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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

#861

Post by pjmlp »

hnlmorg wrote: post #488
gambiting wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

European cities only don't require a car for those lucky enough to live in the city center of major capitals.

The further away from city suburbs, one might get a lucky 1 bus per hour if at all.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#862

Post by qikInNdOutReply »

andylynch wrote: post #737
qikInNdOutReply wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder, why there is not dealds between land speculation and public transportation. One party buys fields from farmers, the other creates a privately financed railroad/subway out in the "new suburbs", shooting the areas value through the roof. Then build denser, better citycore, connected to the old citycore.

This is absolutely a thing. The British pioneered it with the Metropolitan line and swathes of suburban London with developed this way; they called it ‘Metro-land’. Japan ran hard with the idea too. A recent example would be Crossrail being partly funded by Canary Wharf, Heathrow Airport, and a large UK Housebuilder.

Then why does it not work in the us?

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#863

Post by vogon_laureate »

For people who don’t know, the City of London is a tiny part of London that is already an expensive and hellish place to drive in as it is due to congestion charging, exorbitant parking, one-way roads with numerous yellow box junctions, red route clearways, one-way systems, even police stops.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#864

Post by Tanjreeve »

coderenegade wrote: post #772
mrcartmeneses wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40-year Londoner here. The truth is that commuting costs compensate for cheaper rents. And where there is a difference you can also factor in the extra “work” time from spending 3 hours commuting every day. This changes when you work from home, but even then there are few places in suburban England where a decent cargo bike can’t replace a car. England isn’t like America where the towns were built around cars. Our to…

You probably aren't renting further out. Owning a place versus just renting it changes the calculus quite a bit, and you are coming out ahead compared to paying 25% more to live closer in. Working from home also makes a huge difference. A longer commute is tolerable if you only have to do it a few times a week. The days where you don't commute add up to pay rise.

The problem is everyone else realises this too. Pricing in the south east of England is based around proximity to London commuter lines. You can go a huge distance to Southampton and you're still paying a large premium on housing because it's on an express line to London. Or the tiny town of Fleet which is in Hartley Whitney but has some of the highest prices and desirability in the country, again it's on an express train route to London. Ticket pricing works by marking up prices on these commuter routes to London and using those to subsidise the rest of the customers. The model somewhat falls apart as the wealthier commuters were far more likely to be in jobs that moved to flexitime/remote hence the scramble for revenue now post pandemic.

To answer your point to "live further out" as in actually pay enough for housing that it covers the ticket costs you're talking about Birmingham and beyond hour commutes.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#865

Post by pjmlp »

tfourb wrote: post #607
ars wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Farmlands and suburbs are completely different things, especially in the context of urban development. Industrial zones are also a completely different category entirely. Living in Germany, most German cities do not have anything that is comparable to a U.S. "suburb". Building codes demand a quite high density, even for single family homes for new developments and older developments have the tendency to get denser as…

Except that in most German towns outside the tiny center where almost everything closes between 4 and 6 pm with exception of supermarkets, everything else seems to require a car or at least 30 minute cycling, with most buses ending at 8pm.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#866

Post by Tanjreeve »

megablast wrote: post #804
nradov wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems so bizarre that an adult would never learn to drive. Like you might not need to drive for daily city life but it really limits your options if you ever want to travel.

Bullshit. Traveled all over the world. Lived in 8 different cities. Never needed a car. I am confused what you think you need a car for?? It is such a strange stance. Where have you gone that I can not go? Public transport exists. So do private tour buses.

There might be a survivorship bias here. You will have travelled to large cities with public transport because those are the most viable places to go if you can't drive. If you want to go to places that are remote/not got tourist infrastructure with buses (e.g Vietnam et Al) then you'd seem somewhat stuck. TL:DR A lot of the world is not located in metropolitan cities.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#867

Post by rkangel »

syntheweave wrote: post #748
sharkweek wrote: post #678

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider myself a pretty strong cyclist, and I was huffing and puffing trying to keep pace with my wife and kids on the ebike.

Having experienced widely varying amounts of power output with the local bikeshare bikes, their varied condition and assisted vs non-, I don't have any illusions here - it's just a different experience to be able to spin it once and feel the bike boost you up to max effort. Even the heavily built bikeshare frames can easily outclass a road bike, if there's no mechanical issue. Although there often is - the chains, ge…

I tried my friend's cargo e-bike for 20 minutes in Edinburgh - I didn't even notice that lag. As i turned up the dial for the motor, it just felt like I was turning down the physics! Everything just got magically easier.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#868

Post by hnlmorg »

Tanjreeve wrote: post #866
megablast wrote: post #804

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bullshit. Traveled all over the world. Lived in 8 different cities. Never needed a car. I am confused what you think you need a car for?? It is such a strange stance. Where have you gone that I can not go? Public transport exists. So do private tour buses.

There might be a survivorship bias here. You will have travelled to large cities with public transport because those are the most viable places to go if you can't drive. If you want to go to places that are remote/not got tourist infrastructure with buses (e.g Vietnam et Al) then you'd seem somewhat stuck. TL:DR A lot of the world is not located in metropolitan cities.

I know loads of people who have backpacked around Vietnam without a driving license. Some even consider backpacking a right of passage.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#869

Post by rkangel »

ericd wrote: post #803
tremon wrote: post #739

Earlier quoted context omitted.

landlords, who provide housing for those not ready/able to buy Why is that framing preferred over "landlords, who reduce housing supply by keeping properties off the market"?

They don't reduce housing supply. The same number of people are living in that building as would be if the building had been sold to them. If you want to get to the root of the problem, look at the development process. Start with your local zoning laws. It is insane how tightly prescriptive they are, usually, and they generally have lots of density-limiting provisions like mandatory parking, maximum floor to area rat…

> They don't reduce housing supply

They don't reduce housing supply for living, but they do reduce housing supply for owning. Normal people being able to own the house that they live in seems like a reasonable societal goal to me, but the current economic climate is making that harder and harder as houses move into the hands of landlords (private and commercial).

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#870

Post by sandworm101 »

barbazoo wrote: post #730
sandworm101 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> As the Dutch like to say: there is no such thing as bad cycling weather, only bad cycling clothes. Easy to say in a country famously flat, small, and with a relatively narrow weather window. I welcome any Dutch person to attempt a 15+km commute during a rocky mountain winter. I know of driveways in US/Canada with more vertical than any Dutch commute.

How many people live in the Rockies though? And how many live in relatively flat cities. You're not wrong I just think that this is akin to saying EVs aren't practical in the US because of Alaskan winters.

How many? Me. Much of my family. The place i used to work. The rockies, and coastal mountains, cover a huge swath of north america.
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