The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York • Hacker News Board

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#71

Post by panglott » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 6:53 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #26

cowardlydragon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited Houston for my mom's medical problems, and it shocked me how bike unfriendly the city was.... ... it was 80 degrees in February. ... I live in Minneapolis and this flaggergasted me. It's a year-round bike city completely wasting that opportunity.

>> I live in Minneapolis and this flaggergasted me. Minneapolis has always ranked as one of the top bike friendly cities in the country. The ironic part is most lists also include Madison, WI and Chicago IL, both midwestern cities who have year round commuters. But I agree, I have no idea why so many southern states have so many anti-biking cities.

I suspect that bike-friendliness correlates with transit-friendliness. Most cyclists are proponents of transit diversity and multi-modal transport.

And conservative states are more hostile to funding transit because it requires government subsidies (vs. "investment" in parking and roads). There are plenty of small- to medium- conservative cities that don't even have any kind of bus service.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#72

Post by makeitsuckless » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 6:56 PM UTC

stronglikedan wrote: post #27

lisa_henderson wrote: post #21

I bike to work in New York, and I've biked around Berlin, and I would say New York still has a way to go before it catches up with Berlin. The problem that New York faces is that it is embedded in USA society, so it has to face some issues that are not about bikes, but effect bikes. An example would be the reasons people use bike helmets. No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles, and th…

> No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles That's not why people don't wear helmets there, and that's not a reason to not wear one. I would have been in a world of hurt if I didn't have a helmet on when I fell. No cars, people, or other moving object were anywhere near me. My tire hit a slippery patch as I was turning, and I went over sideways. I broke my shoulder and my hand, and my he…

Oh god, not again.

Wearing a helmet when biking is like wearing a bullet proof vest when walking. It may be necessary in some environments, but it's those environments that are the problem.

If you don't know how to ride a bike (which includes how to fall), don't project it on other people.

Please stop spreading the fud about cycling itself being dangerous. It's no more dangerous than walking.

The Netherlands says hi: https://bicycledutch.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/typically_d...

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#73

Post by panglott » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 6:57 PM UTC

cynicalkane wrote: post #44

revelation wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure this epiphany now has you wear a helmet in your car, where risk of life-threatening head-trauma is significantly higher than when riding a bicycle?

Uh, the risk of life-threatening head trauma is significantly lower in a car. Cars are the safest form of personal travel.

Helmets are still the best way to reduce a lot of head injuries among motorists. Cars travel at a much higher speed than pedestrians/bicycles, so it takes a lot more to dampen the injuries, and auto-related head injuries are simply more common than bicycle-related ones.

It's absolutely as reasonable to exhort motorists and pedestrians to wear helmets as it is to exhort cyclists to do so.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#74

Post by krschultz » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 7:01 PM UTC

knz wrote: post #65

stronglikedan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles That's not why people don't wear helmets there, and that's not a reason to not wear one. I would have been in a world of hurt if I didn't have a helmet on when I fell. No cars, people, or other moving object were anywhere near me. My tire hit a slippery patch as I was turning, and I went over sideways. I broke my shoulder and my hand, and my he…

I had a similar experience. Slipped off my bike and broke an arm, leg, and various facial bones. My helmet was split in two and the ER doctor was quite blunt about the state I would have been in without a helmet. Wear a helmet.

I unfortunately had the counter experience. I was not wearing a helmet on my "short commute" and got hurt pretty bad. A good number of stitches, a permanent scar, but worse than that - concussions are not fun. I blacked out and woke up an hour or two after the accident inside a CAT scan machine at the hospital.

My wife found out about the accident when I called her and left an identical voicemail 3 times in a row not realizing I had just done it.

Wear a helmet. I used to sell them at a ski shop and wear them religiously on the ski slope, but didn't bother to put one on for the 2 minute bike ride from my dorm to class. Huge mistake.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#75

Post by panglott » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 7:01 PM UTC

kosei wrote: post #32

While it's great to see NYC bike ridership up to 21K per weekday, and touted as growing "faster than other modes of transportation", it's misleading when you compare that the MTA has a ridership of 8.6 million daily. Currently that Bike Ridership number is a paltry 0.2% of the overall ridership. So, kudos - and I hope they improve it dramatically, but it has a long way to go, and I'm skeptical of de Blasio's goal of…

Transit and cycling are quite complementary.

