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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

#251

Post by Fradow »

CapricornNoble wrote: post #207
Johnny555 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In Japan the cyclists ride on the sidewalk, and use little bells that the entire pedestrian population is conditioned to understand means "move over please, I'm coming through". I've found bike usage surprisingly high in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto compared to my experience living in/near numerous US cities (Philadelphia, Miami, St. Louis, to name a few). Why the emphasis on bike lanes in US cities? Putting unarmored peo…

- what works in Japan may not work in other countries because of culture difference. Case in point, while on the bike lane (in Paris), the kind that is at the same level as the sidewalk, just next to it, even after ringing my bell like a madman, some pedestrians just won't move off of it. They just can't grasp the fact that they are on the bike lane AND that they should move out of the way.

- the "ways of the road" you talk about is a wonderful myth that everything work correctly. When you look at the stats, countries where it's more a free for all tend to have higher road death/injuries.

- cyclist everywhere wants infrastructure that protects them against 2-tons metal boxes as much as possible, and laws that respect the fact that they are NOT 2-tons metal boxes with an engine. Absent that, only a tiny minority of people will dare take a bicycle anywhere.

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

#252

Post by vonmoltke »

slewis wrote: post #184
vonmoltke wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not the policy in a large chunk of Manhattan. It was not the policy on major (more than two-lane) or downtown roads in Dallas (and its two independent enclaves prohibited overnight street parking entirely). It's not the policy on the vast majority of streets in Miami or the surrounding cities.

Anecdotes dont override the claim of “default” here.

It overrides the "every major city". I don't understand why some people here are hell-bent on exaggerating or misrepresenting the situation.

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

#253

Post by vonmoltke »

runarberg wrote: post #228
vonmoltke wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> take the bike on the bus You make that sound so simple. There's no way I could bring a bike on the bus or train I use to get to work.

That is a solved problem. The only reason you can’t bring your bike on the bus/train is because of a policy that prevents your local transit system from investing in the necessary equipment. Why are they enacting this policy I don’t know. But I think it has to do with the larger problem of city transportation policies that generally cater only to private car users at the expense of every other forms of transportation…

> a policy that prevents your local transit system from investing in the necessary equipment

What policy? Please show me an example of such a thing.

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

#254

Post by vonmoltke »

jakecopp wrote: post #218
vonmoltke wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> take the bike on the bus You make that sound so simple. There's no way I could bring a bike on the bus or train I use to get to work.

Or just buy a $50 bike second hand and park it at the end of the bus route!

That's fine, but that's not the point the OP was making and doesn't do anything about the last mile problem on the other end.

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

#255

Post by vonmoltke »

Lio wrote: post #234
vonmoltke wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> take the bike on the bus You make that sound so simple. There's no way I could bring a bike on the bus or train I use to get to work.

Why not? A fold up https://us.brompton.com/ is a very good bike. They make an e-bike version if you’re not a strong cyclist and if you put it in a bag, then it’s just a bag shaped thing you are taking with you.

I'm familiar with those, and I have considered it. I could not fit that in the bus I would use (I can barely fit my backpack). The train is a dicey proposition; the car config I am on this morning barely has enough space for people plus a small-ish bag. I'd be taking up a second seat if I had a folding bike. Other consists have better luggage space, though even they are optimized for moving the maximum number of people possible.

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

#256

Post by rayiner »

Lio wrote: post #233
rayiner wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The car bloc is 95% of the population and is completely rational. It makes no sense to take entire lanes out of service for the tiny minority of people who can integrate biking into their daily commute. And for most people in the US, public transit is not an option because you have a last mile problem at both the starting point and ending point. Consider, as an ironic example, the new development around DC’s New Carr…

Small folding e-bikes solve that “last mile” problem for lots of people. They allow people to quickly reach mass transit hubs when none are near by, fold up and hop on. What’s missing is normalisation and support from transit providers. I’d add, that it would be nice if Google/Apple would add multi-mode transit routing for maps so that you could tell when it’s quicker to cycle direct and when it’s quicker to cycle to…

No they don’t. Even a folding ebike wouldn’t work if everyone brought them on the DC metro or NYC Subway. It’s packed shoulder to shoulder already.

