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Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

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Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#181

Post by InitialLastName »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #158
al_borland wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the way many areas of the US are laid out (being car-centric), a bike bias may be needed. Bikes to get to where you want to go, then once you’re there, walk around. Currently, a lot of people need to drive to get to an area they would walk. Everything is very spread out.

I can walk with my toddler and infant and post c-section wife. I can't bike ride with them. Of course, I can also drive almost anywhere with them.

Great! if most other people are walking and biking, that's less traffic on the road to slow you down and endanger those young children.

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#182

Post by digging »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #171
digging wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your definition of bicycle infrastructure excludes anything insufficient to facilitate increased usage, then yes we can agree it is obvious that building such will facilitate increased usage, but that's a useless statement. But if we talk about all bicycle infrastructure, which is a conversation useful to have, it is clear from the multiple issues I pointed out (not limited to lack of physical separation) that sim…

Almost all of your points are because what you are describing isn't bike infrastructure, it's a line of paint on a highway's shoulder that use to be a pull-over safety shoulder - that's why they terminate randomly, don't have any barriers, there's random/low density, and direct sunlight). It's literally a political line in the road to get federal money from the DOT, which is why it shouldn't be counted as bike infras…

One of those points relates directly to paint-only bike lanes. None of the others do.

Any conversation about expanding bike infrastructure needs to acknowledge existing bad bike infrastructure and common bad techniques in order to explain why we can't expect results if we use them again. Otherwise, they'll just get used again and waste more money. If all you say is "You literally have no bike infrastructure" to a city that literally has spent money and effort creating (bad) bike infrastructure, I don't see how that's helpful.

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#183

Post by the_snooze »

extr wrote: post #149
patall wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said, just cycle in winter. Your chart says that it does not get muggy from November to April, i.e half of the year. And yes, I do not mind the cold, and do not need it flat, I live in Stockholm and not in Amsterdam.

I think you should come live for a year in DC and see what you think about the winters. Notice that the comparison also shows it snows quite a bit more, ~~and is on average colder during core winter months~~! Weather is just more of a "thing" for the average US city. And when you start by subtracting half the year for heat, at least a month for snow, more days for harsh freezing conditions (not uncommon to have some…

I commute by bike in my US city, and the weather concerns are alleviated 90% of the time just by having the right clothing. If you have gym clothes, that's what you wear during hot/warm weather. If you have cold weather hiking clothes, that's what you wear during cold/cool weather. Pack a small towel and a change of clothes for your destination, and you're all set. It's actually easier to do this during the warm months because you wear fewer layers and the clothes aren't as bulky. I use a rack-mounted bag more often in winter to carry those extra layers.

The remaining 10% of the time is for just straight up unpleasant weather that catches you by surprise. For example, if I bike to work in the morning and there's a huge rainstorm when I would bike home in the afternoon. When that happens, I just leave my bike at the office and catch a bus home. Or Lyft if I'm feeling especially impatient.

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#184

Post by Symbiote »

adverbly wrote: post #126
ryandrake wrote: post #30

I don’t get how you can make bicycling your only form of transportation, even if the bike travel infrastructure and parking is adequate. When I bicycle, even for a short amount of time like 15 minutes, I sweat, and end up a stinky wet mess at my destination. Especially in the summer. My shoes and pants get dirty from the road and my hair gets wet and messed up especially if it’s raining. So if I’m going anywhere with…

> What about going to a restaurant or business meeting or a museum or an appointment with a professional? Depends on the restaurant obviously. Client meetings and appointments obviously depends on the location. If they're coming to your office then you would probably have already showered if needed. If you have the kind of job where you need to go to other client locations to meet with them then obviously you want a…

In Copenhagen and Amsterdam, the people meeting clients probably choose their transport based on each day's needs. Several clients in the city centre? Bike, or even on foot. Spread around the suburbs? Car, or maybe bike+train if the offices are near stations. (More likely for office jobs, less likely if your clients are manufacturing/industry.)

It is rare for people visiting us to ask for a parking permit.

(Drinking alcohol with the clients in the evening? Then it can't be car.)

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#185

Post by rangestransform »

kindatrue wrote: post #15

"I really hope US cities head in this direction" The US is headed on the path of autonomous vehicles as the solution. It's the perfect combination of things our society loves: 1) No new public investment. 2) Continuous, end-to-end air conditioning

I would definitely prefer end to end AC over cycling in >30c heat

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#186

Post by Symbiote »

Ylpertnodi wrote: post #140
himinlomax wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that ebikes in the EU are limited to 25 km/h and 250 W. Thus there is little difference in practice with regular bikes ... except when climbing hills.

Max 25kmh is stupid. 5km slower than the traffic I'm trying to keep up with, so being constantly close-shaved is an e-bike pain.

