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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

#281

Post by staticelf »

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…

Was mostly biking in Brooklyn, not sure exactly where I went but from my experience at least, I didn't get to bike on a lot of biking lanes.

Of course, there were some and some just painted on the road which cars drove on. So that didn't help much.

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

#282

Post by staticelf »

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/

The spring of 2017.

What can I say, there were some but not a lot. And many of these lanes were just painted on the road.

I think this is the big difference, cars drove on the biking lanes but in Stockholm the overwhelming majority of these lanes are protected so cars cannot drive on them.

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

#283

Post by teddyh »

Kalium wrote: post #274
belorn wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that down a big hill? Naturally local phenomenon can be at any part of a variance, but it seems very odd. Even on a large stretch of leveled road, few bikes get close to 15 mph and the only time I have seen one go faster is from a professional biker, on a racing bicycle, doing a training run, and I would assume that their training paths don't generally include cargo and sidewalks. The average bike speed, as far as…

San Francisco has a number of large hills and other slopes where natural local phenomena can significantly enhance velocity.

Places with many large hills don’t tend to get many bikers.

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

#284

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

tomsthumb wrote: post #266
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you going to elaborate on that, or should I conjure up a motorcyclist from thin air and ask them how they feel?

It can be dangerous to be the only person or vehicle at a red light if you are a motorcyclist or bicyclist because cars can fail to notice you until they are quite close. Many motorcyclists apply and release their brakes, and sometimes add modifications to their tail lights so that they flicker when coming on to make it even more noticeable. I pay at least as much attention when I am the lone cyclist at a red light (…

Thanks for elaborating. It sounds to me though that the solution is modifying your tail lights to be more apparent, rather than running all the red lights.

I will also concede that motorcyclists are generally much better on the road than "analog" bikes, at least when they aren't in a group and their loud-ass bikes aren't waking me up at 1 AM.

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

#285

Post by anthonybsd »

mikk14 wrote: post #154
anthonybsd wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Copenhagen is #1 on the list of bike-friendly cities. Of course it's going to outpace NYC.

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

#286

Post by anthonybsd »

staticelf wrote: post #282
anthonybsd wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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/

The spring of 2017. What can I say, there were some but not a lot. And many of these lanes were just painted on the road. I think this is the big difference, cars drove on the biking lanes but in Stockholm the overwhelming majority of these lanes are protected so cars cannot drive on them.

>I think this is the big difference, cars drove on the biking lanes

Yes, that's the unfortunate reality of NYPD policing. They basically park in bike lanes with little or no consequence. However, with dedicated lanes a lot of progress is being made. Already there is a dedicated bike path that will allow you to drive for hundreds of miles north with little contact with cars.

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

#287

Post by anthonybsd »

toxik wrote: post #278
anthonybsd wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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/

As an avid bicycler and Swedish expat in Taiwan I gotta say I think one of the key things to feeling safe biking in Stockholm and Sweden in general is that Swedes are _fantastic_ at following traffic rules. Very predictable drivers. The Taiwanese bikes and scooters, on the other hand, act like schools of fish. Predictable as a mass but not as units.

That sentiment rings true for most of Europe to be honest. Americans are just not trained to be polite to transport other than cars.

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

#288

Post by mikk14 »

anthonybsd wrote: post #285
mikk14 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Copenhagen is #1 on the list of bike-friendly cities. Of course it's going to outpace NYC.

Sure, but you're making my point against your original one. Copenhagen has a bit more than 400km of bike lanes [0], which is less than a fourth of what you reported NYC has. Which was my point: NYC should have much much more than 1,000 miles of bike lanes to be even comparable to Stockholm or Copenhagen.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_Copenhagen#Infrastr...

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

#289

Post by anthonybsd »

mikk14 wrote: post #288
anthonybsd wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copenhagen is #1 on the list of bike-friendly cities. Of course it's going to outpace NYC.

Sure, but you're making my point against your original one. Copenhagen has a bit more than 400km of bike lanes [0], which is less than a fourth of what you reported NYC has. Which was my point: NYC should have much much more than 1,000 miles of bike lanes to be even comparable to Stockholm or Copenhagen. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_Copenhagen#Infrastr...

I don't know about that. NYC has Staten Island and huge parts of Queens which are effectively a rural village, whereas Copenhagen as well as most of Europe is highly urban. If you mapped population density to bike lane coverage, NYC would come out pretty favorably.

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

#290

Post by Kalium »

teddyh wrote: post #283
Kalium wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco has a number of large hills and other slopes where natural local phenomena can significantly enhance velocity.

Places with many large hills don’t tend to get many bikers.

You may find that San Francisco is an unusual place in a number of ways.
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