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One year of cycling to work

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Re: One year of cycling to work

#261

Post by tawayduibike »

jacquesm wrote: post #230
djtriptych wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Commuted for years, also Brooklyn to Manhattan about the same distance. Had to stop due to back issues but I can echo all the OP’s benefits. Biking is somewhat dangerous in NYC, and every other American city. I agree with OP that NYC drivers are generally very good though. It’s the bikers responsibility to bike as though drivers are -trying- to kill you. First heard that advice when riding motorcycles and it’s stuck…

> The last was pure user error, riding tipsy from my local bar home :) Doesn't that count as DUI where you live?

No, that's a common misconception: https://www.nysdwi.com/rochester-dwi-on-a-bicycle-new-york-l... and https://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/a-state-by-state-guide...

Re: One year of cycling to work

#262

Post by wffurr »

I think that's amazing that a small-ish town or city in Germany has such great public transport and bike routes. That all seems to be limited to much larger cities in the US.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#263

Post by u801e »

soperj wrote: post #233
alsetmusic wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't ride in the door zone. Don't let cars make you ride in the door zone. Take the car lane instead. Please don’t do this. During the time that I commuted on a bicycle, it was very frustrating when other cyclists didn’t follow the rules of the road (zipping through stop signs is another example). It causes resentment in drivers. This leads to aggressive behavior towards cyclists.

I don't know the rules of the road for NYC. Where I'm from though, you are supposed to take the lane. Quite frankly, it's insane not to take the lane, since people think they can pass you in their car, while staying in the same lane.

Traffic lanes are rarely wide enough for two vehicles to travel side by side with sufficient space between them.

For example, on a street with 10 foot wide lanes, a 6 foot wide car would have a margin of 2 feet on either side of it and 4 feet between it and a car in the adjacent lane. For buses that are 8.5 feet wide, they have about 0.75 feet on each side and 1.5 feet between them and another bus in an adjacent lane.

A cyclist is about 2 feet wide at a minimum. To have a 2 feet of space on each side, they need a lane that's 6 feet wide. To have 0.75 feet on each side, they need a lane that's 3.5 feet wide.

For the car and bus examples above, neither can leave enough space in the lane while they're in it for a cyclist. So the only way to safely pass one is to change lanes.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#264

Post by rconti »

dguaraglia wrote: post #84
unicornporn wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've fallen thrice (that I can remember). Two of these times was when I was stupid enough to ride on ice with slicks. The third time I tried to pull some fancy trick up a curb (just stupid). So, I've scratched my jeans. Other than that: nothing ( touch wood ). Nowadays I run studded tyres in the winter and they're crazy effective. I don't recommend riding without a helmet or hövding, but this article gives you some i…

How hostile are the drivers in Stockholm? Bay Area drivers aren’t super friendly to cyclists (to be fair, plenty of cyclists also behave like assholes, cutting in front of cars and crossing intersections when they shouldn’t.) My biggest concern during a year of using my bike to commute was making sure I didn’t get ran over by a car taking a turn, because signaling is not always their forte.

I find Bay Area drivers (Palo Alto) area to be polite, almost to a fault. I've had a few aggro assholes, but normally the problem is they're unpredictably nice.

For example, if a car passes me 50 feet before a stop sign and then either has their right turn signal on or otherwise indicates a turn (turns the wheels to the right as they stop), I often just pull in the lane behind them so there is no confusion about whether I'm going to get run over or not... but it seems to more often CAUSE confusion, because they're waiting for me to go by them on the right, which I appreciate the courtesy, they have the right of way.

I often have the same issue at 4-way stops; if they arrive before me and I slow to a stop and put my foot down, THEN they start waving me on and want me to go before them. Of course if I were to blow the stop sign, other people could potentially be annoyed by that. But only about 20% of drivers go before me when I arrive after them and stop and put my foot down.

