top of my head.

Just because you can do it, doesn't mean it has anywhere the same likelihood of happening. Not even sure what argument you're trying to make. This is why concealed guns are banned in most states and fists aren't.

> Just because you can do it, doesn't mean it has anywhere the same likelihood of happening. Not even sure what argument you're trying to make.

Ok, go stand in the street and I'll hit you with a bicycle. I can come to the emergency room later and you can tell me how it didn't hurt that much.

> This is why concealed guns are banned in most states

False, by the way. They just require a license... like a car.

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

#162

Post by dionidium »

hessproject wrote: post #149
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…

You can get to most of Manhattan under 125th st and almost all of northwest Brooklyn without leaving a bike lane: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikemaps.shtml Even in my neighborhood in Queens I can get into Manhattan with only a 3 block stretch outside of a bike lane. Obviously there is going to be more traffic than Stockholm, we have almost 8 million more residents. There is a already a large effort t…

A bike lane is just paint on a road. Biking in Manhattan is still perilous, because cars and people routinely occupy the parts of the road with that green paint on it. A bike lane is an improvement, I guess, but it's the minimum a city claiming to care about cycling infrastructure can do.

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

#163

Post by treve »

fuckbikers wrote: post #160
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 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…

So you had a run-in with an idiot biker last week. If you live in a busy city, that sounds like a pretty good statistic and you probably have been in several dangerous traffic situations with drivers in that same timespan. This strongly feels like confirmation bias to me.

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

#164

Post by awakeasleep »

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…

I was thinking about your post, and was trying to imagine the difference between anti-car and pro-human-life.

Cars provide a lot of benefit, but without 'traffic calming' or anti-car architecture, there are more and more of them going faster and faster, killing pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers.

It's a balancing act, but I think there is not a big city in the USA that would be considered to actually favor pedestrians and cyclists over cars. (yet.)

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

#165

Post by dionidium »

lifebehindbars wrote: post #144
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.

LOL @ lawless behavior. This is a ridiculous comment. Drivers speed, run red lights, double park, block the box, pollute the air, honk their horns all fucking hours of the day, and kill a ton of people every year. EVERY major metropolitan area is experiencing fixed street capacity and a growing population. You cannot add more roads, more cars, more trains (at least in the short term) to move all these people: cycling…

honk their horns all fucking hours of the day

This is one of those NYC stereotypes that turns out to be entirely true and it's an awful aspect of living here. This is mainly a problem in Midtown, but it's bad enough there as to be one of the worst things about the city.

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

#166

Post by belorn »

Kalium wrote: post #109
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…

As a pedestrian in a dense Californian urban core, I have mixed feelings about bikers. Most bikers are reasonable, sensible bicycle commuters. They stay in the road, wear helmets, and follow laws. No skin off my nose. (ecologically friendly, fights obesity, blah blah blah blah blah) But I've also had multiple encounters with bicyclists who feel they are entitled to switch back and forth between a wheeled vehicle movi…

> can top 20 mph barreling down the sidewalk. Sometimes with cargo in tow.

I would be very surprised to see that on a side walk. 20mph is above the speed limits for cars in cities here in Sweden, and I recall reading that while the police can catch people speeding on bikes that its not very likely event.

> Usually with no notice and as is convenient for them

Seems similar to parents with strollers. I have never heard of a parent being confronted by police for reckless engagement of children when walking on the bike road, and it is almost as if people do not view it as reckless. I am pretty sure through that people would react if a parent started to walk with the stroller onto the road against car traffic.

I would be very interested to know how many people would confront a stranger that is walking a stroller on a bike road, or even just quietly consider it reckless.

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

#167

Post by dkhenry »

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 am from philadelphia as well so I know there are bikes who stop at red lights and stay on the streets. I am not so nieve to think everyone does as I have also run across people who don't obey any traffic laws, but over the last 15 years biking in philly has grown up a lot, and people who used to rationalize their behavior because of lack of infrastructure are changing their ways and coming in line with what is expected of bikers in an urban setting. There will always be those who don't follow the rules, just like there are pedestrians and cars who don't follow the rules, but the situation in that city has gotten so much better, not because new laws were passed or cops cracked down on people running stop signs. The situation got better because more people bike, we put up bike lanes, and drivers got used to bikes being in the street with them.

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

#168

Post by gyrgtyn »

eternalban wrote: post #96
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…

I cycle myself and also enjoy the pedestrian life. Some bikers in the city are irresponsible and ignore traffic laws. The same treatment given to cyclists by some drivers is meted out to pedestrians by some cyclists. Something to do, no doubt, with that pesky issue of power imbalance. In terms of risk assessment as a pedestrian in NYC, I always watch out for (1) MTA bus drivers, (2) any sort of livery, and (3) people…

Uber drivers are working their way up the list for me

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

#169

Post by npsimons »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #118
bluGill wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you are exercising hard heat is much worse than cold. A light sweater is enough for - 30, but at just over 25 you run out of things to take off.

I'm not sure I want to see you out riding when it's over 25 :)

Just like you can adapt to exertion in cold, you can adapt to exertion in heat. I regularly do both. It helps if you aren't overweight.

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

#170

Post by npsimons »

fishtank wrote: post #49
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 would encourage anybody who thinks cyclocommuters are particularly bad actors to stand on a busy urban street corner and count the percentage of drivers who are actively engaged with their mobile phone. You can identify them easily because they will be shiftily looking downward at sporadic intervals, rolling stop signs, and failing to notice traffic light changes. In addition to the phone-related dangerous behavior…

> I would encourage anybody who thinks cyclocommuters are particularly bad actors to stand on a busy urban street corner and count the percentage of drivers who are actively engaged with their mobile phone.

Also, every single time I see a complaint about cyclists, it neatly ignores that a dangerous cyclist would be orders of magnitude more dangerous driving a car. Based on mass alone, stopping distance will be much higher as well as incurring more serious injuries (including much more likely death) and property damage. Every time I bicycle instead of drive, I'm doing drivers and pedestrians a favor. Of course, I stay off the sidewalks and try to do the safest things possible.

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