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We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
121–130 of 561 posts
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Melbourne, Australia has heatwaves exceeding that, and shivers through thoroughly miserable wet winters, and yet we have a large, thriving, and ever-growing corps of recreational, competitive, and commuting cyclists, and that's despite the increasing hostility and declining levels of competence exhibited by local drivers. The suggestion that cycling is a fair-weather activity is hogwash.
Those aiming to debunk me - and all I said is that public transport should take priority over some dramatic increase in spending as envisioned in this article - seem to read rather too much into the fact that some demographic cycles a lot. There are huge demographic clusters (particularly late-middle-age to old, middle-aged-to-older women) who, statistically speaking, don't. I'm sure that we're off to the Proof By An…
Here in Seattle, with a powerful bike lobby, the cyclists come out when it's warm, dry, and daylight. Which is about 30% of the year.
The demographic that bikes are young, fit adults. Can't bike much of anywhere without struggling with hills.
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
I appear to have kicked off a frenzy of folks eurosplaining to me that they personally ride in deep snow, howling gales, and see no reason that people in hot climates (including hot humid climates with near 100% humidity, or extreme heat events) can't cycle everywhere at all times. Also they will all be happily cycling when they are 80 just like Grandpa Josef and Great-grandma Helga, etc. Congrats, but the statistics…
> eurosplaining As a European myself this made me laugh hard. Yes, people here have a tendency to see everything in black and white and be really religious about their way of life.
While I also grinned at this inventive term my gut reaction is one of please not another one of those discussion-stopper epithets, free discussion is threatened enough as it is.
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Copenhagen doesn’t have 40 degrees Celsius heatwaves in the summer nor winter blizzards that make you feel like you’re in Siberia, while places like the US East Coast (and I guess even the Chicago area in the Midwest) have them both.
If the argument is that it's unbearable to commute by bike in scorching heat, I would argue you could still bike and ask your employer to install showers at your workplace. That's how it's done in the Netherlands, where most (modern-ish) offices have showers next to enclosed bike parking facilities.
San Francisco has the best weather you can think of for biking: never too cold, never too hot, not that much rain.
Yet the bike infrastructure is mostly bike lanes painted on the road and used as additional parking.
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Melbourne, Australia has heatwaves exceeding that, and shivers through thoroughly miserable wet winters, and yet we have a large, thriving, and ever-growing corps of recreational, competitive, and commuting cyclists, and that's despite the increasing hostility and declining levels of competence exhibited by local drivers. The suggestion that cycling is a fair-weather activity is hogwash.
Those aiming to debunk me - and all I said is that public transport should take priority over some dramatic increase in spending as envisioned in this article - seem to read rather too much into the fact that some demographic cycles a lot. There are huge demographic clusters (particularly late-middle-age to old, middle-aged-to-older women) who, statistically speaking, don't. I'm sure that we're off to the Proof By An…
The demographics regarding participation are well known to be self-fulfilling negative prophecies. That is, if you don't build the infrastructure, then participation declines (or stays low), and particularly amongst the groups you mentioned.
Low participation from a particular group != low latent demand.
I've ridden in every Australian state capital bar Darwin, and rate Sydney drivers as the most aggressively incompetent of the lot - which, combined with the spectacular hostility of the state government to cycling, is a clear recipe for low participation.
Notwithstanding which, I agree that mass transit infrastructure should be built up to the level where it is an easy choice for every commuter, and not the unhappy choice for those within reach of a station.
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
The UV issue is a red herring. There are many reasons why people need to be outside and cycling is only one of them. UV is a manageable problem for walkers and outdoor workers, cyclists are not a special case. I guess that you've never been on a bike on a very hot day. It's much, much more pleasant to be ventilated by your self-created airflow on a bike than it is to to have sweat pouring down your back as you walk a…
I guess you've never experienced a 40-45c day. You sound like one of the regular tourist types we get who dismiss how seriously we take summer conditions and then end up with heatstroke and skin peeling off from sunburn. The 'self-created airflow' INCREASES the rate at which you gain temperature. Windchill is only 'chill' when the ambient air temperature is lower than your core temp. To cycle on a summer day, you nee…
Aussie Sydneysider cyclist here that commutes every day and in summer on a $70 bike - as long as I have a shower/beach at the end of my commute and a water bottle I'm pretty fine!
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#127Fuck bicyclists. They are freeloaders on the infrastructure bought and paid for by people who buy gas for their automobiles (and heaped upon electric car owners where I live).
In my city, there is a push to charge bicyclists an annual licensing fee, similar to cars, and to require they have license plates. Once bicyclists are paying their fair share for the roads, then we can start dreaming bigger than bike lanes.
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#128I'm curious as to what planet you'd have to be living on to think that if we have billions of dollars to spare on huge transport infrastructure projects that aren't cars, that it should go to bikes and not public transport + walkability. I'm guessing it's a special magic planet with startlingly good weather year-round, without disabled people, where everyone gets to age into spry Euro-oldsters. Not wanting to kick of…
> startlingly good weather year-round In Sweden people take the bike even when it's minus 20 degrees and snow everywhere.
In some parts of Sweden they do. I live there and tend to cycle through wind and weather. Come springtime I'm joined by a host of cyclists but when autumn calls they quickly disappear into their cars, not to be seen until next spring. Sweden is big, Stockholm and Uppsala are not representative for the rest of the country.
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
The biggest counterpoint here is what about families? A mom with three young kids in tow pretty much needs a car to get around. Or elderly people? I can't really take my 90-year old grandma out to dinner if it requires her to bike her way to the restaurant. Thinking about non-car based transportation methods is great. But the reality is that large segments of society are always going to need some sort of car-based op…
Ask the Dutch. How do they do it? Or do you assume they do not have young kids or grandmas? Why is it that whenever people talk about designing cities for pedestrians and bikes, someone on hackernews thinks it means eliminating all cars entirely forever. For a forum ostensibly designed for entrepreneurs, it shows a tremendous lack of imagination. Answer: * Public transportation inside cities such as buses and trams *…
Please add extremely high prices for daily parking to the list :)
Re: We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
#130Rarely I take bike lanes, they are less fast and irregular
The road should be used by bikes in my opinion (lower infrastructure/maintenance cost, and the separation between road and bike lanes is actually how I broke my right clavicle), and bikes should have priority against individual cars (not urgency and shared transports of course)