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Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

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Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#231

Post by jupp0r »

greedo wrote: post #130
swader999 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's almost no weather you can't bike in, just requires decent clothing and studs like parent mentions. In Calgary Alberta one year I commuted 50 km across the city each way with ebike for an entire year. With decent snow clearing, studded tires there was probably only ten days I didn't want to or couldn't take my bike.

Yesterday it was 94F with humidity around 70%. If I tried to ride to the closest supermarket, that's 10min each way. Great way to get heat stroke.

Good point about the heat, that can indeed be dangerous if you’re not used to/trained to ride in those conditions. The same is. kt true for cold conditions where it’s really just clothing and tires.

What you can do in hot conditions is ride an ebike.

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#232

Post by rufus_foreman »

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #165
gernb wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

getting rid of the car doesn't get rid of the commute. Plently of countries in the world where most people commute by train/bus/subway but it's still 40 minutes or more on average to commute.

There's a massive difference between a 40 minute commute by public transit and one where you're driving. If your commute is by car, you can't do anything else while commuting. If you are on a bus, you don't have to be focused on your commute the whole time.

The last place I lived where I rode the bus, when you commuted by bus you had to be focused on the other bus commuters the whole time.

No thanks, would rather drive.

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#233

Post by rufus_foreman »

ir123 wrote: post #102
rayiner wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oil and car companies just sell a product that people want to buy. Toyota didn’t hold a gun to my head to get me to buy an SUV that gets 15 miles a gallon. Attacking them is an out to avoid confronting the real issue, which is that you don’t like the life choices most other Americans are making.

How come europe is not that car dependent?

At the outbreak of World War 2, close to 50% of US households owned a car. By 1960, around 80%. What were the numbers for Europe?

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#234

Post by 8note »

bombcar wrote: post #175
rayiner wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe has lots of car companies and oil companies too, so that framing would seem to support the idea that they’re not the cause. What’s different about Europe is virtually everything else. See my sibling post on this issue. In a nutshell, an immigrant nation with a long tradition of migration for opportunity and to get away from others places a higher value on unrestricted mobility. Culture is extremely sticky. Add…

Also, America has other, darker, undercurrents that occurred around the same time - the racial aspect of car culture can't be entirely dismissed (even if race is/was a proxy for "poor") - Europe seems much more comfortable with poor and rich living near each other (where rich is some variation of "middle to upper-middle class +").

The racial aspect is strong - it's "development" that actually killed black wallstreet, rather than the firebombings

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#235

Post by rufus_foreman »

jvanderbot wrote: post #108

Concur. I lived in minneapolis for a long time, and biked almost 100% (except winter). I have never felt more un-safe than when I tried to live this lifestyle in LA. In Minneapolis, you could ride along bike-specific greenways and literally stop at bike-only pubs, coffee shops, etc. It was quite accommodating. I'm sure much of that has changed with recent events, but I'm moving back and am cautiously optimistic.

> and biked almost 100% (except winter)

So like 50%?

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#236

Post by rufus_foreman »

jupp0r wrote: post #231
greedo wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yesterday it was 94F with humidity around 70%. If I tried to ride to the closest supermarket, that's 10min each way. Great way to get heat stroke.

Good point about the heat, that can indeed be dangerous if you’re not used to/trained to ride in those conditions. The same is. kt true for cold conditions where it’s really just clothing and tires. What you can do in hot conditions is ride an ebike.

It's not just hot, it's humid.

94F with humidity around 70% is a dew point of 83. Most scales will rate a dew point of above 70 as something like "miserable" or "intolerable".

The only outdoor activity I want to be doing when the dew point is 83 is called "going inside where there is AC". No I will not be riding an ebike around when the dew point is 83.

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#237

Post by frosted-flakes »

bombcar wrote: post #146
toyg wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Painting some lines on the road can help once people are on the bike Nah, it really doesn't. It just creates aggravation for cars and bikes alike, as both parties are stressed out about small spaces and eventually who-went-over-the-line. The only place it helps is at intersections, to favour filtering; whether that's a good thing per se, I'll leave for others to argue. This is one of those areas where politicians'…

The places I've seen where line painting works is where it replaced on-street parking; a bike lane painted on a road that is 10-12 feet wide works well, for some value of well. The thin bike lanes added to roads are a joke most of the time.

My city converted a lot of 4-lane roads to 2 traffic lanes, a centre-turn lane, and 2 wide bike lanes. It's great, cheap, and it really doesn't affect car traffic at all.

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#238

Post by alistairSH »

greedo wrote: post #130
swader999 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's almost no weather you can't bike in, just requires decent clothing and studs like parent mentions. In Calgary Alberta one year I commuted 50 km across the city each way with ebike for an entire year. With decent snow clearing, studded tires there was probably only ten days I didn't want to or couldn't take my bike.

Yesterday it was 94F with humidity around 70%. If I tried to ride to the closest supermarket, that's 10min each way. Great way to get heat stroke.

Very unlikely you’re going to get heat stroke in 10 minutes or even 10 miles if it’s 94*F. Unpleasantly hot? Sure, I guess, though I ride through similar weather without problems (beyond sweat).

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#239

Post by jupp0r »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #236
jupp0r wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point about the heat, that can indeed be dangerous if you’re not used to/trained to ride in those conditions. The same is. kt true for cold conditions where it’s really just clothing and tires. What you can do in hot conditions is ride an ebike.

It's not just hot, it's humid. 94F with humidity around 70% is a dew point of 83. Most scales will rate a dew point of above 70 as something like "miserable" or "intolerable". The only outdoor activity I want to be doing when the dew point is 83 is called "going inside where there is AC". No I will not be riding an ebike around when the dew point is 83.

It’s just hot and humid, you’re not on Mars. Of course it’s more convenient to take the car, but it’s not dangerous to use an ebike in those situations.

Re: Investigating the effects of bike lanes in Minneapolis

#240

Post by nashashmi »

croniev wrote: post #30
nashashmi wrote: post #5

Fair question: Are dedicated bike lanes near pedestrian friendly paths a safe transportation environment? I feel that bikes and electric scooters are more dangerous than cars.

> I feel that bikes and electric scooters are more dangerous than cars. How do you get this idea? In a collision with a pedestrian, the person on the scooter/bike will come to harm more likely than the pedestrian. But such collisions do not happen too often, and when they do, they don't go as bad as car crashes. I live in a German City (Darmstadt) where next to the big roads as well as in the city centre bikes and pe…

Two reasons why:

A car has better ability to brake suddenly then scooters and bikes where the rider can get thrown forward. I can hear a car coming. In the city they don't drive fast where as bikes ignore lots of rules and travel very quickly.

Ask yourself this: is a motorbike hitting a pedestrian more dangerous or a car hitting a pedestrian, where are both are driving at city speeds with lots of braking in short distances.

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