It's the perfect speed. It's around the upper speed of cycling somewhere like Copenhagen, so the people on e-bikes by too annoying for the people on bicycles.

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#187

Post by cycomanic »

Retric wrote: post #101
darkamaul wrote: post #63

As a daily biker in Paris (and for years), I think it is hard to grasp the changes Paris has seen in the last years. You now even get to see some congestion on bike lanes (Bd Sebastopol for instance), because they are too many cyclist on an older (and thus too narrow) bike lane. This change, the new subway lanes, and the reduction of car usage in the city make the city much more enjoyable on a day to day basis, espec…

> especially for pedestrians as cyclists are less annoying than drivers As an American pedestrian I find cyclists far worse on average than drivers. They far more often ignore traffic signs and I have seen multiple collisions including one that looked quite serious, though luckily no fatalities. On a per person basis my personal annoyance scale goes subway riders have least impact, followed by busses, normal pedestri…

Your personal observation does not match statistics. Most statistics show that in the majority of bike car crashes the driver has been at fault. The second link which is for Berlin where cyclist have a very bad reputation it's 77% the drivers fault, in contrast for car pedestrian accidents it was 50/50.

I also find these complaints interesting, considering that it's generally considered the norm to drive about 10% above the speed limit, and especially pedestrians are happy to cross traffic lights at red all the time.

https://www.quadlockcase.com.au/blogs/news/8-key-facts-about...

https://www.udv.de/resource/blob/79324/c290c92fc2f0712187c0d... (sorry German)

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#188

Post by l1tany11 »

saberience wrote: post #144
l1tany11 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cycling economy increases naturally with increased fitness. As with virtually all forms of fitness training. It along with many other factors is why someone can quadruple their possible power output with training. All without melting. Look up cycling economy. Also how much you sweat is a trained response. This is why athletes do heat training before hot events. There is more to it than some oversimplified physics bas…

Sweating is absolutely not a “trained” response. I’ve always been an athlete from when I was a competitive athlete in my college days (cross-country running) but I’ve always sweated a lot more than average and it’s not correlated with my fitness. I’ve always been slim and fit and I’ve often noticed that I sweat a lot more than people whom I’m beating in races! That is, I can be fitter and faster than someone and stil…

It absolutely is.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9460081/

Adaptations include decreases in HR, internal body temperature, skin temperature, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and sweat sodium and chloride concentrations, as well as increases in plasma volume and sweat rate.

Sweat rate. Sweat rate is a training adaptation. Thus we would say sweating is a trained response.

Yes, I have no doubt you are very sweaty. That doesn’t mean that sweatiness isn’t a trained response though.

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#189

Post by cycomanic »

piva00 wrote: post #105
TacticalCoder wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What about going to a restaurant or business meeting or a museum or an appointment with a professional? I also like to find my bicycle where I left it. Which is not an option in many cities. > I honestly don’t know but there are so many cities where people bike everywhere so there must be a solution People have less and less money to spend on a car and fuel/electricity. Many are using bicycles not by choice but bec…

> I just don't get it and I don't think I can get along with people who wants to put us all on bicycles and I don't think people who want to get us all on bicycles could get along with me. And I'm fine with that. You are creating a strawman though, people like me want urbanites/city dwellers to become cyclists because it's better for everyone living in a city. If you live in a rural area where you need to go 10-20km…

> > I just don't get it and I don't think I can get along with people who wants to put us all on bicycles and I don't think people who want to get us all on bicycles could get along with me. And I'm fine with that.

> You are creating a strawman though, people like me want urbanites/city dwellers to become cyclists because it's better for everyone living in a city.

In my experience what people like the OP really mean by "I don't like that cyclist want to put us all on bikes", is that they want infrastructure to be catered for their car use (paid by the everyone), e.g. they say they can't use a bike because they (want to) live rural (rural infrastructure is heavily subsidised by city dwellers btw), but want to be able to drive into the city (despite city dwellers wanting less cars and more bikes). Thus they complain about "cyclist forcing everyone to bike".

Re: Paris cycling numbers double in one year thanks to investment

#190

Post by patall »

extr wrote: post #149
patall wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said, just cycle in winter. Your chart says that it does not get muggy from November to April, i.e half of the year. And yes, I do not mind the cold, and do not need it flat, I live in Stockholm and not in Amsterdam.

I think you should come live for a year in DC and see what you think about the winters. Notice that the comparison also shows it snows quite a bit more, ~~and is on average colder during core winter months~~! Weather is just more of a "thing" for the average US city. And when you start by subtracting half the year for heat, at least a month for snow, more days for harsh freezing conditions (not uncommon to have some…

Yes, of course cycling is most popular in the Netherlands because geography and climate are most ideal there. But the same is true about infrastructure. If it exists, any form of transportation becomes widely more popular. Just think of Oulu :)

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231220-why-oulu-finland...

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