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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

#481

Post by TomK32 »

matsemann wrote: post #118
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; 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…

> So I think we will see a shift in where people settle,

Let's hope not all will want to live above the supermarket they work at: https://3pod.bandcamp.com/track/triangle-of-happiness

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#482

Post by shagmin »

ovi256 wrote: post #335
KptMarchewa wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1:10h on bike in Warsaw is like 20km, it's pretty much whole city in straight line length: https://i.imgur.com/21GFPI1.png You just live very far from your job.

It takes longer than continuous biking in a city would make one think, for the same reason driving does: you have to stop at red lights, yield, wait in traffic.

Living in a small city (or large town may be a more accurate way to put it) with lots of greenways, I feel like I get the best of both worlds. Before my office re-located I could go 6 miles (~9.5 km) to/from work on a bike in between or around corporate campuses and subdivisions and only deal with a few intersections, while in a car I'd have to deal with traffic and traffic lights regularly most of the way.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#483

Post by sofixa »

yourusername wrote: post #230
giraffe_lady wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cities aren't loud, cars are loud."

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

Depends on the quality of the infrastructure. I live in a metropolitan area with elevated metros, suburban and long distance trains, cargo trains, trams (streetcars in american), etc. and it vastly differs. Paris line 6 makes a lot of noise due to the rubber tires and frequent turns (it's a semicircle line), meanwhile modern trams and modernised suburban rail (RER A) are barely audible even next to the tracks, let alone in buildings nearby.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#484

Post by NoboruWataya »

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.

As someone who works in the City this isn't really that surprising. A lot of the roads around there are pretty much empty save for buses, cyclists and the occasional taxi. Congestion charge, lack of parking and excellent public transport links all contribute to that I guess. In other areas of London it's a very different story.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#485

Post by patcon »

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #405
InitialLastName wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally just being drunk enough can end up in you being dead or maimed. From a harm reduction perspective, Drunk Driving -> Drunk Bicycling feels like it reduces the capacity for damage roughly proportionally to Drunk Bicycling -> Drunk Walking. At a critical level, the speeds you can comfortably achieve are reduced at each step, thereby increasing the amount of reaction time available to avoid an incident, reducin…

one major difference is that someone who is incredibly drunk can still drive a car at 100kmph, but they can't balance well enough to ride their bike.

Not sure if this is an example of anti-fragility, but it made me think of that. there's def something diff about bikes for this. Get too drunk as a cyclist and you remove yourself from the situation in relatively safe way, just by not being able to stay in control :)

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#486

Post by InitialLastName »

mecsred wrote: post #350
Fricken wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The risks you're concerned about are not statistically relevant.

Cool thanks for letting me know. Time to down a 40 and start doing wheelies through high traffic crosswalks.

Safer than doing the same with burnouts in a parking lot.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#487

Post by r00fus »

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…

Theft is the major reason I haven't invested in a utility e-bike (or use my expensive road bike) to do local shopping.

I live in a place with fantastic bike-ability, but don't shop because of theft concerns.

Is that different in London?

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#488

Post by hnlmorg »

gambiting wrote: post #414
CydeWeys wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like your underarching problem here is housing costs.

Sure but like.........people always say that (for example) in London you can't live closer to work because houses/flats are too expensive. Ok, I mean that's true, but how are you going to solve that? It's a gigantic city which is already full to the brim, with literally 1000+ years of building on top of every single square inch of land available. You would probably have to demolish large areas of London and replace t…

London has really good public transportation and, as this article mentions, lots of people in London do cycle to work (half of all the offices I’ve had in London has had an on-premises bicycle “shed”).

In fact I’ve met so many Londoners who never even bothered to learn to drive.

In my experience, it’s generally American cities that require a car rather than European cities. Generally speaking of course, you get good and bad city designs in all countries.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#489

Post by knolan »

ihaveajob wrote: post #67
knolan wrote: post #49

I've a 24 km commute in Dublin in Ireland. It's most consistent by ebike. Driving can take anywhere from 35 minutes to over an hour depending on traffic. Public transport takes 90 minutes and there is only a direct bus a couple of times a day, otherwise it will take closer to two hours. On my bike it consistently takes an hour. I can take various green ways through parks and try to minimise my exposure to aggressive…

Predictability is an important factor, and yes, bikes are better at that. By the way, try a vinyl liner between the tube and the tire for puncture protection. Since I started doing this, my puncture rate has fallen easily by 90%.

I think I just need to get the same puncture resistant tyres I had on it previously which were excellent. The current ones where whatever the LBS had in stock.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#490

Post by dang »

yourusername wrote: post #230
giraffe_lady wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cities aren't loud, cars are loud."

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

Please don't cross into personal attack. You can make your substantive points about transportation infrastructure without that.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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