Transit and auto traffic are more at odds.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#76

Post by krschultz » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 7:02 PM UTC

makeitsuckless wrote: post #72

stronglikedan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one uses bike helmets in Berlin, because Berlin is safe for bicycles That's not why people don't wear helmets there, and that's not a reason to not wear one. I would have been in a world of hurt if I didn't have a helmet on when I fell. No cars, people, or other moving object were anywhere near me. My tire hit a slippery patch as I was turning, and I went over sideways. I broke my shoulder and my hand, and my he…

Oh god, not again. Wearing a helmet when biking is like wearing a bullet proof vest when walking. It may be necessary in some environments, but it's those environments that are the problem. If you don't know how to ride a bike (which includes how to fall), don't project it on other people. Please stop spreading the fud about cycling itself being dangerous. It's no more dangerous than walking. The Netherlands says hi:…

That's such a load of crap. See my other comment below, the reason why I had that accident was my bike wheel had a mechanical failure. I was on a bike lane in the middle of a college campus 500 yards from the nearest car. It was a peaceful afternoon with no one around. The environment didn't mean anything at all.

If your sneaker fails, you don't get thrown 20 feet onto concrete.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#77

Post by hkmurakami » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 7:02 PM UTC

panglott wrote: post #67

hkmurakami wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Regarding the last test procedure, that would be like testing the helmet on an adult male of average height, where, while standing, suddenly suffered a stroke and fell over With all due respect, do you ride a bike extensively? Because these exact sort of accidents happen all the time. I've fallen sideways from a stationary position several times over the last 5 years as an avid cyclist when I've had lapses in judgm…

This is the single best argument I've ever seen for not wearing clip pedals. I always commute with flat pedals because it's easier and more convenient, but the safety issue has got to be huge.

I use all sorts of pedals, ranging from Look, Shimano SPD, plastic based straps and metal based straps to flats. In city traffic I'd probably stick to flats or straps. In suburbian commutes with less stop and go, I found SPDs to be a good compromise since they are pretty easy to get out of (my falls have been when I was using look pedals on a pretty stiff setting).

In the end you go with whatever you're comfortable with. There's really no objective better or worse, just tradeoffs that each of us make (safer but slower, etc)

(There's no compromising when it comes to front and rear lights though, imo)

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#78

Post by panglott » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 7:03 PM UTC

markvdb wrote: post #38

jaredmcdonald wrote: post #33

I'd love to ride my bike to work but don't really have a place to put it during they day; ideally, the building would have a large, relatively secure space with bike racks in the basement or something (which it doesn't; nor do most buildings, as far as I can tell). I doubt my bike would make it more than a couple of weeks with seat and wheels intact if I locked it on the street.

You need a Brompton folding bicycle.

Folders are great. I started commuting with a full-size Dahon that I put under the seat, but now I think it's better to have a small folder and a fixed full-size bike rather than making a trade-off.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#79

Post by makeitsuckless » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 7:04 PM UTC

stronglikedan wrote: post #63

revelation wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure this epiphany now has you wear a helmet in your car, where risk of life-threatening head-trauma is significantly higher than when riding a bicycle?

http://blog.ycombinator.com/new-hacker-news-guideline

Yeah, that's exactly why I have a bit of a problem with such guidelines.

It protects people from the normal consequences of insulting outer people's intelligence. Sometimes it's useful to know when your behaviour pisses other people off.

Re: The Steady Rise of Bike Ridership in New York

#80

Post by panglott » Fri, Apr 17, 2015, 7:14 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #70

panglott wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wearing a helmet would also improve the safety of people driving or walking around. But strangely we don't hear all the nagging lectures for people to wear a helmet when they are driving or walking to a corner store, whether or not it's on a quiet street in fine weather.

Negligible for walking. Its different to be hurtling along at 20mph on a contraption of pipes, gears and chains and hit a storm drain, launching headfirst into the back of a parked car, than to trip and skin your knee. One requires a helmet to survive. And driving - there's airbags and the steel cage and belts and padding. Another storey altogether.

Walking is pretty dangerous: you could be walking and spontaneously stumble, or slip on wet leaves, and clip your temple on a fire hydrant. That's it for you! Walking is quite dangerous, and is in fact has the highest rate of injuries and fatalities per mile traveled. That's mostly because pedestrians get hit by cars, but that's surely an even better reason to get pedestrians to wear helmets. What if you get hit by a car while walking?

As for motorists: http://www.copenhagenize.com/2009/10/australian-helmet-scien...