Also, sometimes I try to pull into the "gaps" between parked cars to allow a car behind me to pass, if there is lots of space and I will not need to pull back into the lane for awhile.... but too often indecisiveness and timidity on the part of the driver mean now I'm having to negotiate my way back into the lane with a car still behind me.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#265

Post by lb1lf »

kqr wrote: post #114
unicornporn wrote: post #34

I'm at my 12 year of every day bike commuting. Before I commuted 10 km each direction, now I'm at 6 km. If I have activities after work, I ride to them too. So my total ride length is a fair bit longer than what my commute is. The public transportation network here in Stockholm is good, but wouldn't even consider cramming myself into a packed subway train or bus. Even at this time of the year when it's -5 degrees cel…

Only thing keeping me from commuting year round is lack of studded tires. I'll have to fix that until next year, because as I'm standing here, hoping for a train that's not jam packed, I really miss cycling.

I've been mostly biking to work for years now, on an island off the northwestern coast of Norway.

I have found that studded tyres are more of an annoyance than an asset on 99 out of 100 winter days.

On anything but wet ice, regular tyres do surprisingly well - to the extent that I've felt no need for studs at all during quite literally thousands of kilometers of riding in the snow - yes, grip is not as good as on asphalt, but then again - studs will not magically make the road bare; they only give you a bit of extra margin under very specific conditions - wet ice, basically.

On wet ice, studded tyres will just postpone the inevitable. You WILL topple. On those days, I just jump in the car.

Additionally, the noise of a set of properly studded tyres is enough to drive me nuts, though obviously YMMV.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#266

Post by rconti »

nmeofthestate wrote: post #112

As a counterbalance to all the positivity, I cycle to work and don't enjoy it or feel much benefit from it. In comparison, driving is so much more comfortable (especially in bad weather) and a bit quicker.

I rather enjoy my bicycle commute, but I agree, I don't arrive at work any more ready to tackle the day or productive/energetic than if I drive.

I prefer to bicycle, but I also love driving, and of course the car is always more comfortable.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#267

Post by s73v3r_ »

RandallBrown wrote: post #236
s73v3r_ wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They're uncomfortable, mess up your hair, make you extra sweaty, and you need to put them somewhere. None of these are good enough reasons to not wear a helmet while you're riding a bike, but any one of them would be a good enough reason to not ride your bike at all. That's the point OP is trying to make by saying you can skip your helmet if you want.

"They're uncomfortable"

If that's true, then you are not wearing a properly fitted one.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#268

Post by skookumchuck »

subpixel wrote: post #253
dasil003 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: when there isn't a bike lane, some drivers feel righteous anger against cyclists and engage in extremely dangerous driving tactics.

Accepted. I think the solution involves better delineation and real legal consequences, based on cyclist-friendly laws, when drivers are found at fault in collisions with cyclists.

In Seattle I watch cyclists randomly weave from the bike lane into the car lane and back again. These are adults, not kids. It blows my mind.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#269

Post by s73v3r_ »

inopinatus wrote: post #208
s73v3r_ wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe in the sense that there are reasons to shoot yourself in the dick, but I don't think anyone would take those as being a reasonable argument.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#270

Post by 3pt14159 »

imperialdrive wrote: post #196
troncjb wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I've biked heavily for 30 years... advising people to wear a helmet never works. What works 99% of the time is the first freak crash. Not a crash where they felt like they were speeding, or not paying attention, or drunk... then they think it was avoidable. It takes a crash where you hit a rare little crack in the road, or a bump hidden in the shadows, or a car doing a u-turn out of the blue... then it 'clicks' Or, i…

Take everything you just said and apply it not to a bicycle helmet but to a full face motorcycle helmet.

Now do you see how you sound? Bike helmets marginally help, but the same marginal difference is found going from bicycle helmets to full face motorcycle ones.

I’ve broken my face in 4 places in a bike accident where the only thing that would have helped would have been a motorcycle helmet, but I don’t go around town wearing one or telling other people to. I like the air in my hair and I’m ok with the additional risk that not wearing any helmet carries. I’m careful in otherways but I’m an adult making an informed choice about the relative risk.

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