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

#257

Post by rayiner »

AceyMan wrote: post #206
rayiner wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The car bloc is 95% of the population and is completely rational. It makes no sense to take entire lanes out of service for the tiny minority of people who can integrate biking into their daily commute. And for most people in the US, public transit is not an option because you have a last mile problem at both the starting point and ending point. Consider, as an ironic example, the new development around DC’s New Carr…

>It makes no sense to take entire lanes out of service for the tiny minority of people who can integrate biking into their daily commute. Cart meet horse. I believe we have to "build it and they will come." It's a 'tiny minority' (well, minority) due largely to lack of infrastructure (bike lanes, sharrowed roads with modest speed limits, &c.). Then, you hit upon the other issue... >And for most people in the US, publ…

> America needs more transit everywhere, and maybe more importantly, we need to dissolve the notion that mass transit is not just how low-income people solve transportation.

Transit is completely impractical in almost all the places where most Americans live and work. We’re talking about a commute that starts in a suburban cul-de-sac and ends in a suburban office park. Where would you put the transit lines? There is also the issue of speed. If you have enough lines and stop to actually cover most people (it would have to be bus service, anything else would be completely unfeasible economically), the commutes would be dog slow. America has among the shortest commutes in the OECD, because our whole country is built around point-to-point car trips.

There is a saying: you won’t excel if you constantly beat your head against your weaknesses. Our country is structurally not set up for transit, and our political systems are incapable of the coordinated effort necessary to make transit work. Atlanta is never going to be walkable like Paris, any more than Paris is ever going to get an orderly street grid like Chicago. And even if you tore down Atlanta and rebuilt it as a walkable city you’ll never convince Americans to walk or bike long distances in 90 degree weather/90 percent humidity. Trying to make it so is a fool’s errand. Focus on the things America can do: electric vehicles, etc.

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

#258

Post by Johnny555 »

kd5bjo wrote: post #238
lacampbell wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My pet armchair theory is because driving a car is the one time a lot of human beings feel powerful. Where I live (provincial New Zealand) car traffic is slowed down just as much by tractors moving from farm to farm as it is by cyclists. Yet I never hear people tell me their elaborate fantasies about murdering tractor drivers. Why? Because it's not a realistic fantasy - the tractors are bigger than them. If you work…

Once you manage to overtake a tractor once, it doesn’t ever re-overtake you and make you do that work again. On sections of road with large amounts of traffic and stoplights, I’ve had to wait behind and overtake the same bicycle 5 times before I finally got far enough ahead. Most bicycle encounters are non-issues, but it’s these extended ones where it seems to the driver that they’ll never be done with this one parti…

So your problem isn't with the cyclist, its with having so many cars on the roads that you can't drive faster than biking speed?

What do you expect would happen if those riders weren't on bikes? When I'm not on my bike, I'm driving (if transit worked for me, I wouldn't be on my bike)

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

#259

Post by DocTomoe »

Something that often is neglected: Destroying Car parking for bike corals in inner cities tends to affect out-of-towners, people who cannot bike into cities because of distance, disproportionally. Noone drives their car low distances within cities because that would mean losing their spot.

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

#260

Post by Johnny555 »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #211
rizzin wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Is the problem with open parking stealing bikes, stealing parts or breaking bikes? I'd like to add an often overlooked problem with open parking: bikes that are left there forever to rust and rot.

Really? Bikes are expensive in the US.

Only expensive bikes are expensive, you can pick up a cheap bike from Walmart for ~$100, or a used bike for less than that.

When a tank of gas costs $50 or more, $100 for a bike is cheap even if you have to replace it every couple months.

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