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Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

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241–250 of 382 posts

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

#241

I love cycling. I grew up in my father's bicycle store and nearly 50 years later, he's still running the business and we've all worked in it at one time or another. I ride bikes around the neighborhood with my kids every day. With that said, the U.S. is not the Netherlands. Like most Americans, I depend on my vehicle to get my kids to school and myself to the grocery store, which are 4-5 miles away from my house. Thi…

I just saw a girl on TV saying she was doing 6km to go to work. Granted that's not possible for kids before middle school, but after that I think it's not far fetched.

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

#242
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of it this way: The more people you can convince to cycle, the fewer cars are ahead of you in a traffic jam.

Have you lived in Chicago during the winter? It gets quite cold and windy. I couldn't imagine willingly commuting there on bike even if adequate infrastructure existed.

Chicago in the winter is little different from Finland in the winter, and in the latter plenty of people commute by bike all winter. The discomfort of cycling in the cold is exaggerated; there is a way to dress appropriately, and then it is not a big deal.

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

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are problems with cars, but returning to the bicycle, an 18th century city technology, is regressive, not the way forward. The car was a great liberator from the congested and dirty density of the city which was once the luxury of only the rich to escape with their estates and private coaches. Make the suburbs more energy efficient, and figuring out an innovative and fairer way of financing roads is the progres…

> returning to the bicycle, an 18th century city technology, is regressive, not the way forward Just because something is old does not mean it is a bad idea. By the way, bicycles were first developed in the 19th century (not 18th) and have been continuously improved since then. And motor vehicles are not much newer, anyway. The Benz Patent Motor Car was sold in the 1880s. For comparison, the most popular type of bike…

You're mistaking the movement per unit energy efficiency of the car vs. The bicycle as the only reason for preferring one over the other. There are a myriad of emergent benefits to people having affordable climate-controlled engined-vehicles with storage that has improved their lives dramatically.

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

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m always shocked how few people swap out for winter tires in appropriate climates. Also distressing was the number of people convinced that all wheel drive made their car safer in the snow.

Isn't it safer, though? I'm not very experienced with this stuff, but one of the issues is having sufficient traction to make it up hills, and all-wheel drive is superior at that. If you have to roll back down a hill and try again with a running start, that may be doable, but that makes things more chaotic and unpredictable on the roads (compared to making it up the first time). In an ideal world, other drivers would…

No, it’s more convenient. I personally would argue that AWD can make cars less safe because of the false confidence it provides.

The most important thing you can do with a car is brake and turn, as those affect safety the most.

All cars brake with all four wheels, drive type has absolutely no effect at all. All modern cars have enough braking power to slide on clean concrete, let alone snow and ice. The only thing you can do to improve braking distance is to change your tires.

Steering is only affected by drive type when you’ve got the hammer down, as you may be asking the front tires to propel and steer the car at once (this is partly why FWD cars often understeer). But in a snowy situation you won’t be driving flat out, so which wheels are driving will have little effect on steering, and zero effect if you’re coasting or braking.

What AWD is great at is getting you off the line in low traction scenarios, which is convenient. It also means that you can get an AWD car up to speeds that are unwise in the present conditions (remember that steering is two wheeled in almost all cars).

The only real advantage that AWD has is that AWD cars are typically heavier than their two wheel drive cousins, and weight absolutely confers safety in snow.

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

#245
post #40

I wonder how a bike or even public transit is going to replace a car? 1) How am I supposed ro go to the beach with two kids, stuff for picnic and surfboards on a bike or even on a bus?!! 2) Public transit is all good, but have you ever been in a PEOPLE jam during rush hour in a subway? Because I had. And I will take SV traffic jam over it any day. The truly bad things happen because of radicalism - it should not be b…

It replaces a car for daily activities, not for road trips. Have you ever seen what happens in a Tube strike in London? Gridlock like you wouldn't believe. I was cycling to work and I saw an ambulance stuck in traffic dead stopped with sirens blaring because there was no open space for any cars within earshot to move out of the way. There were tens of thousands of people walking to work along the A3 (Northern Line co…

Yeah, I don't mind crazy packed subway if I don't carry more than a backpack. If I have to move a large box I won't be happy.

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

#246
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have some hope for the movement that installs a bike path along a restored LA River! [1] [1] https://www.railstotrails.org/trailblog/2017/october/02/bike... Edit: The webpage for the LA River project: http://lariver.org/ The webpage for the LA River Trail: https://www.traillink.com/trail/los-angeles-river-trail/

I don't know LA enough to comment on that project, but my experience with similar projects is the bike trails created like that are a beautiful ride to nowhere. A great trip to take on a nice Saturday, but nobody will use them to get anywhere. (other than the bars that happen to be near the trail)

That's my experience as well. My town converted an abandoned rail line to a biking/walking trail. It does run through downtown, but beyond that it basically goes noplace very desirable. It gets recreational use by a small subset of the community, but it's not a big difference-maker in making cycling practical.

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

#247
In San Francisco one major barrier to cycling is theft. You basically cannot leave a bike for > 1hr. This additional burden means many who would bike (such as myself) no longer consider it an option. I previously biked upto 45minutes each way for work.

> A 2013 report by the city’s legislative analyst estimated that 4,085 bikes worth $4.6 million were stolen in 2012, with the downtown and South of Market neighborhoods the hardest hit.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/DIY-crime-fighters...

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

#248
post #219

A city that is bike-friendly is good, but a city that is walking-friendly is better. The bicycle is a great way to exceed "walking distance", but why should that even be necessary in day-to-day life? It is easily possible to build a neighbourhood where three generations of a family can live, work, attend school, shop, and more within walking distance. Walking is the simplest, most universal, and most natural mode of…

> The bicycle is a great way to exceed "walking distance", but why should that even be necessary in day-to-day life? Uh... because I want to visit friends? Go see a show? Explore? Take a job that's not immediately next door? There are a million reasons why. You know what cities were insanely walkable? The endless concrete enclaves of Khrushchyovkas in the USSR. Walkable does not mean pleasant.

Biking isn't just a means of transportation, it's also a means of recreation - on weekends I bike to get outside the city, tree lined country roads make for a nice relaxing ride.

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

#249

Much like Lebron, i recall the days of my youth when i was old enough to start biking around town, 20/30 minutes or more away from home. Felt like a whole world out there and many great memories doing simple stuff like biking with a few friends to the nearest gas station or walgreens and pooling up a few bucks to buy candy and a drink.

This fascinates me, the days of near digital-free days. From today it feels empty, but I remember being quite happy (if not a lot happier then). We just enjoyed things differently.

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

#250
Also the electric scooters sure help avoid Uber and Lyft bloat in cities, and getting more resistance than they should, IMHO. Hey SF, might want to consider that. The scooters weren't that messy compared to getting down 2nd street at 9am on any weekday.

Personally I try to OneWheel since I can ride it and pick it up with me. Don't have to worry about it being jacked by the SF petty crime syndicate.

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