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Berlin's Plan to Become a City for Cyclists

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

#181

Post by closeparen »

lmm wrote: post #165
jopsen wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes no sense... US cities are super lucky to have such wide streets. If they WANTED to they could easily make dedicated bus and bike lanes that are safe. It easy they have so much space. European cities have to almost ban cars, to make room for bikes... This is a political issue, where Americans choose not to do something.

The US has plenty of space for bikes and pedestrians, but being a cyclist or pedestrian makes less sense there because the cities are so spread out. All the space taken up by those highways and parking lots mean that the places people actually want to go to are much further apart.

People who vote in municipal elections despise anything that looks like density. If it weren’t for freeways and parking lots, there would still be massive lawns and open spaces dotted with sparsely packed low rise and mostly single family buildings.

Parking contributes, but it’s mostly that American towns have at most a few blocks where European-level density (3-6 story buildings directly adjacent to each other) is permitted.

Good luck prying the detached house with a backyard out of the typical American family’s hands. Good luck getting them to consent to a multi family structure next door.

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

#182

Post by sliverstorm »

comicjk wrote: post #78
sliverstorm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe your parent is alluding to the fact that if you are regularly active & get exercise, biking at an easy pace on flat land in good weather won't even cause you to break a sweat, whereas if you sit on the couch all day it will. (Hopefully don't need a source for this)

I would certainly like a source. As far as I can see, the only way to sweat less over time would be to lose weight. A more-conditioned cyclist still does the same amount of work and thus produces the same amount of heat. Source: from the Washington Post, "athletes tend to sweat sooner and more." https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/sweat-its-...

A more-conditioned cyclist can perform the same amount of work with a lower heart rate & respiration rate. I don't have a source handy, but personally observe that my perspiration rate is directly related to my heart rate, and as I train & improve I can keep my jacket on performing the same work, where I needed to strip layers before.

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

#183

Post by rconti »

piva00 wrote: post #145
rconti wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn, 12 weeks into bike commuting 12mi r/t and I gained close to 10lbs!

Do you mean 10lbs of fat? If that's the case, watch your diet, 10lbs in 12 weeks you are eating something averaging 370kcal above your needs per day, with biking (and assuming you are a man and don't do any other kind of workout) it means you are eating between 3300-3800kcal/day, that's a lot if you don't do hours of sports or heavy weightlifting.

Not sure, but I was mostly joking. I mean, it was true, and my diet had not changed from when I was more sedentary, but I've ratcheted things down quite a bit since then with careful meal tracking and even more exercise (130mi/week on the bike, 18 mi/week running, plus strength training and core training).

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

#184

Post by megy »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #14

The cities mentioned as being great for cyclists are Copenhagen and Amersterdam, and now Berlin is trying. What is interesting is that the countries these cities are in Denmark, Netherlands, and Germany have fertility rates of 1.7, 1.7, 1.5 births/female [0]. In other words, people aren't having that many children. When transporting children, cars become a whole lot more convenient than bicycles. You don't have to wo…

> When transporting children, cars become a whole lot more convenient than bicycles.

Cars are almost always more convenient for most people, with or without children.

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

#186

Post by justinator »

jacquesm wrote: post #57
a_bonobo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many European cities are a bit lucky in that regard, they are much older than US or Australian cities. The European cities are built on top of plans that were made for pedestrians and horse carriages, with city walls and small streets. Muenster, for example, has a beautiful bike circle around the inner city because that's where the city walls used to be. US and Australian cities are much younger and don't have such '…

One nice example of a city that did not have that but where things worked out wonderfully is Helsinki, there is a bike path through a large chunk of the city on what used to be a railroad. It's totally out of the ordinary traffic recessed in the ground so out of the wind (not unimportant that far North).

But one other example of an entire country not being designed for bikes post WWII is the Netherlands. It took a lot of change to make it is what it is, today. I think the moral of the story is that that change was explicit, and wasn't just happenstance. In visiting the Netherlands, you would think all that bike infrastructure was obviously just always there.

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

#187

Post by jacquesm »

justinator wrote: post #186
jacquesm wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One nice example of a city that did not have that but where things worked out wonderfully is Helsinki, there is a bike path through a large chunk of the city on what used to be a railroad. It's totally out of the ordinary traffic recessed in the ground so out of the wind (not unimportant that far North).

But one other example of an entire country not being designed for bikes post WWII is the Netherlands. It took a lot of change to make it is what it is, today. I think the moral of the story is that that change was explicit, and wasn't just happenstance. In visiting the Netherlands, you would think all that bike infrastructure was obviously just always there.

NL has historically had bikes in large numbers since bicycles were a thing.

If there was one thing the Dutch were pissed off about very long until after the war it was that the Germans took all the bicycles (or at least large numbers of them) to toss them in the smelt for their weapons factories.

When I was a kid - not all that long ago, say 1971 - German tourists were routinely told that if they wanted to get directions they first had to return some bikes... Since then the sentiment has fortunately changed a lot but there definitely were tons of bicycles here prior to WWII.

Even the Dutch version of the road-side assistance was originally called the 'Algemene Nederlandse Wielrijders Bond', which is as much as the Dutch bicycling association. They were instrumental in marking the roads and providing help for stranded cyclists. Over time they morphed into the more car centric entity of today.

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

#188

Post by justinator »

jopsen wrote: post #103
a_bonobo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many European cities are a bit lucky in that regard, they are much older than US or Australian cities. The European cities are built on top of plans that were made for pedestrians and horse carriages, with city walls and small streets. Muenster, for example, has a beautiful bike circle around the inner city because that's where the city walls used to be. US and Australian cities are much younger and don't have such '…

That makes no sense... US cities are super lucky to have such wide streets. If they WANTED to they could easily make dedicated bus and bike lanes that are safe. It easy they have so much space. European cities have to almost ban cars, to make room for bikes... This is a political issue, where Americans choose not to do something.

> That makes no sense... US cities are super lucky to have such wide streets.

Unless you're a pedestrian that wants to cross those wide streets. My stays in Salt Lake City are sometimes harrowing.

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

#189

Post by [deleted] »

Improvotter wrote: post #96

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…

[deleted]

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

#190

Post by cjsawyer »

I live in Fort Collins, Colorado. It’s supposedly the best bike city in the entire US. I STILL see people narrowly avoid accidents almost daily due to only about half of the roads having dedicated bike lanes and the insufficient size of the lanes that do exist. It’s really a disappointment given that title. I’m glad I have a car.

Edit: On a little research, apparently that’s a very outdated acendote. Good to know!

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