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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

#461

Post by carlosjobim »

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)

When your trip is 3km you can easily walk. Bicycle commuting is very hard in warmer climates, because you will get sweaty. But motorcycles solve that problem at least. Then you have those cold climates with awful weather, where bicycle commuting is pure misery, compared to riding a car or bus. So it is all very location dependent.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#462

Post by ed_balls »

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…

> might be impossible depending on work or children

a dog it's even worse in this regard. I don't think any taxi will refuse a child.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#463

Post by f_devd »

lacker wrote: post #417

I'm worried about riding my bike in the city. A friend of mine died on her bike when hit by a truck in Seattle a few years ago and since then I just don't feel okay biking alongside cars any more, especially with kids. I know this is fundamentally born of emotion rather than rationalism, but still, it does seem like riding a bike is much more dangerous than driving. Bicycles are somewhere from 3x to 11x more dangerou…

> Bicycles are somewhere from 3x to 11x more dangerous than cars.

In the US, where there is effectively no bicycle infrastructure. In the Netherlands it seems to be about 1.18x (or 1.1x if you include trucks) [0].

[0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/523310/netherlands-numbe...

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#464

Post by CalRobert »

Tade0 wrote: post #241
CalRobert wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly this rings somewhat true, I'm trying to make the maths work on moving from my house in the horrible Irish countryside (horrible if you don't like profound isolation and car-dependency, that is) and move to Utrecht or Houten, or Freiburg, and it is challenging, to say the least.

Good luck - I have a friend in Utrecht and he's happy there but IIRC he's renting and will do so for the remainder of his life. I was priced out of the city where I grew up, so going somewhere more expensive is out of the question.

I'd rather rent somewhere I can walk to the pub then live in my current paid-off house where I'm just lonely all the time. It's beautiful but that only goes so far.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#465

Post by avianlyric »

nonethewiser wrote: post #176
raphaelj wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, my bike is insured, and I bought a recently released angle grinder-resistant lock [1]. My workspace is also fairly well located so that also helps. [1] https://eu.litelok.com/products/litelok-x1

Insurance won’t get you to work. And if you don’t need it to get to work you don’t need a car in the first place, so I wouldnt see a point in comparing.

Most bike insurance include covering the cost of paying for a taxi or other transport alternative on the day of your bike theft.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#466

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

crote wrote: post #280
yourusername wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Said someone that has never lived across the street from a elevated subway, on a street with a streetcar or near a bus stop.

What is louder: 1 subway train, or 200 cars?

1 subway train.

In real tests done in NYC, the mean dbA for subway platforms was 81.1 vs. 76.0 for buses (which, by definition, run on the roads)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2707461/

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#467

Post by Reason077 »

pjc50 wrote: post #340
rnk wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't quite make sense, "it's difficult to avoid having a car because you can't store it"? Can you elaborate? I'm interested what life is like in these cities that charge drivers so as to reduce cars in the road.

It's expensive to have a car in central London because of the cost of parking. It has basically been unbundled from housing; garages sell for upwards of £100k, guaranteed parking spaces somewhat less, on-street parking is either banned, charged for, or very heavily competed over. As a resident you get a 90% discount on the congestion charge, so driving it will cost you £1.50 per day. I'm not quite sure whether that a…

Car parking for residents is heavily subsidised by London councils, a policy which encourages car ownership. Residential parking permits are very cheap (often as little as £100 or so for a YEAR of parking), where as outsiders coming in to park will be charged a small fortune. [1]

This system discourages schemes that could reduce car ownership, like car sharing, car rentals, etc, because residential parking permits must be linked to a particular plate number.

[1] It's true that some newer housing developments have been approved on a "no parking" basis, which means if you live in that building you can't apply for a parking permit. But these developments are still the exception, not the rule.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#468

Post by CalRobert »

holoduke wrote: post #227
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…

You live in a city bubble. I have three kids and live in a suburban town about 40km away from the nearest big city. No way i can live without a car. I do have bikes and use them often to bring kids to school. But many friends and family are scattered arround the country. Many places i go to with my kids can only visited by car. And i find a car often very useful during a period of reconstruction of my house or garden…

Similarly, someone on the moon would find a spacecraft useful as well.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#469

Post by mrpopo »

margorczynski wrote: post #354
garte wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This thinking seems self-defeating to me and only serves to uphold the status quo or - sadly - make things worse.

How is looking at reality and making choices that based on that analysis are best for the safety of you and your family self-defeating? You're putting activism into the mix and if you're willing to put more risk on yourself and/or your family to prove a point then it is your choice to do so.

It's not "activism" or "proving a point", it's the prisoner's dilemma. You maximize the global reward (fewest accidents) by putting yourself on the most risky position.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#470

Post by CalRobert »

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'.

Why is it illegal to build almost anything but suburbia?
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