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Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

forbes.com

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Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#381

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

wdb wrote: post #159
fipar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About not killing someone if you ride after drinking, Obviously it is ver difficult for a bike to directly kill someone other than the rider (as opposed to a car, where this is very easy), but a drunk cyclist can still hurt other people directly or indirectly (causing a bigger accident by forcing someone to avoid them). Even on a city free of private cars, you’d still share the road with pedestrians, other cyclists,…

You can hit a pedestrian

However, there's a good incentive to not hit pedestrians. In collisions with pedestrians, cyclists often get more injured and surprisingly, pedestrians are more likely to be to blame for the collision (e.g. stepping into a road or cycle lane without looking).

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#382

Post by giraffe_lady »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #370
giraffe_lady wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The saying isn't "only cars are loud" smartass. And I've lived across from from an elevated transit line in an otherwise carless city center and it was quieter than any north american subwayless city I've lived in so this isn't even true lol.

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Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#383

Post by rickydroll »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #300
blitzar wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Schools inner city are (typically) terrible.

That's _very_ american assumption. All good schools are "inner" city in my country.

A bit of refinement on that thought. In America, inner-city schools are mixed bag. If you live in someplace like Cambridge, schools tend to be good. Boston is a mixed bag. Same is true for other adjacent cities. However if you go to places like Westford, Newton, Wellesley which are very high earner high value properties, the schools tend to be consistently very good. Then you start moving into more rural places in Massachusetts like Pepperell, Townsend, Athol and again the schools are more like inner-city schools, underfunded and not very good quality.

I think the best way to judge the quality of schools by the opportunities the student's have as a result of going through the schools. The Westford, Newton, Wellesley schools are for winners of the birth lottery. Leominster, Townsend, Athol are for us birth lottery losers.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#384

Post by mellosouls »

jonahrd wrote: post #351
mellosouls wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

significantly faster if parking is taken into account for most trips This sounds unlikely for the average cycling commuter if parking alone is making the difference- cyclists (as motorcyclists) need to change (at each side) and shower etc; I think that is often forgotten in these calculations.

I could probably count the number of times I've changed or showered after cycling on one hand, and cycling has been my main mode of transit for 10 years. When your trip is like 3km you don't even have time to work up a sweat, especially if you're limited to just going at the speed of traffic. (Yes, on my own I could probably ride faster, but I'm limited by car/infrastructure speed)

Sure, there are always going to be anecdotal exceptions ("parking isn't an issue for me, I just park on site"), but I think fans on either side can have quite rose-tinted views when assessing the pros and cons; I was just pointing out an omission in one of the examples.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#386

Post by hgomersall »

slothtrop wrote: post #270
matsemann wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - might be impossible depending on work or children; The newer style of cargo bikes can for many families replace a car. Have two kids seated in the trunk of the bike and drop them off at kindergarten, then continue biking to work and pick them up on the way home. Those are a bit on the pricier side, though. Still cheap compared to a car, but people often look at them as something "extravagant" or "in addition" to…

Can't understate the temporal dimension to owning a car. When dropping and picking up a kid at daycare, you want to move fast, if you work for a living.

I was recently obliged for the first time to drop my son off at school by car. It took 50% longer than cycling. I can't understate the temporal dimension of using a car. When dropping and picking up a kid at school...etc etc

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#387

Post by kkfdkerpoe »

britzkopf wrote: post #131
raphaelj wrote: post #36

Somewhat unrelated to the article, but I live in a mid-size EU city and dumped my car for an e-bike a few months ago. Surprisingly, it hasn't been that hard (my GF kept her car, and I have a car-sharing subscription): Pros: - Immediately stopped having insomnia. Better feel overall; - about €300/month in additional disposable income. That's basically a free lunch everyday! - significantly faster if parking is taken i…

Don't have to worry about theft?! Wow, Europe must be so different than North America. I'm much more worried about my biker being stolen (has happened about a dozen times in my life) than my car. If the former happens you get absolutely zero support, while if the latter happens the police will actually try to do something.

Bike theft is a big problem at least here in Finland, especially for expensive bikes.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#389

Post by femiagbabiaka »

ovi256 wrote: post #320
judge2020 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no bubble, only a lack of desire to seek out knowledge about other lifestyles. The problems with car culture were not surfaced until the rise and dominance of the internet.

When people are accused of living in a bubble, it's usually because they show a strong universalist desire to expand their lifestyles to others, without consideration for the others' preferences. The opposite of humanist liberalism that was foundational for Western liberal democracies, or 'live and let live'.

Although you didn't imply a preference one way or the other, this made me think: if policy that is driven by suburbanite lifestyles leads to the destruction of the planet, is it truly "live and let live"? A more accurate description of the US ideology as someone who has lived in both ultra-rural and urban environments in the midwest and west coast is: "I want to do whatever I want/believe is best, regardless of the impact it has on people outside of my circle."

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#390

Post by danjoredd »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #42
Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #3

Note that the "City of London" is not the whole of the London built-up area, but just the financial services district, slightly more than one square mile in area. Still, it's a remarkable statistic even then.

If anyone non-UK types are interested in this weird entity — technically dates back to Roman days, and predates the United Kingdom by hundreds of years — this podcast episode is quite funny and informative. Just an example of what a weird anomalous zone it is: the King (or Queen) of England is not legally allowed to enter without explicit permission from the mayor — not the mayor of London, the Lord Mayor of this squ…

CGP Grey also had a great video on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc

He also had a video on the mayor of The City of London

https://youtu.be/z1ROpIKZe-c

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