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A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

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Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#141

Post by stormbrew »

Johnny555 wrote: post #116
WD-42 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infrastructure like dedicated bike parking in itself shows a cultural acceptance of biking: it's like a "you are welcome here" sign. It helps.

Not as helpful as bike lanes that let you bike there safely. To get to my previous employer, I had to bike across a freeway overpass with exits/entrances and high speed traffic, and then ride along a two lane road (35mph posted speed, 45-55mph actual speed) with no shoulder. Despite being an avid biker and living only 4 or 5 miles away, I only biked there a handful of times, dealing with traffic was too scary. There…

Obviously it's important to get a way to bike to places, but if you want to use them for commuting or any other activity that involves leaving your bike alone for more than 3 minutes you pretty much need to have decent bike parking.

Otherwise you're just risking your bike being stolen and there being no recourse for it every single day. Because the police sure don't give a shit about bike theft, even if your bike is fancy enough for it to technically count as grand larceny. Let alone if it's not.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#142

Post by mrmanner »

nightfly wrote: post #70
wil421 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Atlanta we had one of our main highways collapse, I85. It was the exit after my place. Everyone adjusted and it actually forced people to ride the train. The train stations had to borrow parking spaces from businesses and schools. Everyone will adjust. On the first day it will be a disaster if it’s unexpected.

For years I commuted by train/bus to school/work until I could afford (the extra $200ish per month) to switch to driving to claw-back an hour of time I spent commuting each day. If traffic devolved to the point that I wouldn't be able to drive to work anymore I /would/ adjust, but I'd be generally less happy for it.

My most productive time each day is the ~half hour on the bus or train to work. I plan my day, answer all simple emails, and when I’m in the office I can get right to the important things.

I get that many jobs (and even more employers) require 8 hours attendance, that not everyone has volunteer work to do when they can’t work work on their commute, and that some public transport doesn’t accommodate any kind of being productive - but I’m still amazed at how many people prefer say 40 minutes driving to an hour sitting on a train and a 10 minute walk.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#143

Post by fader »

tastygreenapple wrote: post #133
halbritt wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, pretty much. Motorists can be extraordinarily vocal without realizing how extraordinarily entitled they are to be able to operate their motor vehicles in urban environments where accommodating those motorists has an extraordinarily detrimental effect on the community in terms of space, traffic, pollution, congestion, etc. Not really a slight against motorists, I am one and never had this realization until I spe…

In America, Motorist == Community. It's bikers who are deviations from normal. We've built our cities for cars, now these bikers demand 'inclusion' on infrastructure they broadly don't pay for while flagrantly violating laws (ever seen a bicyclist come to a complete stop at a stop sign? Me neither).

That's a beautiful example of the entitlement in question. Cyclists pay taxes (did you think that gas taxes are high enough to pay for roads?), cause orders of magnitude less damage and wear to the road surfaces than automobiles, and don't use anywhere near the amount of valuable land as free storage for their vehicles when not in use.

(The law violation works both ways too. Ever seen a motorist obey the speed limit? Me neither.)

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#144

Post by bikeshaving »

Johnny555 wrote: post #125
bikeshaving wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of protected bike lanes is a direct consequence of the policy of providing free overnight car storage on both sides of every residential/commercial street. The days of “share the road” are over: cycling advocates need to advocate for 1/2 street parking on every street if we actually want change, because this is a zero-sum game where only one side continues to murder and maim the other because they think they…

Temporarily repurposing street parking is a great tactic to get people to realize how much public space is given to 1 person which could serve many I think all it would do is enrage drivers that their parking space is being taken up by cyclists. To think that they'd finally recognize how much space is taken up by cars assumes that drivers are looking at this rationally. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130212-why-yo…

If you’re conceding that most motorists are irrational, then we as cycling advocates have all the more reason to adopt more aggressive tactics to eliminate parking. Cycling advocates should consider, in addition to legal pop-up parking replacements, sabotaging parked cars and parking spaces, blocking roads without permission, and other forms of protest to reclaim our streets. This is how Amsterdam was won (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY6PQAI4TZE). What’s at stake is literally lives, both in the short-term in terms of victims of traffic violence, and in the long-term in terms of victims of climate disaster. I have zero interest in catering to a group of people who, as you describe, are irrational.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#145

Post by vortico »

Johnny555 wrote: post #84
frankus wrote: post #35

Local governments (at least in the US) seem to systematically underinvest in experiments like this. Things like traffic congestion have a ton of weird, largely unpredictable positive and negative feedback loops. Seattle removed its waterfront viaduct from service for a couple of weeks before changing over to the new $3.3B tunnel and traffic was mostly fine, despite apocalyptic predictions of gridlock. It's not entire…

I don't think something like this would be that successful in the USA - it's not lack of parking that keeps most people from riding, it's lack of protected bike lanes (or other "safe" routes), and lack of cultural acceptance of biking. Plus, open, street parking isn't that safe in a lot of cities, if I could ask for some specific parking infrastructure, I'd ask for lockable bike lockers... though I'd rather see bike…

>it's lack of protected bike lanes (or other "safe" routes), and lack of cultural acceptance of biking.

In my opinion, it's because most people live too far away from the places they need to go in order to bike there. I wouldn't want to ride a bike 20 miles a day, regardless of bike lanes or bike parking.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#146

Post by mrmanner »

scythe wrote: post #136
frankus wrote: post #35

Local governments (at least in the US) seem to systematically underinvest in experiments like this. Things like traffic congestion have a ton of weird, largely unpredictable positive and negative feedback loops. Seattle removed its waterfront viaduct from service for a couple of weeks before changing over to the new $3.3B tunnel and traffic was mostly fine, despite apocalyptic predictions of gridlock. It's not entire…

I think the applicability of these types of observations may be limited. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_critique People respond differently to a change they expect will be temporary vs a permanent change. You wouldn’t buy a bike to use a temporary lane, for example.

My hometown tried giving away studded tires to 20-30 people in exchange for them sharing their experiences after commuting a whole winter. Maybe the same could work for temporary bike lanes - the city buys a hundred bikes, a hundred people loan them for free during the trial period. After the trial they can be sold or given away - the knowledge gained would be worth the cost either way.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#149

Post by Phrodo_00 »

Johnny555 wrote: post #125
bikeshaving wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of protected bike lanes is a direct consequence of the policy of providing free overnight car storage on both sides of every residential/commercial street. The days of “share the road” are over: cycling advocates need to advocate for 1/2 street parking on every street if we actually want change, because this is a zero-sum game where only one side continues to murder and maim the other because they think they…

Temporarily repurposing street parking is a great tactic to get people to realize how much public space is given to 1 person which could serve many I think all it would do is enrage drivers that their parking space is being taken up by cyclists. To think that they'd finally recognize how much space is taken up by cars assumes that drivers are looking at this rationally. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130212-why-yo…

I don't like that the article implies cyclists are breaking the rules, but then they list behaviors that are legal in most places and make sense:

> overtaking queues of cars, moving at well below the speed limit or undertaking on the inside.

It also blames bikes for both moving too fast and too slow, and ignores that drivers'd be way more pissed if bikes took the entire lane (like they're entitled to in most places).

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#150

Post by latestagetest »

elif wrote: post #5

Seems like a good way to regulate escooters. Better for cities than sidewalks, better for companies than permitting the construction of infrastructure. Flexible enough to adjust to demand.

Paris is doing it with 2500 parking spots for escooters: https://www.cnews.fr/france/2019-07-08/paris-les-premiers-de...
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