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Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

citylab.com

171–180 of 194 posts

Re: Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

#171

Cyclists need to be trained as well. I live in Berlin and too many times cyclists almost run me over and didn't even acknowledged the fact, just flipped the bird at me. I have never been in a dangerous situation with cars, just with cyclists.

While yes, of course people need training to be safe, if you hit someone with a bike you have to extremely unlucky to cause a life threatening injury. If you hit them with a car, you only have to be doing 30 mph for it to be 50:50 lethal.

I’ve only seen a relative handful of cyclists in the last few months in Berlin, but my experience in Cambridge has been that on the road, cyclists and drivers are about equal skill; but on cycle paths, you find the idiots who cycle 2-abreast at night with no lights or high-viz on a section with no path lighing, who somehow think it’s appropriate to complain that I did have lights (if I hadn’t had lights, we would’ve collided at about 30 mph, and I was the only one with a helmet).

Re: Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

#173
post #166
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not statistically valid reasoning. If biking vs driving makes some people not have kids, but not everyone, then in a city where driving is prohibitively expensive you'd still expect most parents to be on a bike. That's because the others didn't switch to cars, they didn't have kids, or they moved. I don't know what riding with one of those bike chariots is like, but being confined to a bike already sucks, I as…

You're assuming the cycling is causing people to have less children. It would be nice to provide some statistically valid sources to explain why you think that's so. I live in the Netherlands and your assumption is pretty strange one. Mostly because it's not one or the other. You can do loads of things by bike while also having a car. Further, especially now with electric bikes you can transport an insane amount of c…

>You're assuming the cycling is causing people to have less children. It would be nice to provide some statistically valid sources to explain why you think that's so.

No, I'm providing alternate explanations for an observation that the previous poster claims shows that cycling does not cause people to have less children. I don't need to prove it happens, just show it's possible. Of course the "burden of proof" will always be assumed to fall on me because I disagree with popular opinion.

I hope you enjoy the Netherlands. I never want to live in the Netherlands, and I'm sick and tired of people trying to turn the places I like into the Netherlands.

Biking sucks. I do not want to ride a bike. Take your self-righteous crap and fuck off.

Re: Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

#174

I'm from around Ghent in Belgium and study in Ghent and last year the city introduced a plan where no cars except for taxis and some public transport is allowed inside of the city centre. It's absolutely awesome because Ghent is a student city and you can get anywhere in Ghent using the bike but you can also get anywhere by car by parking nearby in an underground parking lot and walking the rest of the way. But it ha…

> Antwerp also recently introduced a measure where only cars with a low amount of "exhaust gases" (can't really find the proper name as of writing this) are allowed in the city centre. I haven't been there since, but it's also something I truly admire going into the future. Amsterdam is introducing a similar system for scooters. Older scooters are no longer allowed in these designated zones due to 'environmental conc…

Disclaimer: I don't particularly like mopeds, but I do care that (local) regulation is somewhat sane. This new regulation in Amsterdam is quite bad.

The argument about shared lanes doesn't really apply to traditional mopeds because for most part they are not allowed on bike paths anyhow. And soon the slower mopeds that are allowed on bike paths will be moved to the main road as well.

The weird thing about this new regulation is first of all that it applies to all of Amsterdam. So some north-south routes that go through Amsterdam will require insane detours.

The second weird thing is that 4-stroke engines on moped, don't get much worse over time. It is weird to ban them just because the engine is over a certain age. But the worst thing is that an older 4-stroke engine is way better than a new 2-stroke engine.

Getting rid of old 2-stroke engines is probably a good thing, but then banning all 2-stroke engines would make most sense.

The scheme only makes sense from a government point of view: automatic license plate scanners can figure out the age of a moped and automatically send a fine.

Pet peeve of mine: I find it completely bizar that city governments can arbitrarily ban vehicles. There should at least be national categories that could be banned. Not that every city comes up with completely arbitrary rules that from one day to another can have a significant impact on the owner of the vehicle.

Re: Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

#175
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who gets repetitive strain injuries from running and isn't a great swimmer cycling is a God send. I can go biking 7 days a week. If i need a blow out then i push a harder gear without dropping cadence... Or i do tabata.

Wouldn't being a bad (assuming you mean in the sense of inefficient) swimmer make it a good form of exercise?

Possibly, if i could get myself you swim more than 500m before giving up from boredom/dislike of drinking chlorine water.

Re: Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

#177

I'm from around Ghent in Belgium and study in Ghent and last year the city introduced a plan where no cars except for taxis and some public transport is allowed inside of the city centre. It's absolutely awesome because Ghent is a student city and you can get anywhere in Ghent using the bike but you can also get anywhere by car by parking nearby in an underground parking lot and walking the rest of the way. But it ha…

How does Ghent's supply chain/delivery system function? In the US we have huge vans or semis to deliver inventory. I was in Zermatt this Summer (no combustion-engine cars allowed) and everything /everyone is transported around in little electric golf cart type vehicles to reduce smog, which could block the town's view of the Matterhorn. Is it similar in Ghent?

There are usually logistics centers on the fringe of the city. From there everything is dispatched on smaller city friendly vehicles. Small vans or ebikes like so https://www.dekra.net/media/newsletter/jpg/2017/ups-zustellf... or so https://www.ttm.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/8892_333.jpg

Re: Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ride a heavy fat steel bike with both front and back suspension and low tyre pressure and tyre treading for slowing the speed. Sit upright and keep the seat position low for inefficient pedalling.

good luck Riding a skiny tired racing bike in the snow when compared to a fat tired MTB

Both will suck ass.

If the snow cover isn't very thick (just a couple of inches on top of road) a thin tire will cut through it better to get to the road.

There is likely ice under that snow so you need studded tires like these:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ca/en/schwalbe-marathon-w...

Note they come in various widths: down to 35mm (commuting road bike size) to 2 inches (MTB).

I would take these in the 40mm width over the other sizes for commuting in the snow.

Re: Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

#180
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These kinds of posts are downright bizarre to me. The only explanation I can see is if you've never had to walk nor bike around, only drive, and only talk to other people who also grumble "fucking cyclists" when they realize they have to share the road with them. > German car owners fear nothing more than damages Well, cyclists and pedestrians have to fear bodily injury from all collisions. You yourself admit that au…

I hope you'll forgive me but your post shows a lot of ignorance. I live in Copenhagen, I cycle every day and drive nearly every week. Berlin is hell and I dread driving and cycling there every single time I visit. I swear half the cyclists there would lose their driver's licenses when cycling here, the sheet unpredictability and complete disregard for driving rules (the same that cars follow, I swear they behave like…

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