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One year of cycling to work

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Re: One year of cycling to work

#201

Post by majewsky »

inopinatus wrote: post #197
ilovecars2 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is NOT OK to go through red lights, whether in a car, on a bike or on foot. The rules are the rules and we should all abide them. It happens all the time in London where bikes go through red lights and weave through pedestrians (sometimes at speed) who are crossing the road. Pedestrians are even worse - and often walk or run across red lights and almost get hit from a bus, car or bike. It’s madness!

To add a note of international confusion, in some parts of the US I believe it is legal to turn right through a red light.

Germany has a separate sign for this, the green arrow: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Gr%C3%BC...

It means that when the traffic light shows red and you want to turn right, the traffic light works like a "STOP" sign instead.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#202

Post by inopinatus »

losvedir wrote: post #194
sandover wrote: post #126

I've been cycling to work in downtown LA for nearly 8 years, 4 miles each way. I'm faster than a car over that commute. The weather is fantastic, and I am physically in great shape. Mental benefits are huge. I've gone about 15,000 miles in dense urban environments without any accidents of any kind. There are a number of keys to this: - Think like a driver -- it helps to be a good driver first - Think, period. Don't l…

> If you don't wear a helmet, don't worry about it, it doesn't mitigate that much risk. The exercise benefits of biking do way more to increase your life expectancy than skipping a helmet does to reduce it. What a bizarre contrast. If I'm inferring your point correctly, you're addressing those who would otherwise ride a bike to work but don't because of a helmet requirement ? Is literally anyone in that position? I g…

This’ll sound vain - because it mostly is - but some folks really care about their hair and may have it in an aesthetic construct that helmet-wearing will obliterate.

For those folks, wearing a helmet is anathema.

Personally I recommend simply not riding in this situation, because helmets save lives. But I’m not everybody.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#203

Post by gnarcoregrizz »

tomca32 wrote: post #176
nsedlet wrote: post #124

I commute about 6 miles each way between Brooklyn (home) and Manhattan (work). I've been raving about it to everyone I know because it's legitimately changed my life. It feels amazing, saves money, keeps me in much better shape, gives me more energy at work. It's slightly faster than the subway, and significantly faster than driving/cabbing at rush hour. I also love that transit time is very consistent (even relative…

Yeah, subway being "wonky" lately is putting it lightly. I'd love to bike to work. When I lived back in Europe, I used to bike every day to work and back. However, biking in NYC is just insanely dangerous in comparison. I'm really surprised how people do it at all. There aren't real bike paths, and you're supposed to bike on the road right next to all the cars. That's constantly being just one small mistake away from…

There are a few different types of paths - some main avenues have separated, dedicated paths - meaning a row of parked cars separates you from the traffic. There are also dedicated paths on the west side and central park. The bridges are also dedicated paths. You will likely need to spend some time on the "fake" paths to use them, but accessibility to the dedicated paths is pretty good and due to the layout of the manhattan (narrow) - if you're traveling north/south, you can probably spend the majority of your commute on the dedicated ones.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#204

Post by Retric »

nsedlet wrote: post #124

I commute about 6 miles each way between Brooklyn (home) and Manhattan (work). I've been raving about it to everyone I know because it's legitimately changed my life. It feels amazing, saves money, keeps me in much better shape, gives me more energy at work. It's slightly faster than the subway, and significantly faster than driving/cabbing at rush hour. I also love that transit time is very consistent (even relative…

Just be aware that heavy exercise near significant car exhaust is fairly bad for your lungs. If you go a moderate pace it's not that bad, but if you like going all out a face mask is a good investment.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#205

Post by dbaupp »

monaghanboy wrote: post #76

I bike everyday to work in the South Bay, Silicon Valley area. Everyone I talk to here can't imagine life without a car, but I haven't had any issues; lots of bike paths here, and all groceries and the gym are just minutes away. Sometimes when it rains I carpool, and I see how annoyed and irate most drivers get when commuting. So I don't regret not owning a car. The downside is not being easily able to take day trips…

I also lived in the South Bay and found ZipCar and/or renting a car for day, weekend and even week long trips worked fine (which one is cheaper depends on your age and whether you can get a discount through your employer or whatever). There was enough "Neighborhood" rental places around to be easily accessible by bike. A weekend was on the order of $60-180, and so even doing this every weekend only adds up to $3k-9k per year.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#206

