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Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

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Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#31

Post by yaacov »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #22
CabSauce wrote: post #10

That's great. Assuming the following: - Your commute is sufficiently short - You have facilities to shower and dress at work - You have sufficient time to shower and dress at work - You don't have to bring kids or sizable cargo - Weather is sufficiently good - You're sufficiently healthy

- You live somewhere warm enough to bike year-round.

And cool enough! I’d rather bike year round in New York than in Phoenix. But if you can bike 80% of the time it’s not so bad to take inconvenient public transit the other 20%.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#32

Post by vcanhoto »

CabSauce wrote: post #10

That's great. Assuming the following: - Your commute is sufficiently short - You have facilities to shower and dress at work - You have sufficient time to shower and dress at work - You don't have to bring kids or sizable cargo - Weather is sufficiently good - You're sufficiently healthy

The Dutch would disagree with you pretty much with every single point. Except the last one, maybe.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#33

Post by killjoywashere »

CabSauce wrote: post #10

That's great. Assuming the following: - Your commute is sufficiently short - You have facilities to shower and dress at work - You have sufficient time to shower and dress at work - You don't have to bring kids or sizable cargo - Weather is sufficiently good - You're sufficiently healthy

I'm 45, I've been riding bicycles for leisure and competition since I could walk. I've been to big cities on multiple continents, small towns, islands, raised kids, etc, etc. I'd say you're missing "someplace to put the bike at work" and could probably skip the time and facilities to shower for some commutes. But yeah, that's a good list of impediments.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#34

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

twiddling wrote: post #25
twiddling wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because most US cities are not compact and flat as Copenhagen

eBikes definitely help with the topography issues ( Seattle , Pittsburgh ). You still have the sprawl and separated land use patterns in a lot of cities though. Of course summer commuting in Houston or Phoenix is going to suck no matter what your bike is

Don't ebikes bring in a lot of the enviromental concerns as an electric car? Less for sure, but it probably starts to close that 10x number.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#35

Post by jedberg »

Switching from gas to electric is something I can do all on my own. Switching from gas car to cycling is something that would require major investments from my city and developers.

Both are noble goals, but let's not let perfect be the enemy of good. Switch to electric now, and also encourage new roads and new developments to be bike friendly, so that switching to a bike is something that will be viable in 20 or 30 years for most cities in America.

Edit: To clarify, the investment I'm referring to is rezoning entire cities and tearing down single family homes and replacing them with mixed use buildings to bring commercial spaces closer to residential spaces. Most American cities have commercial centers and are then surrounded by residential, with very little mixing of the two. For example the closest place for me to buy food is .75 mile away, but the closest supermarket is 1.5 miles and I have to cross two major roads and a Freeway to get there.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#36

Post by InitialLastName »

phnofive wrote: post #7
s0rce wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why isn't this actionable? We are currently making significant public and private investments into electric cars based on their reduced emissions. Why not also invest in cycling infrastructure (beyond the very limited capacity that most US cities are currently doing)?

There is no evidence to suggest millions of bicycle commuters are waiting in the wings for more green paint.

As they say, the power is in the marginal consumer. There are people who, given more bicycle infrastructure, will be helped over the threshold to riding a bicycle for more trips (I'm one of them; I will commute by bicycle, but the roads around me don't make riding home from a store with a trailer a safe decision).

Also, painting more lines on a road is usually more of a half-hearted municipal response to requests for bicycle infrastructure; the changes that are established to improve ridership are physically separated bicycle lanes, the network effect of more cyclists, and holding drivers responsible when their behaviors kill or maim more vulnerable road users.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#37

Post by cinntaile »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #22
CabSauce wrote: post #10

That's great. Assuming the following: - Your commute is sufficiently short - You have facilities to shower and dress at work - You have sufficient time to shower and dress at work - You don't have to bring kids or sizable cargo - Weather is sufficiently good - You're sufficiently healthy

- You live somewhere warm enough to bike year-round.

This is not a real issue, you can bike at any cold temperature if you dress accordingly.

What is a real issue is a lack of cycling infrastructure, if it's dangerous to commute to work by bike then a car is a better choice.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#38

Post by jrussino »

aBioGuy wrote: post #13
xhkkffbf wrote: post #6

Cycling is wonderful and I've lived with only a bike and no car at least three times in my adult life. But cycling just isn't going to work in many, many cases. Large parts of the population are too old, too infirm or handicapped in some way to make it more than a few blocks. Yes, some could be forced to lose some weight and get in better shape, but that's not going to work for many people with chronic conditions. Th…

I have two little kids. I also own an electric cargo bike. It has replaced over 2,000 car miles in the past year. I can bike to the grocery store, with two kids, and come back with a week's worth of groceries.

Which bike? I also have two little kids and would do this in a heartbeat if I felt that they could be reasonably safe.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#39

Post by ahelwer »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #30
pessimizer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am. Cycling in the city is dangerous.

Aren't there studies that show the health benefits out weigh the dangers? I think the problem is more that it feels more dangerous and is, as a result, is often quite stressful.

That's the sort of comparison you can only make over the entire population. Looking at it from the perspective of an individual, it's a raw deal if my general fitness is improved but then two years later I get hit by a car and walk with a limp for the rest of my life.

I do bike commute and lived in Seattle for 7.5 years without a car.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#40

Post by HDMI_Cable »

bluejekyll wrote: post #24
m463 wrote: post #5

I wonder if telecommuting like many are doing right now trumps everything .

Right now I know that we are getting a LOT of deliveries during the pandemic... I'm not sure it's quite that simple.

Well its probably better than driving out to the store. Since delivery trucks have many packages, the CO2 footprint per package is lower than one person in one car driving.
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