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Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

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Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#71

Post by notauser »

brightball wrote: post #54
village-idiot wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are far too certain. 70 years ago a prognosticator wouldn't be considered insane to say "the ship sailed on cities 50 years ago, Americans live in downtown and that's not changing". These things do change, often quite quickly. Personally, I think the Boomers are in for a big shock when they try to sell their homes for a "fair" price, and discover that Millennials neither want nor can afford large suburban homes.…

> Millennials neither want nor can afford large suburban homes I see this often. Very few people want large homes when they are either single or don't have kids. As soon as you do have kids and they start to grow to an age where they want to play outside, having space to run, play sports, be away from traffic, have their own room, etc gets a lot higher on your priority list. You can also get a suburban home without i…

Yes, but fewer people are having children, which reduces the demand for suburban living.

The suburbs also have less attraction for me as a parent. In the old days you could let your kids roam a suburb freely - now you can't. So why not live in a city? You have the same restrictions, but also a lot more distractions such as free museums.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#72

Post by Luc »

modzu wrote: post #52
zoul wrote: post #7

I’d love more bikes in our town, but it’s not very flat. Is there some data on how much flat does the town have to be to get around on a bike? (I guess electric bikes change that equation a bit, but they’re still quite expensive.)

hopefully carbon fiber continues to get cheaper, because having a lighter bike really does make a difference on climbs. that said, anybody can go up a hill in a low enough gear(!), but psychologically it can still feel like a lot of work to pedal so much and go up so slowly. so part of it is learning how to ride. for that reason i agree hills are a (surmountable) barrier to entry and probably hillier places have less…

30% of new bikes sold in the Netherlands are electric. In Belgium, 40%. No need for carbon frames - electric engines flatten all terrain.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#73

Post by jbob2000 »

xapata wrote: post #41
jbob2000 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's this weird thing that happens in northern climates where all the bikers and scooter riders magically disappear sometime around October and don't reappear until sometime in April. I can't figure out why this happens, we should really aim to understand that before we push bikes and scooters on half the human population. I don't think it's the car lobby that causes this disappearance.

Not all. I just put on my balaklava and some knobby tires. It's not that bad with the right clothes. I wouldn't walk around in Boston winter without my face masks either.

> I'm genuinely curious: do you wear glasses? How do you keep them from getting fogged up/iced over when riding in the winter?

Don't waste your time. Pro-cyclists are the most biased and privileged people I've ever met. Just get on your bike, it's so easy! forgets that some people have bad knees. All you need is some goggles when it rains! forgets that people wear glasses. Just wait for the snow to be cleared! forgets that some cities don't clear snow. Just buy knobby tires! forgets that smaller people will struggle with the extra weight. Just wear a face mask! forgets that some cities ban face coverings and certain demographics get looked at strangely if they wear balaklavas

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#74

Post by bluGill »

liveoneggs wrote: post #56
brightball wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another way to look at the problem: Locating offices unnecessarily in the middle of high-density cities creates long commutes.

locating them in random suburban office parks is much worse, except for those in that particular 'burb.

Even if you are in the suburb it is bad. They office park has no houses within walking distance. Sure technically you are in the same small city, but you may as well be 30 miles apart - either way you will drive to work. (it is possible to bike to work, but you are doing it for exercise or because you are some sort of "new age hippie" - it isn't practical)

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#75

Post by prophesi »

CloudYeller wrote: post #5

In most cities, especially in America, there's a vicious cycle: 0) Cycling is dangerous because there are too many vehicles on the road 1) There are so many vehicles on the road because everyone knows it's dangerous to cycle 2) Go to 0 Breaking out of that loop requires building safe infrastructure for cycling, like indestructable cement dividers between bike lanes and vehicle lanes or no-vehicles-allowed-in- days

Yep. I either walk or hope that public transport's schedule aligns with mine.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#76

Post by village-idiot »

chasedehan wrote: post #55
adrianN wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other forms of electric transport, like scooters and electric bikes should be pushed more. Together with decent mass transit they solve the last mile problem quite nicely imho. But unfortunately the car lobby is extremely strong and doesn't want to lose its market.

Here in Salt Lake City there are a number of people who commute year round. It really isn't bad as long as the snow is removed - which they do quite well here. Unfortunately, my bike commute only happens occasionally now that I work in the 'burbs - which, at least here, is where all of the new office complexes are moving.

High altitude snow is also really weird. Back in Denver you just had to get used to snow disappearing and leaving behind dry concrete.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#77

Post by KozmoNau7 »

village-idiot wrote: post #27
gameswithgo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hour+ long commutes are also just terrible. Terrible to live through psychologically, they waste time with you sitting still and not moving so you get fat and weak, and they are dangerous.

You are absolutely correct, but there is a really weird addendum to this. There have been a bunch of studies trying to measure the relationship between commuting time and (subjective) quality of life. Most of them find exactly what you'd suspect: longer commutes reduce quality of life. The weird thing is that they found a small uptick at the absolute extreme edges of commuting, like in the 5+ hour a day range. It's s…

>"Either way, I walk to work. There are few better ways to commute, IMHO."

The bicycle is one of those ways. It's faster and significantly more efficient.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#78

Post by village-idiot »

brightball wrote: post #67
village-idiot wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You act like Millenials don't already have children, when the oldest members of that cohort are 37.

That's because it's a known trend: https://www.forbes.com/sites/josephcoughlin/2018/06/11/mille... https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/singletons/201804/sh... https://www.parents.com/parents-magazine/parents-perspective... https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/upshot/americans-are-havi...

Yeah, so that reinforces my point. Millenials aren't going to buy up those suburban homes.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#79

Post by village-idiot »

csixty4 wrote: post #53
xapata wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all. I just put on my balaklava and some knobby tires. It's not that bad with the right clothes. I wouldn't walk around in Boston winter without my face masks either.

I'm genuinely curious: do you wear glasses? How do you keep them from getting fogged up/iced over when riding in the winter?

Gotta get a face mask with vent holes for your nose/mouth. That lets the moist air escape away from your eyes, reducing fog.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#80

Post by toomuchtodo »

village-idiot wrote: post #64
brightball wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Millennials neither want nor can afford large suburban homes I see this often. Very few people want large homes when they are either single or don't have kids. As soon as you do have kids and they start to grow to an age where they want to play outside, having space to run, play sports, be away from traffic, have their own room, etc gets a lot higher on your priority list. You can also get a suburban home without i…

You act like Millenials don't already have children, when the oldest members of that cohort are 37.

Anecdote of one. 36, wife and two kids. Have a quarter acre of land, a pool, and a 2600 sq ft house in a Tier 2 city for ~$200k. Why would I ever choose higher density and city living? I would not pay more for a lower quality of life (and distance means little to me, as I work from home and my kids don't go to school).

I happily bought my suburban home instead of living close to others in a condo or a townhouse.

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