Post by pilom »

AceyMan wrote: post #193
sandover wrote: post #126

I've been cycling to work in downtown LA for nearly 8 years, 4 miles each way. I'm faster than a car over that commute. The weather is fantastic, and I am physically in great shape. Mental benefits are huge. I've gone about 15,000 miles in dense urban environments without any accidents of any kind. There are a number of keys to this: - Think like a driver -- it helps to be a good driver first - Think, period. Don't l…

>>>If you don't wear a helmet, don't worry about it, it doesn't mitigate that much risk. The exercise benefits of biking do way more to increase your life expectancy than skipping a helmet does to reduce it. I'd read somewhere that up until some fairly high speed (40 kph?) that a helmet doesn't measurably lower the risk of injury. (Citations, pro or con, welcome!) And as the Vox piece points out, merely wearing a hel…

Second vote for the Schwalbe Marathons. I got fed up with fixing a flat once a month when I lived in Pittsburgh and biked everywhere. Replaced my tires with Marathons and had to replace the tires for wear after a couple thousand miles before I patched another flat.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#207

Post by gregcoombe »

jteppinette wrote: post #187
lflux wrote: post #169

I've been biking to work every day for over 6 months now, though mine is considerably shorter - 2 miles in SF. I got tired of being stuck on cramped muni trains not going anywhere and figured I could use a little exercise every day.

What is your opinion on cycling in the city. I live in SOMA and haven’t started riding yet. I used to ride all the time in GA, but it definitely seems more dangerous out here.

When I lived in SF I would ride pretty everywhere. The SF Bike Coalition is one of the most effective lobbying organizations I've ever seen, and they've done a huge amount to transform the city to make it bike friendly. In return, the number of people biking has really skyrocketed in the last 10 years. There are often good bike lanes along routes, and sometimes they are even separated. They have a pretty good map that shows you bike lanes, so you could use that to plan out some routes while you're getting familiar.

Anecdotally, the motorists are more aware of bikes now than they used to be (just because there are more of them), but you still need to ride pretty defensively.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#208

Post by inopinatus »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #174
sandover wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wear a helmet too! But it doesn't change the truth of the sentence: "The exercise benefits of biking do way more to increase your life expectancy than skipping a helmet does to reduce it."

But that sentence doesn't make any sense! There is precisely ZERO reason to skip the helmet!

That assertion is incorrect. There are reasons. Reasons that you and I might find vain or foolhardy, but reasons nevertheless.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#209

Post by vbernat »

troncjb wrote: post #131
sandover wrote: post #126

I've been cycling to work in downtown LA for nearly 8 years, 4 miles each way. I'm faster than a car over that commute. The weather is fantastic, and I am physically in great shape. Mental benefits are huge. I've gone about 15,000 miles in dense urban environments without any accidents of any kind. There are a number of keys to this: - Think like a driver -- it helps to be a good driver first - Think, period. Don't l…

> If you don't wear a helmet, don't worry about it, it doesn't mitigate that much risk. The exercise benefits of biking do way more to increase your life expectancy than skipping a helmet does to reduce it. This is very, very stupid advice.

Most people here seems to miss the point. If you tell people to wear an helmet to cycle, they won't cycle.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#210

Post by colanderman »

sandover wrote: post #147
wbkang wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. "Cyclists without helmets triple their chance of death by head injury" https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/10/15/cyclists_without...

Look at it in terms of effect on life expectancty. The risk of death from 1 hour of cycling reduces life expectancy by about 24 minutes. Wearing a helmet probably changes this by a couple of minutes. - http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/06/13/bicycling-the-safe... - https://nwurban.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/cyclings-impact-on-... 1 additional hour of sitting and watching TV in the evening, in an already sedentary lif…

Statistics don't work that way. Applying an aggregate metric (life expectancy) to an individual is what gets you statements like "Babe Ruth and I hit a combined 714 home runs", or beliefs like colonial Americans all dying by age 30 (they didn't; the average is heavily skewed due to child mortality).

Wearing a helmet doesn't increase the number of minutes of your life like you're winding a clock or something. It decreases the probability that you're dead by 40 from a preventable tragedy, leaving your parents without a child and your family without a parent.

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