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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

#491

Post by sofixa »

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…

"Painted bicycle gutters" is the derogatory term for what many North American cities call "biking infrastructure". There have even been some studies that suggest they have worse effects than nothing, because they give a false sense of security to cyclists without providing any protection against drivers. Especially when coupled with total lack of general planning (e.g. bike planes splattered from random place A to random place B, finishing in the middle of an intersection).

Everyone deserves better biking infrastructure, cyclists and car drivers alike (more bikes => less cars => less traffic => happier drivers and happier cyclists).

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#493

Post by nmca »

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…

I have run schwalbe marathon pros on a variety of bikes & have never gotten a fast puncture on one despite thousands of miles. They are a touch heavy to be fair, but seems easily worth it.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#494

Post by dang »

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.

[flagged]

Would you please stop breaking the site guidelines, such as with personal swipes and flamewar posts? You've done it a lot, we've asked you to stop, and you've continued to do it. Eventually we're going to have to ban you if you keep this up.

I don't want to ban you, so if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#495

Post by benatkin »

TomK32 wrote: post #478
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 l…

In most places, not only do parents with children need to use something other than a bicycle for transportation because of inconvenience, but many have to quit using them because the children depend on them and they shouldn't be taking unnecessary risks with their lives.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#496

Post by djtango »

r00fus wrote: post #487
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?

No bike theft is a huge problem in London

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#497

Post by novok »

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…

Lol Tokyo and many other mega cities in the world are great examples how none of those things are actual barriers. London's issue is political will, because too many wealthy and politically connected people currently profit from the current status quo at the expense of the exploited supermajority.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#498

Post by dang »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #382
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Would you please stop breaking the site guidelines? I realize the other comment was provocative, but provocation is not an ok reason to break the rules—it just leads to a downward spiral.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#499

Post by germinalphrase »

glacials wrote: post #450
nomel wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we can't afford rent or property where either of us used to live. I’ve never seen this not be the case. Are European cities organized differently or something? I’ve never see affordable living within biking distance of a business district, in the US. Prices are usually double.

Yes. European cities were, in general, well-developed before the car was invented. US cities are built around the car. This means more space dedicated to parking, which means less space for homes and businesses, which means things are farther apart, which means people need cars. It’s a negative feedback loop.

Wouldn’t that be a positive feedback loop that we feel negative about?

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#500

Post by pastage »

null_object wrote: post #252
pastage wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in Sweden and we have less accidents than Germany.

> Not in Sweden and we have less accidents than Germany. I don't think you got the memo where everyone seems to think getting blind drunk and then getting on an electric scooter is totally ok "in Sweden". I've had a few near-misses myself with crazy drunk riders on pedestrian streets in central Stockholm; I once interviewed a job-candidate with a cut-up face who laughingly told us he'd crashed a scooter with two(!) f…

You can not be convicted for drunk cycling, but you can still be stopped for recklesness in traffic. Same goes for e-scooters. As long as you do not cause problems there is no legal or social taboo.
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