Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London • Hacker News Board

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#611

Post by dustedcodes » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 6:52 PM UTC

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…

I really dislike cars in cities, but equally I dislike cyclists and cycling myself for the following reasons:

> do not have to worry about car maintenance, parking tickets or theft;

Not sure where bicycle theft is not a thing, I've not encountered this, even in Vienna, one of the safest cities in the world. You still need to lock your bicycle safely.

> you will not kill someone if you ride after a night drinking;

In London I see plenty of irresponsible cyclists badly harming pedestrians.

> amazing when the weather is great;

Or you end up drenched in sweat wherever you go. Personally I hate cycling for that reason as a way of commute in the city.

Other reasons why I hate cycling and cyclists:

- Uneven roads, pot holes, getting splashed by cars who drive through puddles

- Inflexibility. You go somewhere, meet someone or your group of friends now spontaneously decide to move on to a different place and you'll be the loner who has to split from the group and meet them later again or you have to abandon your bicycle and get back the next day to pick it up. Sod that.

- Helmets. I can't stand helmet hair. Also how fucking annoying is it to have to carry your helmet everywhere even after parking your bicycle.

- Dirty clothes. You always end up with muddy splashes on your trousers. If you cycle then better not wear nice shoes or light trousers, which again limits where/when you can effectively use a bicycle as a way of commute.

- Male genitalia. Cyclists completely kill off their male reproductive parts. If you cycle your whole life for daily commuting to places then you'll certainly end up with fertility issues and probably require assistance to get erected in older age. No thank you lol.

Cycling is hugely overrated and I can't find anything nice about it to be honest. I rather have cities be transformed into amazing public transport systems so that I can go to places without a stupid castration apparatus.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#612

Post by DoingIsLearning » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 6:54 PM UTC

uoaei wrote: post #448

ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also just put seats on a normal bike. I have two kids seats on my bike, front and back, and take my 3 and 6yo to kindergarten that way. It's cheaper than a cargo bike, and much less likely to get stolen.

I am dismayed but not surprised at just how much money people will spend on e-bikes to avoid exercise. There are literally millions of decent analog bike frames bouncing around in various corners of . Getting one up and running, and strapping a seat to the front and back as you have done, would be about 10% the cost of a new e-bike, and maintenance would be negligible. Plus, you get to eat whatever you want guilt-fre…

Actually this is not accurate and somewhat bad advice. A normal bicycle frame is designed for... normal use.

No need for ebikes but child seats should be used on reenforced frames such as what the Dutch call "Moederfiets", you can also use a 'Transportfiets' frame.

You are adding an extra 5 Kg to your front steering tube and another 20 kilos to your back cargo loader. That is not what most frames were designed for.

Secondly things like double leg kickstands and steering stem lock are really important to load kids in and out of seats safely, which again don't exist in 'normal' bikes.

My point is you don't need an ebike but you should definitely not be using an off the shelf thin frame to carry kids around everyday.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#613

Post by giraffe_lady » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 6:54 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #498

giraffe_lady wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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.

Are they rules or guidelines? I know them and consider them when commenting, but they are phrased as requests and so I treat them as such.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#614

Post by bregma » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 6:54 PM UTC

ars wrote: post #539

uoaei wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we taxed suburbs what they actually cost us as a society, no one would want to live in suburbs. The land use is abysmal compared to cities. Suburbs are effectively subsidized by the cities they are near, and those living in suburbs get off way too easy. That's a good thing if you have an extractivist, individualist mindset, but if we are to continue functioning as a whole society, something needs to give. We love…

If we actually tax them, it would be a negative tax. So many people don't seem to realize that without suburbs you don't have farms. Suburbs and farms produce all the things that cities rely on. You don't see heavy industry in the middle of a city. So we actually wanted to do your plan then cities should cough up way more money than they currently do.

Suburbs are the places where what used to be productive farms are paved over with asphalt. Few cities rely on them for anything except maybe cheap labour.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#615

Post by labster » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #531

plugin-baby wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> building new metro lines is pretty much impossible in London for historical reasons Didn’t they open a new one last year?

They did - it was in development for over 20 years. At this rate to reach the density of Tokyo we would have to wait until the 4th millenium.

I think you’re not accounting for the density of Tokyo dropping. By the 4th millennium there will only be five Japanese people left, two of them catgirls.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#616

Post by Karrot_Kream » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

rickydroll wrote: post #383

KptMarchewa wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Ma…

A lot of American school districts depend on property tax values for funding. You get natural class-based school segregation as a result.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#617

Post by lormayna » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 6:58 PM UTC

dustedcodes wrote: post #611

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…

I really dislike cars in cities, but equally I dislike cyclists and cycling myself for the following reasons: > do not have to worry about car maintenance, parking tickets or theft; Not sure where bicycle theft is not a thing, I've not encountered this, even in Vienna, one of the safest cities in the world. You still need to lock your bicycle safely. > you will not kill someone if you ride after a night drinking; In…

> Male genitalia. Cyclists completely kill off their male reproductive parts. If you cycle your whole life for daily commuting to places then you'll certainly end up with fertility issues and probably require assistance to get erected in older age. No thank you lol.

This is mostly an urban legend. I am a amateur cyclist and during my testicles checkup I asked to my andrologist if it's better to stop while I am looking for a son. He replied that there is no any scientific evidence about damage on testicles by bike and that I can continue without worrying about them. Other factors like smoke are a lot more risky

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#618

Post by sgu999 » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 6:59 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #507

hnlmorg wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

of course, which is why a staggering 1 million of people commute in and out of london every day. But again, I'm just asking how exactly can we address the high price of housing near workplaces in London specifically, if London is already full to the brim and new housing isn't happening not because of regulations or lack of political will - there's just no space to build any more.

I think the main drives are real estate investments and centralisation... Tokyo doesn't really have these issues in part due to cultural differences but also due to better regulations on urbanism. []

[] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGbC5j4pG9w

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#619

Post by juancb » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 7:01 PM UTC

ryankshaw wrote: post #610

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…

what do people do that have kids between the "too big for cargo bike" and "too young to drive their own car" category? I used to take my kids all the time on my e-bike with a burley bike trailer. Now I have a 13 year old and a 10 year old. I'm pretty sure the middle schooler would get made fun of if his friends saw him showing up to school or soccer practice in the cargo bucket of my bike. For people that have hit th…

Sounds like it's time for them to get their own bike to ride to school?

You can ride with them on a few practice runs on a weekend and then continue to do so on a weekdays. Once you're both comfortable with the route and their ability to navigate it safely you can cut back on how much of the route you do together or just let them run it on their own. That last bit is a call to be made based on a lot of factors including your kids desire to ride with you.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#620

Post by atotic » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 7:02 PM UTC

ryankshaw wrote: post #610

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…

what do people do that have kids between the "too big for cargo bike" and "too young to drive their own car" category? I used to take my kids all the time on my e-bike with a burley bike trailer. Now I have a 13 year old and a 10 year old. I'm pretty sure the middle schooler would get made fun of if his friends saw him showing up to school or soccer practice in the cargo bucket of my bike. For people that have hit th…

My 11 and 13yo happily ride on the back of my cargo bike (Extracycle). Some of their braver, bike riding friends, do ask "Why don't you ride by yourself?"

I used to have a burley before the cargo. I think the cargo upright position makes it feel a bit more grown up. Plus, it is so fun.

The highschooler absolutely refuses to ride the back of the cargo, and insists on being driven by car. It takes so much longer with all the traffic, but he is willing to suffer to avoid looking uncool.