What is the life expectancy of getting in a taxi and getting to your destination vs getting on a bike? Probability of surviving if you get hit by a car: being in both? The other thing this article failed to mention is that NYC implemented slower speeds for cars. Overall this is true, but safety should be a factor and bikers nor drivers obey laws. Make the fines super expensive and use that money to educate people about the rules of the road. Drives me bonkers that they collect so much money in tickets from drivers but do not educate the people about it because they want the revenue haha. So stupid.
When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
231–240 of 294 posts
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
Moving a 20-pound chunk of metal at 20 mph with a 100-200 squishy on top amidst a bunch of unsuspecting and unexpecting other squishies may be less than maximally safe for all squishies involved. We're talking about 40-some-odd times more kinetic energy than your average squishy walking at 3 mph. If you're forced to move into pedestrian space for safety from giant metal cages, the safest option is to actually become…
Yes, or at the very least, slow down to a reasonable speed instead of weaving in and out among the pedestrians. It's incredibly disorienting to have someone fly right by you at 20mph with zero warning. Scares the hell out of me every time.
If they are riding 20mph on the sidewalk, THAT'S the problem. At a more appropriate speed, it's safer for everyone.
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better bike infrastructure keeps bikes off the sidewalk. As a biker you can't win. Drivers try to run you off the road, pedestrians don't want you on the sidewalk. Bike lanes are a solution, but the political will needs to be there. That being said, in places where bikers feel they have to use the sidewalk, they should absolutely yield to pedestrians.
pedestrians don't want you on the sidewalk It is illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk in every city I know of. Pedestrians don't have lanes. Pedestrians don't have rules. They might turn suddenly to get into a car, or pop out of a shop. It is just selfish of bikers to think they should be on the sidewalk. It's very dangerous for us pedestrians. In the last 20 years, I've been hit twice on the sidewalk and had to ju…
> It is illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk in every city I know of.
While I agree that riding on the sidewalk is generally a bad idea, it's definitely not illegal in all places. For example, in Austin it's explicitly legal except in these locations [0].
[0] https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Public...
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> But I've also had multiple encounters with bicyclists who feel they are entitled to switch back and forth between a wheeled vehicle moving significantly above normal walking speeds and a pedestrian who just happens to be on a bicycle. Usually with no notice and as is convenient for them. Not infrequently such enhanced-pedestrians can top 20 mph barreling down the sidewalk. because they can. trying to pigeonhole cyc…
In SF you're legally not allowed to ride on sidewalks if you're over age of 13.
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where do you live? I'm in Manhattan, and people rarely cycle on the sidewalk here. There's simply no room to do so, as there's so many pedestrians. You end up going more slowly than if you stayed on the street where you belong in nearly all circumstances. Don't be too mad at the cyclists, though. Usually they're doing it because the city isn't providing the proper level of bike infrastructure. With more high quality…
I'm a longtime NYer who recently moved to SF. for the past 10 years I've commuted by running each way, ~3-5 miles each way. plenty of experience with bikes and cars in urban areas. Biking on the sidewalk is WAY more common in SF than in NYC, especially in manhattan. In SF, there seems to be a few main reasons: 1 - Biking on the street would clearly be unsafe. An example here is 3rd st between portrero and soma. 2 - B…
I'm curious to hear more about your commute. I live ~3 miles from work, and would love to run there, but there isn't a good way for me to store my towel, a change of clothing, etc at work, and it doesn't seem feasible to carry all of this in a backpack. We do have showers, but they don't have overnight storage.
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#236Not 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…
As a pedestrian I would have a lot more sympathy for cyclists if they stopped at red lights like cars do.
Crossing the street in NYC is more dangerous than it has to be because you always have to be wary of a person on a bike coming out from behind a truck or something.
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But I've also had multiple encounters with bicyclists who feel they are entitled to switch back and forth between a wheeled vehicle moving significantly above normal walking speeds and a pedestrian who just happens to be on a bicycle. Usually with no notice and as is convenient for them. Not infrequently such enhanced-pedestrians can top 20 mph barreling down the sidewalk. because they can. trying to pigeonhole cyc…
In SF you're legally not allowed to ride on sidewalks if you're over age of 13.
seems like a bad law. i won’t ask anyone to risk their lives over a bad law
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I have found is there is a tiny minority of people who _hate_ bikers. I walk 4 miles a day on city sidewalks. The number of times I have to yield to bikers on the sidewalk is disgusting[0]. And some of these bikers are going fast . I once saved a child that was about to run out of a store. I could see, from my vantage point, the biker and the child set for a collision course. I stepped in front of the biker, doi…
Better bike infrastructure keeps bikes off the sidewalk. As a biker you can't win. Drivers try to run you off the road, pedestrians don't want you on the sidewalk. Bike lanes are a solution, but the political will needs to be there. That being said, in places where bikers feel they have to use the sidewalk, they should absolutely yield to pedestrians.
> As a biker you can't win. Drivers try to run you off the road, pedestrians don't want you on the sidewalk
you're right, but the attitude that arises from that problem is what most people don't like about city bikers
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I enjoy cycling as much as anyone, but I detest a fairly sizable portion of cyclists I encounter throughout the city. In my part of the city it's assumed by most drivers that if a cyclist is riding through the neighborhood that they will completely disregard the stop sign and act accordingly. It can be confusing to them when a cyclist observers right-of-way. I'm no saint, I practice the Idaho Stop too but if I'm at a…
> I'm no saint, I practice the Idaho Stop too
There are two parts to complying with a stop sign:
1. Come to full stop
2. Yield to any traffic that has the right-of-way before proceeding
The problem with a lot of stop sign installations in the US is that they're largely unnecessary since it's possible to yield to traffic that has the right of way without having to come to a full stop first (since there's plenty of visibility of approaching cross traffic). That's why cyclists do "Idaho stops" and car drivers do rolling stops.
If authorities would only post traffic control devices in areas that are absolutely necessary, instead of having a blanket rule for using them, then compliance would go up substantially and complaints about cyclists and cars running stop signs, for example, would be next to non-existent.
Re: When Citi Bikes Are Faster Than Taxis in New York City
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where do you live? I'm in Manhattan, and people rarely cycle on the sidewalk here. There's simply no room to do so, as there's so many pedestrians. You end up going more slowly than if you stayed on the street where you belong in nearly all circumstances. Don't be too mad at the cyclists, though. Usually they're doing it because the city isn't providing the proper level of bike infrastructure. With more high quality…
I'm a longtime NYer who recently moved to SF. for the past 10 years I've commuted by running each way, ~3-5 miles each way. plenty of experience with bikes and cars in urban areas. Biking on the sidewalk is WAY more common in SF than in NYC, especially in manhattan. In SF, there seems to be a few main reasons: 1 - Biking on the street would clearly be unsafe. An example here is 3rd st between portrero and soma. 2 - B…
> I'm a longtime NYer who recently moved to SF.
on HN is there seriously only two places to live in the US?