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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

#471

Post by scott_w »

inpdx wrote: post #308
Zigurd wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's correct. Drunk drivers are frequently completely unconscious by the time they crash a car, and can have been for quite a distance down the road. Can't happen on a bike.

One could envision that last beer or shot not having taken full hold when the cyclist gets on the bike. One could also envision balance being sufficient but reaction time not. Have I crashed my bike at the bottom of a hill while drunk? Yes, yes I have.

The important part, for public safety, is “How many people did you kill/maim?”

Injuring yourself due to alcohol is bad. Hurting others is inexcusable.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#472

Post by wiredfool »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #306
mrpopo wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my limited knowledge and viewpoint, there is a generational divide, a regional divide, and a class divide. When everything is averaged though, the household income is still the strongest indicator of how many cars you own, and most national statistics prove it.

True, class divide is a real factor: The upper class doesn't own cats (aside from "fun" cars for collecting) but leases them. Somewhat more serious: Especially here in Germany there is a strong incentive to give cars as a job benefit instead of a pay rises as there is less social insurance to be paid. Thus there is a strong motivation for anybody in a well paying job to get a car. This directly leads to that class di…

Here, no one owns cats.

The cats have servants.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#473

Post by CalRobert »

rickydroll wrote: post #399
substation13 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why cities are better for the environment. I don't think rural car usage has nearly as much negative impact as driving in a big city though, so this shouldn't be a strong policy focus. Awesome that the kids can ride to school!

I think the rural/city better for the environment is a bit of cherry picking of statistics. It's important however to respect what's good for each of us. For me, living in the city meant shitty health outcomes, spending way too much money on rent and food, way too many people trying to stick a hand in my pocket for entertainment etc. For me a good life means dark skies, green trees, a chance of dying every time I go…

Cities aren't loud. Cars are loud.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#474

Post by redleader55 »

ajb wrote: post #35
favaq wrote: post #17

Didn't they make it very, very expensive to drive in the City of London?

£15/day. So more expensive than public transport but less than if you took an uber.

As a data point, going two ways between zones 3 and 1 by tube is 8.7 pounds a day, and it will go up soon. If you include 2 people in the family, the convenience of dropping off the kids at their schools, etc 15 pounds doesn't sound that bad for the car, if you have where to park.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#475

Post by Lio »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #168
Xylakant wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What you say would only really be true if there weren't a portion of the population - even only a minority - who are, for want of a better word, massive dickheads (or simply very inattentive and situationally unaware). Isn‘t the same statement true for car drivers? But the major difference is that a car turns a dickhead into a mortal danger for other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike, while a bike doesn‘t.

People who dick around like that in a car find themselves in jail really quickly. People who do it on a bike wave self-righteously at the police while flagrantly violating the law, and get away with it.

Bollocks they do. People dick about in cars ALL the time. YouTube is full of people acting like knobheads in cars and getting away with it.

I know Cambridge really well and I know people that regularly race their cars on the A14 at night.

Do you really think all the people buying tuning kits are doing so because they like sticking to the speed limit?

When it comes to obeying traffic lights you won't be waiting long to see cars tailgating through amber. That happens every time.

Finally I'd point to the number of drivers still on the road with more than 12 points on their licence. They just plead extenuating circumstances in court and get away with it. They almost never find themselves in gaol. The real kicker is that those that do end up in prison on a Dangerous Driving charge never permanently loose their licenses.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#476

Post by scott_w »

_aavaa_ wrote: post #325
CalRobert wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is to build your towns and cities such that 15km is longer than most people would need to commute by bike, except perhaps as part of a bike->transit mixed-mode commute. There are places with wintry weather that are good for biking! Oulu comes to mind https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-64354089 And as explored in this video, if the weather is too bad to bike safely in, it's probably too bad to drive sa…

> if the weather is too bad to bike safely in, it's probably too bad to drive safely in. I am sceptical of this assertion. For starters, if you have poor traction in a car you can always slow down, and the risk you face is sliding. In a bike, you need to have a minimum speed to actually bike, otherwise you can't stay upright. And your failure case is no longer sliding, but it's toppling over. To say nothing of what h…

I’ve fallen off my bike in ice. I’ve also skidded in a car on ice.

While the fall on the bike hurt me more, I can easily see how much more dangerous the situation in my car was. Blind luck saved me (and the car in front) that day.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#477

Post by NoboruWataya »

Xylakant wrote: post #94
meindnoch wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often does it snow in the Netherlands?

Meet Oulu, the winter cycling capital of the world. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2021/01/22/meet-the-bike-... https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-winter-biking-...

The fact that this is newsworthy kind of reinforces the point that cycling in extreme weather is not a particularly easy or convenient thing to do.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#478

Post by TomK32 »

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;

I can only speak for Austria and Germany, two countries that have the Pendlerpauschale, a tax rebate for those with a long commute and motorists far too much from this, it's even worse in Austria where high-income earner profit more from this than lower-income earners. Would that be dropped people would finally move closer to work (or work closer to them) and a lot of traffic into the city I live could be avoided (which would possibly lead to city residents using their car more often...)

> - significantly faster if parking is taken into account for most trips.

Fun fact about this: If a city reduces free/cheap over-ground parking and builds a few more parking houses, traffic can increase because straight driving to a parking house makes parking easier because they stop bothering looking for the few remaining overground parking spots.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#479

Post by throw0101b »

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;

For the latter, perhaps see "The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)":

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQhzEnWCgHA

> - weather might make the ride unpleasant;

I live in Toronto, Canada, and in the Before Times I cycled everday between ~April and December, rain or shine. The simplest solution is to just always have bad weather gear: it's like and doesn't take up much volume. Having it in a pannier means you always have it and don't have to think about it. The simplest solution for rain is a poncho, though I went with jackets and rain pants.

I found the threat of rain is more of an obstacle that actual rain. If your commute is possibility of it that tends discourage people, in which case some gear works to counter it.

That said, if you ride >80% of the time when the weather isn't too bad that's still a good improvement over not riding at all.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#480

Post by thiht »

docmars wrote: post #460
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…

[flagged]

That's such bad faith.
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